Variation in posture quality across musical instruments and its impact during performances.

OBJECTIVE: Bad posture increases the risk that a musician may suffer from musculoskeletal disorders. This study compared posture quality required by different instruments or families of instruments. METHODS: Using an ad-hoc postural observation instrument embracing 11 postural variables, four experts evaluated the postures of 100 students attending a Spanish higher conservatory of music. RESULTS: The agreement of the experts' evaluations was statistically confirmed by a Cohen's κ value between 0.855 and 1.000 and a Kendall value between 0.709 and 1.000 (p < 0.001 in all cases). Moreover, χ2 tests revealed significant association between instrument families and seated posture with respect to pelvic attitude, dorsal curvature and head alignment in both sagittal and frontal planes. This analysis also showed an association between instrument families and standing posture with respect to the frontal plane of the axis of gravity, pelvic attitude, head alignment in the frontal plane, the sagittal plane of the shoulders and overall posture. CONCLUSIONS: While certain postural defects appear to be common to all families of instruments, others are more characteristic of some families than others. The instrument associated with the best posture quality was the bagpipe, followed by percussion and strings.

Musicians, postural quality and musculoskeletal health: A literature's review.

OBJECTIVE: An analysis of the salient characteristics of research papers published between 1989 and 2015 that evaluate the relationship between postural quality during musical performance and various performance quality and health factors, with emphasis on musculoskeletal health variables. METHODS: Searches of Medline, Scopus and Google Scholar for papers that analysed the subject of the study objective. The following MeSH descriptors were used: posture; postural balance; muscle, skeletal; task performance and analysis; back; and spine and music. A descriptive statistical analysis of their methodology (sample types, temporal design, and postural, health and other variables analysed) and findings has been made. The inclusion criterion was that the body postural quality of the musicians during performance was included among the target study variables. RESULTS: Forty-one relevant empirical studies were found, written in English. Comparison and analysis of their results was hampered by great disparities in measuring instruments and operationalization of variables. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the growing interest in the relationships among these variables, the empirical knowledge base still has many limitations, making rigorous comparative analysis difficult.

Automated external defibrillation skills by naive schoolchildren.

AIM: Early defibrillation should achieve the highest survival rates when applied within the first minutes after the collapse. Public access defibrillation programs have increased the population awareness of the importance of defibrillation. Schoolchildren should be trained in basic life support (BLS) skills and some countries have included BLS in their school syllabus. However, little is known of the current knowledge and ability of schoolchildren to use an automated external defibrillator (AED). METHODS: A multicentric descriptive study, 1295 children from 6 to 16 years of age without previous BLS or AED training. Subjects performed a simulation with an AED and a manikin with no training or feedback and were evaluated by means of a checklist. RESULTS: A total of 258 participants (19.9%) were able to simulate an effective and safe defibrillation in less than 3min and 52 (20.1% of this group) performed it successfully. A significant correlation between objective and age group was observed (G=0.172) (p<0.001). The average time to deliver a shock was 83.3±26.4s; that time decreased significantly with age [6 YO (108.3±40.4) vs. 16 YO (64.7±18.6)s] (p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Around 20% of schoolchildren without prior training are able to use an AED correctly in less than 3min following the device's acoustic and visual instructions. However, only one-fifth of those who showed success managed to complete the procedure satisfactorily. These facts should be considered in order to provide a more accurate definition and effective implementation of BLS/AED teaching and training at schools.

Common postural defects among music students.

Postural quality during musical performance affects both musculoskeletal health and the quality of the performance. In this study we examined the posture of 100 students at a Higher Conservatory of Music in Spain. By analysing video tapes and photographs of the students while performing, a panel of experts extracted values of 11 variables reflecting aspects of overall postural quality or the postural quality of various parts of the body. The most common postural defects were identified, together with the situations in which they occur. It is concluded that most students incur in unphysiological postures during performance. It is hoped that use of the results of this study will help correct these errors.

Automatic recognition and scoring of olympic rhythmic gymnastic movements.

We describe a conceptually simple algorithm for assigning judgement scores to rhythmic gymnastic movements, which could improve scoring objectivity and reduce judgemental bias during competitions. Our method, implemented as a real-time computer vision software, takes a video shot or a live performance video stream as input and extracts detailed velocity field information from body movements, transforming them into specialized spatio-temporal image templates. The collection of such images over time, when projected into a velocity covariance eigenspace, trace out unique but similar trajectories for a particular gymnastic movement type. By comparing separate executions of the same atomic gymnastic routine, our method assigns a quality judgement score that is related to the distance between the respective spatio-temporal trajectories. For several standard gymnastic movements, the method accurately assigns scores that are comparable to those assigned by expert judges. We also describe our rhythmic gymnastic video shot database, which we have made freely available to the human movement research community. The database can be obtained at http://www.milegroup.net/apps/gymdb/.