Musician's hand problems: looking at individuality: a review of points of departure

Various strategies on how to uncover the causation of musicians' hand problems have been outlined. Little attention, however, has been paid to the interaction of the numerous biomechanical factors involved and the extent of their inter- and intra-individual variation. A systematic biomechanical analysis is presented considering three basic elements: a) size and shape of the hand, b) resistance of the joints involved, and c) muscle forces acting on these joints. Results of the individual hand measurement are summarized as a "Hand Profile." It shows the instrumentalist's biomechanical constellation in comparison with a control group of healthy professional musicians, serving as a base to advise musicians from a medical perspective and/or with regard to playing technique. From hand research as a whole, we may recognize that there is in fact little reason for generalizing manual abilities.