The intensity of training across the lifespan correlating with well-documented neuromuscular plasticity and reorganization offers unique opportunities to better understand motor performance musically and more generally ( Herholz & Zatorre, 2012 Schlaug, 2015). Pianism, the act of playing the piano, is of interest across a wide variety of populations in both the arts and sciences due to the specificity and multi-modal nature of the skill. These results suggest that pianists are able to produce performances of similar musical structure across different instruments. No timing differences were observed among keyboards as consistent patterns emerged, specifically anticipatory adjustments prior to thumb strokes. Pianists performed 4 keystrokes per second, paced by a metronome set at 60 BPM. In this study, seven pianists performed 10 bimanual, two-octave, C major scales on 3 different piano keyboards to facilitate comparison of performance characteristics across instruments. Movement control both within and across pianos is essential for optimal performance, and in that sense, each instrument presents a type of task constraint.

Pianists often refer to the distinct “feel” of a particular instrument: its responsiveness and sensitivity key resistance and the evenness and predictability of the instrument. A crucial constraint particular to piano performance is adapting to the unique attributes of a wide variety of keyboard instruments.

Like athletes, musicians adapt to a wide variety of constraints such as the presence and effect of spectators acoustics in different performing spaces humidity affecting tuning and interpersonal interactions characterizing chamber and ensemble music. The constraints to action model suggests that movement patterns arise from within a framework of environmental, task, and personal constraints. Variation in one form or another is an inevitable aspect of human motor performance as the body negotiates the degrees of freedom problem while also adapting to ever-changing task constraints.

Pattern piano and keyboard