Analysis of body movements and acoustic parameters when playing the clarinet

Background Body movements while playing an instrument contain functional movements required for the sound production and ancillary movements with more expressive elements. Using 3D Motion Capture ancillary movements can be recorded and analysed. In this study, clarinettists were recorded visually and acoustically during performance and were analysed regarding specific movement patterns and interrelations with acoustic parameters.

Methods 22 clarinettists were recorded with an optical 3D Motion Capture System while performing a piece (Mendelssohn, 3. symphony). The analysis focused on angular changes in the arms and knees. Simultaneously the audio was recorded and analysed with Matlab (MIRToolbox) for acoustic parameters such as dynamics, spectral centroid and spectral flux to correlate them with body movement patterns.

Results Across the players there were different movement types. While some players moved mainly in the knees, others used large arm movements and yet others showed very low movement amplitudes at all. However, all players moved in the knees at specific musical passages. Rapid successions of notes were often performed with slow arm movements. The acoustic parameters showed only marginal differences across the movement types.

Discussion The analysis of ancillary movements of clarinettists found different characteristic movement types. Although some movements at specific musical passages were performed jointly. Expected acoustical changes according to certain body movements were found little. The results imply that expressive ancillary movements of clarinettists have more optical and less acoustical effects.

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Publication History

Article published online:
10 June 2020