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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Performance Science
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1394035
This article is part of the Research Topic International Symposium on Performance Science 2023 View all 5 articles

Ancillary and instrumental body movements during inhalation in clarinetists

Provisionally accepted
  • Freiburg Institute for Musicians' Medicine, Freiburg University Hospital, Freiburg, Germany

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Playing a musical instrument requires physical movements that are involved in sound production and movements with more expressive and communicative characteristics. Both movements occur simultaneously during a performance; however, the interaction between them is still unclear. By using motion capture technology, movement patterns of clarinetists were analyzed at certain points in a performance to investigate how instrumental and ancillary movements interplay. With motion capture, movements in the arms and knees of clarinetists during a performance were recorded. Mean angular movements at specific points in the piece, where some players inhaled and others did not, were compared. While the players who inhaled adopted significantly more upright body and neutral arm positions, the players who did not inhale seemed less interrupted in their performance. The results showed that the players performed rather individual ancillary movements, but at specific points, such as a melodic transition, they performed similarly. At points in the melody at which some players needed to inhale, others prepared their playing according to the inhalation moment to adopt a suitable body position. The ancillary movement was therefore interrupted by the physiological necessity to inhale. The findings provide more insights in the interplay of instrumental and ancillary movements during a performance.

    Keywords: Ancillary movements, Instrumental movements, inhalation process, Movement behavior, Body posture

    Received: 29 Feb 2024; Accepted: 29 Apr 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Nusseck, Immerz, Hohagen and Spahn. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Manfred Nusseck, Freiburg Institute for Musicians' Medicine, Freiburg University Hospital, Freiburg, Germany

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