More with less: A comparative kinematical analysis of Django Reinhardt's adaptations to hand injury

At the age of 18 years, jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt (1910-1953) sustained significant burns to his left-hand ring and little fingers; yet, subsequently, he relearned to play and achieved international fame, despite his injuries.

Archive film footage and novel motion analysis software were used to compare movements of Django's fretting hand with that of six other guitarists of the same genre.

Django employed greater abduction of index and middle fingers (-9.11 ± 6.52° vs -5.78 ± 2.41°; p < 0.001) and more parallel alignment of fingers to the guitar neck (157.7 ± 3.37° vs 150.59 ± 2.67°; p < 0.001) compared to controls.

In response to debilitating hand injury, Django developed quantifiable compensatory adaptation of function of his remaining functional fingers by developing an original playing technique.

Hand function following injury may be optimized by maximizing latent degrees of freedom in remaining digits, rather than through extensive surgical reconstruction or complex prostheses. Further study of adaptation strategies may inform prosthesis design.