An alternative 6-inch octave keyboard reduces forearm muscle activation level and improves finger postures in expert pianists with smaller hand spans

A small hand span is a risk factor of musculoskeletal injuries in pianists. Alternatively sized keyboards are recommended to help smaller hand pianists reduce risk of injury. However, in comparison to a 6.5″ octave conventional keyboard, it is unclear if a 6.0" octave keyboard (DS6.0) reduces forearm muscle activations and no research has investigated if keyboard size impacts finger joint kinematics. The objective was to determine the effect of keyboard size and hand size on pianists' right forearm muscle activation and finger joint posture when playing large handspan chords. Smaller hand pianists exhibited 11.2-13.8 % greater finger/wrist extensor activation and more abducted/less flexed finger postures compared to larger hand pianists. Smaller hand pianists playing on a DS6.0 reduced finger/wrist extensor activation by 2.5-3.2 %. Fifth finger posture was more flexed and less abducted. Results suggest that playing on a DS6.0 might reduce the exposure to risk of injury in pianists with smaller hands.