Practice, Practice, Practice. Ouch!

It's not only office- and assembly-line workers that are subject to carpal tunnel syndrome and repeated stress injury (RSI). Musicians sometimes find themselves losing their ability to play, or play well, because of physical and mental wear-and-tear. Now some therapists are using a high-tech player piano to help pianists get their groove back.

A recent article in the New York Times describes how therapists at the Miller Healthcare Institute for the Performing Arts are using a combination of the Yamaha Disklavier and video cameras to precisely record exactly what a pianist's fingers are doing while playing a tune. And this knowledge can help a performer fix, or at least compensate for, mechanical problems.

The Disklavier system is essentially a thoroughly modern player piano. A normal-looking Yamaha grand piano actually conceals an additional $30,000 worth of technology that can record the timing and speed of each hammer and pedal to "record" a performance, and that can control those hammers and pedals with the same precise timing and resolution to "play back" a performance.

The recorded performances can be stored or transmitted, and most Disklavier customers use their instrument's technology to play back other people's performances, ones that they have purchased. (Although, note that 2002 saw the first international "e-competition," with absent performers' performances performed on a Disklavier in front of live judges.)

The Miller Institute's approach combines the Disklavier's ultra-sensitive recording of key movements with a video camera trained on the fingers themselves. By reviewing the timing and duration of the notes on a computer display, in synch with a video of the finger movements, therapists and performers can trace the motions that are causing problems and develop ways to avoid them, or work around them.

These new techniques may save some injury-plagued performers from having to go through other methods of therapy, such as retraining or using botulin or Parkinson's treatment drugs.

Visit the Yamaha Disklavier Users Page or learn more about the Disklavier system

Read some tips that musicians can use to avoid playing-related injuries

Learn more about RSI at Harvard's RSI Action page

Learn more about focal dystonia, another common musical injury

Visit the Miller Healthcare Institute for the Performing Arts

Read the June 24, 2003 NY Times article by Donald McNeil, Jr. [fee required]