Expert and Nonexpert String Players’ Movement Durations as They Prepare to Play

We analyzed the movement durations of 14 expert and 18 nonexpert string players as they prepared to play their instruments and in three other physical tasks unrelated to music making. We hypothesized that expert musicians would take more time to prepare their playing than nonexperts, but we found this not to be the case. There were no significant differences in movement duration means between experts and nonexperts in any of the four tasks including the Instrument Task. Surprisingly and somewhat inexplicably, we found that both expert and nonexpert musicians who participated in sports activities ( n = 17) took significantly more time to prepare their playing than did the other participants. Further inspection of the video recordings revealed important differences in how experts’ and nonexperts’ movements unfolded in the Instrument Task. Nonexperts’ movements tended to be uneven and disjunct, whereas experts’ movements were fluid and even from the start, suggesting that experts’ conceptions of “starting a note” begin prior to the onset of movement and not when the bow is in close proximity to the string.