title: Biomechanical research on bowed string musicians: a scoping study.
abstract: Performing arts biomechanics is concerned with quantifying the musculoskeletal demands of artistic tasks. The growing body of related research has prompted this scoping study, solely focused on quantitative research, to summarize the state of the science, identify knowledge gaps, and identify opportunities for future research.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To identify, summarize, and categorize quantitative research on the biomechanics of violin, viola, cello, and double bass players, using scoping study methodology.
  
  
  METHODS
  Established scoping study methodology was used to identify and categorize existing research. We identified 74 articles for review. Of these, 34 met our scoping study criteria and were included in this study.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Twenty-one of the 34 articles that met the scoping criteria were published since 2000. Investigations using electromyography (16 studies) and kinematics (15 studies) comprise the bulk of the research. Two studies employed force transducers for data collection. Violinists were the most frequently studied musicians (22 studies) and double bass players were the least (1 study). Fewer than half of the studies used solely professional musicians as their subjects (13 studies).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This scoping study confirmed that quantitative biomechanical research into bowed string musicians has been performed with increasing frequency and that there are voids in the research, particularly in investigating mechanisms of injury and protective strategies. Currently, arts biomechanics research is largely descriptive in nature. There are few studies that investigate protective strategies, although it is expected that the field will progress to incorporate this type of research.
authors: School of Kinesiology, Faculty of Health Sciences, Western University, London, ON N6A 5B9, Canada. Tel +1 519 661 2111 x80484, fax 519-661-2008. jdickey@uwo.ca.
authors: Leila K
authors: LK
authors: Kelleher
authors: Kody R
authors: KR
authors: Campbell
authors: James P
authors: JP
authors: Dickey
mesh_terms: D001132:Arm / Q000502:physiology; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000502:physiology; D009140:Musculoskeletal Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D009146:Music; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D016273:Occupational Exposure / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D016474:Weight-Bearing / Q000502:physiology*; D016526:Workload