Instrumental musicians’ playing posture: a scoping review of its conceptualisation and application across interdisciplinary research

Introduction Posture is a multidimensional construct comprising historical, educational, sociocultural, behavioural, and health dimensions. This complexity makes it particularly relevant when investigating musicians’ health, as “poor” posture is often described as a risk factor for musculoskeletal disorders or performance-related pain. However, this relationship has not been clearly established in the literature thus far. Some authors argue that inconsistencies in posture definitions and assessment criteria may partly explain the discrepancy between commonly held beliefs among musicians and healthcare professionals, and current research evidence. Therefore, the aim of this review is to explore how musicians’ “posture” is understood, defined, and applied across the domains of musicians’ health, music education, and music performance research. Methods This scoping review protocol was developed in accordance with current guidelines for conducting scoping reviews. Following the Population–Concept–Context framework, included studies focused on instrumentalists, described posture while playing, and encompassed all musical styles, genres, levels of performance, and settings. After study selection, key characteristics extracted from the included studies were presented in tabular form and accompanied by a narrative summary. Results A total of 135 studies were included in this review, most of which were peer-reviewed articles. Data extraction consisted of classifying definitions of playing posture and identifying their potential positive and negative connotations; exploring the relationship of playing posture with pain, performance, and ergonomics; collating musicians’ perceptions and experiences of playing posture; as well as ascertaining how playing posture is investigated and potentially modified. Discussion There is a need for a common definition of musicians’ playing posture across music education, musicians’ healthcare, and performance science. Such consensus would facilitate further biomechanical research aimed at better understanding whether and how musicians’ posture may contribute to the development of performance-related pain. It could also support the development of a practical tool for assessing musicians’ posture in both clinical and educational settings. Implementing a multidisciplinary conceptual framework to define musicians’ posture will facilitate the comprehensive analysis of musicians’ playing posture in diverse contexts.