"Pain and Posture of Children and Adolescents Who Learn the Accordion" (research paper)

[AccordionUprising]

"Pain and Posture of Children and Adolescents Who Learn the Accordion as Compared with Non-Musician Students"
by Liliana Aparicio, MSc, Filipa M.B. Lã, PhD, and Anabela G. Silva, PhD (Portugal)

Interesting research showing that teachers and conservatories need to work to prevent injuries

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/311548922_Pain_and_Posture_of_Children_and_Adolescents_Who_Learn_the_Accordion_as_Compared_with_Non-Musician_Students

This study assessed the effect of practicing the accordion on pain and posture of children and adolescent students.

Pain and posture (forward head posture, scapular posture, and lumbar lordosis) were compared between two groups of preparatory and secondary school students, matched for age and sex: those who took accordion lessons (accordionists, n=16) and those who never studied a musical instrument (non-musicians, n=16).

RESULTS: Students taking accordion lessons reported significantly more pain in the shoulder, wrist/hand, and thoracic regions, showed significantly more forward head posture, and significantly increased lumbar lordosis. No significant differences were found for scapular posture between groups.

CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that children and adolescents who play the accordion have an increased forward head posture and lumbar lordosis and a tendency to report more pain than children and adolescents who do not play a musical instrument. Results corroborate the need for including healthy preventive teaching-learning strategies at music conservatoires.

 

[Siegmund]

An interesting article.

One limitation to be aware of: all 16 students studied at the same conservatory - so it's a bit of a leap to apply this to all "children and adolescents who play the accordion," vs. investigating whether this one conservatory does a poorish job of teaching posture. (I suspect a great many teachers do a poor job with posture -- I know when I had elbow pain after I started playing, a web search turned up next to no information about arm position other than "try to keep the wrist straight."

 

[Alan Sharkis]

The head-forward position can certainly lead to other problems, such as some of those stated. But why the head-forward position? Do the students feel that they must peer over the bellows while playing in order to read the music? Are some or all of them nearsighted? Siegmund raises some interesting points, and so (I hope) do I. The study could have gone further or, at least, the abstract could have ended with the usual, “further study is needed.” Of course, if we want a good laugh, we might question why the Results section and the Conclusion section have almost the same language. It’s almost like saying, “The sky is blue, therefore the sky is blue.”

 

[Ffingers]

Too much repeated action to the exclusion of other activity affecting skeletal and muscular development can be found recorded across the annals of human history.
Even the old school practice of carrying bags laden with books and other accoutrements has its negative effects, let alone the hours of sitting behind a desk with little structured, or even unstructured, physical activity.
There is nothing new in that bit of research which has not been shown in previous studies.

 

[AccordionUprising]

Additionally: I found the above research paper while seeking info on Accordion ergonomic/posture.
These two the biggest results, both interesting. I may have seen these mentioned here:

How to hold the accordion – Sitting & standing position
by Elena Stenkina
https://accordionchords.com/tutorials/how-to-hold-the-accordion/

ACCORDION TECHNIQUE NOTEBOOK
by Gorka Hermosa
http://www.gorkahermosa.com/web/img/publicaciones/3568a.pdf

 

[Ffingers]

Thanks for those references, Bruce.

You might add: "Play Your Accordion Without Pain" by John Bonica PT CMP NZRP, who has a lot of experience on the subject, to your list.

 

[JerryPH]

I don't know about anyone except myself... I'd played from age 4 to 18, a few years in a conservatory... I had no joint or shoulder or back issues. I did have pain after playing a 185bass Hohner Morino for 8 hours STANDING, a few times, nothing lasting.

The only lasting injury (if you want to call it that) were the loss of hair on the left wrist and left thigh that took a good 5 years to grow back... lol

 

[Mike K]

Well I have Kyphosis and looking back and knowing what it is now, I see that my instructor had it as well as a fellow student who was the number one accordionist in our orchestra. Would be interesting to hear how many others that studied intensely when young have that issue. I started playing at age 7. Unfortunately also having shoulder pain now. Likely not totally accordion related but Kyphosis probably contributes. Might be rotator cuff tears. Some issues may be related to sleeping on side as this causes pain in my shoulder but I really have trouble sleeping on my back. Also had to quit pickleball, it definitely aggravates it. Can't blame pickleball for my left shoulder though.

 

[JerryPH]

My mother has kyphosis as well, it is very debilitating and painful even to walk longer periods of time. Just trying to imagine the effort it would take to play with this… cannot be good. I would think that proper shoulder strap adjustment has to be critical, to keep 90% of the weight off the shoulders and placed on the thigh until increased control is needed for a brief period of time, then loosen up on the position, returning the weight back to the thigh.