Music-related motor skills in pianists - Predictors of skill acquisition in childhood and of maintenance in adulthood

2009

Background and Study Aims: Previous research on musical performance achievement has focused on the overall musical performance and on musical subskills. Two studies were conducted to identify predictors of motor skill acquisition in children pianists and of long-term development of motor skills in expert pianists in a relevant musical context. Methods: Motor skills at the piano were assessed in standardized C major scale playing. For each participant, overall temporal unevenness of note onsets was calculated as the median of the mean standard deviations of inter-onset intervals of both hands and playing directions. Study 1: Motor performance was tested in 30 piano playing children. Informat…