The aim of the study was to obtain an overall view of the extent of variation in hand size and joint mobility in professional pianists. Twenty dimensions of hand size, 1 7 ranges of active movement and I 1 features of passive joint mobility were tested on both hands of 127 male pianists aged between 17 and 63 and 11 1 female pianists aged betwen 16 and 64. The male hand showed significantly higher mean values than the female hand in all absolute hand-size variables with the exception of fingertip promirlence 3-5. The lateral differences were numerically slight, although occasionally significant; the variability of hand-shape dimensions, except in the case of-finger-tip prominence, was less than 10%.All mean values of finger spans with the thumb were greater in men than in women. T t~e same tendency prevailed in the case of finger spans without the thumb, although the differences were only occasionally significant. Five of the 20 finger spans were on average significantly greater on the left than o n the right. The rest ofthe ranges of active movement (flexion of the first metacarpophalangeal joint, wrist abduction and forearm pronosupination) were greater on average in the women. The variability in ranges of active movement was between 5% and 26% With regard to passive mobility, significantly higher mean values for all characteri:;tics were apparent in the women and, with one exception, there were significantly higher values for the left hand. The variability here ranged between 1 1 % and 38%. A weak negative correlation prevailed between joint mobility and age. This was only calculated for the male pianists.The corresponding characteristics in the right and left hand were highly ' correlated. whereas the characteristics within one hand were, on the whole, weakly correlated. Out of 1 5 12 intercorrelations, 1387 coefficients were below 0.6. There was a conspicuous frequency of negative relationships between hand-size factors and mobility. There was a tendency for greater mobility in pianists than in non-musicians. The question of the relevance of data on hand size and mobility when data on muscle strength are lacking is discussed. The possibilities of the practical use of the available data for the assessment of the manual aptitude of a pianist are illustrated by means of a biomechanical hand profile and the significance of the data for keyboard design in general is pointed out. .

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BackgroundMusic is an effective non-pharmacologic, non-invasive, safe, and low-cost intervention to enhance psychophysiological wellness and promote relaxation. This study addresses major knowledge gaps in establishing and validating a scientifically reproducible and rigorous methodology for music repertoire selection to enhance perceived relaxation.MethodsVolunteer participants (N=293) completed a web-based music-listening survey containing 16 questions on Compositional Elements of Relaxation (CER). From the unlabeled audio excerpts isolating and representing variations of each CER isolated from chronologically diverse classical music compositions spanning 400 years, respondents selected the variation perceived to be the most relaxing. Demographics including age, sex, race, education level, occupation, and level of musical training were collected. The 16 CERs identified by music experts included Accentuation, Articulation, Dynamic Range, Familiarity, Interpretive Expertise, Melodic Shape, Meter, Recording Quality, Repetition, Register, Rubato, Tempo, Texture, Timbre, Transition, and Tonality.ResultsThe web-based music-listening survey was completed by a demographically diverse cohort of 293 volunteer participants. When choosing music with a targeted outcome of relaxation, our investigation identified, evaluated, and validated variations of 16 Compositional Elements of Relaxation that enhanced perceived relaxation. Our data showed that musical compositions with the following intrinsic characteristics promoted relaxation: lack of accentuation, legato articulation, familiarity, pp-mp dynamic range (very soft to medium soft), smooth melodic shape, quadruple meter, high clarity recording, with repetition, middle register, rubato (rhythmic flexibility), medium tempo (80-100 bpm aligning with the human resting heart rate), thin texture, piano or string instrumentation, expert performance, and smooth transition. The most significant factors associated relaxation were legato (connective articulation), an absence of accentuation (strong accents), and rubato (rhythmic flexibility inimitable by computer-generated recordings.) Results from subgroup analysis revealed age, sex, race, education, and musical training differences in preferred music for relaxation. The factors most commonly associated with differences were rubato and texture. Factors that did not differ in any subgroup analysis included Accentuation, Articulation, Interpretive Expertise, Meter, Recording Quality, Repetition, Register, and Timbre. Thin texture was increasingly preferred for relaxation with increasing education and musical training level.ConclusionsOur investigation provided a reproducible theoretical framework for selecting evidence-based qualitative Compositional Elements of Relaxation (CER)—16 parameters isolated and individually assessed as correlated with perceived relaxation. This data-driven music-selecting methodology significantly increases the scientific rigor and the probability of clinical translation for music medicine research with targeted anxiolytic outcomes.