Coordination in Fast Repetitive Violin-Bowing Patterns

Abstract

We present a study of coordination behavior in complex violin-bowing patterns involving simultaneous bow changes (reversal of bowing direction) and string crossings (changing from one string to another). Twenty-two violinists (8 advanced amateurs, 8 students with violin as major subject, and 6 elite professionals) participated in the experiment. We investigated the influence of a variety of performance conditions (specific bowing patterns, dynamic level, tempo, and transposition) and level of expertise on coordination behavior (a.o., relative phase and amplitude) and stability. It was found that the general coordination behavior was highly consistent, characterized by a systematic phase lead of bow inclination over bow velocity of about 15° (i.e., string crossings were consistently timed earlier than bow changes). Within similar conditions, a high individual consistency was found, whereas the inter-individual agreement was considerably less. Furthermore, systematic influences of performance conditions on coordination behavior and stability were found, which could be partly explained in terms of particular performance constraints. Concerning level of expertise, only subtle differences were found, the student and professional groups (higher level of expertise) showing a slightly higher stability than the amateur group (lower level of expertise). The general coordination behavior as observed in the current study showed a high agreement with perceptual preferences reported in an earlier study to similar bowing patterns, implying that complex bowing trajectories for an important part emerge from auditory-motor interaction.

Forward to Bernstein: Movement Complexity as a New Frontier

“…Recently, however, there is an increased interest in complex natural movements as a source for understanding motor organization. Above all, this concerns studies of the movements of the arm playing musical instruments (Winold et al, 1994;Turner-Stoker and Reid, 1999;Rasamimananal et al, 2007;Furuya and Kinoshita, 2008;Bril and Goasdoué, 2009;Furuya et al, 2009Furuya et al, , 2011Kazennikov and Wiesendanger, 2009;Konczak et al, 2009;Verrel et al, 2013a,b;Schoonderwaldt and Altenmüller, 2014). This research was partly fueled by the necessity to study professional pathologies of musicians and to develop relevant therapeutic methods (Bragge et al, 2006;Kelleher et al, 2013).…”

“…Participants in these studies were music players of different levels of skill, from beginners to amateurs to professionals. Researchers examine the adaptation of joint coordination to various conditions of performance, including tempo (Winold et al, 1994;Rasamimananal et al, 2007;Furuya et al, 2011;Schoonderwaldt and Altenmüller, 2014), sound power (Furuya and Kinoshita, 2008;Furuya et al, 2009;Schoonderwaldt and Altenmüller, 2014), type of instrument (Turner-Stoker and Reid, 1999;Bril and Goasdoué, 2009), and character of partition (Winold et al, 1994). The abovementioned works demonstrate efficiency of "bottom-top" approach for the analysis of the differences in the level of skills, in both kinematic and dynamic aspects of the organization of movement.…”

“…Results of complex coordination (including movements of working points of the arm important for executing musical task) are analyzed (Kazennikov and Wiesendanger, 2009;Schoonderwaldt and Altenmüller, 2014). Although the organization of the arm DoFs is not included in the scope of these researches, they are model examples of discovering regularities in movements of the arm's working points.…”

When they listen and when they watch: Pianists’ use of nonverbal audio and visual cues during duet performance

“…Sustained bowing gestures may not provide as clear an indication of note onsets as the striking actions used in piano performance, rendering visual cues from violinists less informative than visual cues from pianists. For instance, study of violinists’ bowing gestures has shown that changes in bow direction lag behind string transitions as performers move between notes ( Schoonderwaldt & Altenmüller, 2014 ), potentially enhancing the ambiguity of observed note onsets. Violinists’ audio cues may be less informative as well.…”

Adaptation to unstable coordination patterns in individual and joint actions

“…Furthermore, some instrumentalists need to produce phase shifted movements with different limbs due to the physical setup of their instrument. This is for example the case on the violin where a string has to be pushed down with the left hand before the bow is moved or the string is plugged with the right hand [22]. Pipe organs, another example, can exhibit delays of up to 150 ms [23] that vary according to pitch and may vary for different manuals and pedals.…”