Chin force in violin playing

摘要

Force generated between the left mandible of violinists and the chinrest of the violin was examined using aforce-sensing chinrest developed in this study. A straingauge force sensor was built, and it was Wxed between the violin's top plate and a chin cup. Fifteen professional/amateur violinists held the violin statically, played musical scales with diVerent sound properties and sounding techniques, as well as an excerpt from a Max Bruch concerto. Peak and mean forces were evaluated for each task. In a separate experiment, lateral movement of the lower teeth due to diVerent levels of voluntary chin force exertion was measured. Static holding forces observed were 15 and 22 N with and without the help of the left hand, respectively. Peak force increased from 16 N at soft dynamics to 20 N at strong dynamics during scales. The force further increased to 29 Nwith the use of vibrato technique and 35 N during shifts. Tempo and hand position did not aVect the force. Playing, Bruch concerto induced a mean peak force of 52 N ranging from 31 to 82 N among the violinists. The developed forcesensing chinrest could accurately record the generated chin force. Typical chin force to stabilize the violin during ordinary musical performance was less than 30 N but it could momentarily exceed 50 N when technically demanding musical pieces were performed. The lateral shift of the mandible was fairly small (<0.4 mm) even with high chinforce exertion possibly due to clenching of the molars.