What question did this study set out to answer?

This study aims to connect sound judgments by listeners to the hand movements of pianists.

July 4, 20260 citations

Relationship between pianist's global sonority and hand kinematics

JVJean‐Christophe ValièreCentre National de la Recherche Scientifique FCFloren ColloudSorbonne Université MRMaëva RetailleauCentre National de la Recherche Scientifique

Key Points

This study aims to connect sound judgments by listeners to the hand movements of pianists.
Four pianists played tunes in various moods while their hand movements and sounds were recorded.
A psychoacoustic verbalization test involved 45 subjects for reference during statistical analysis.
ANOVA was used to analyze significant parameters related to piano sonorities.
Wrist flexion, keypress duration, and finger-to-key distance significantly affected sound judgments.
Speed of finger movements was important for identifying different piano sonorities.
The findings support previous research and offer a new methodology for analyzing complex musical interactions.

Abstract

The aim of this article is to establish a link between judgments of a pianist's sound based on listening tests and hand kinematics. The results are based on an experiment in which four pianists played four tunes in different moods simultaneously while their movements and sound were recorded by cameras and artificial heads. A psychoacoustic verbalisation test was carried out on 45 subjects, which served as a reference for the statistical analysis of the movements using the ANOVA technique. Wrist flexion, keypress duration, finger-to-key distance and the speed of the different parts of the fingers were identified as significant parameters for identifying the different piano sonorities. In addition to confirming and complementing the results obtained in different contexts, this study develops and validates a methodology that could be extended to more complex issues.

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