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IJMSTA - Vol. 8 - Issue 1 - January 2026
ISSN 2612-2146
Pages: 7
Quantitative Assessment of Violin Performance through Wearable Sensor-Based Analysis of Muscle Tension and Motion Smoothness
Authors: Joshua Lee, Seunghoon Hwang, Daniel Peterson
Categories: Journal
Abstract - Recent advancements in sensor technologies offer new possibilities for quantitatively assessing physical and performance-related parameters in music education. This study aims to establish objective methods for evaluating violin performance through two complementary sensor-based approaches: surface electromyography (sEMG) sensors for quantifying muscle tension and inertial measurement unit (IMU) sensors for assessing motion smoothness. Muscle activity of the left arm (i.e., fingering arm) and motion smoothness of the right arm (i.e., bow arm) in violinists were measured using sEMG and IMU sensors, respectively, during violin performance. The mean EMG amplitude and mean jerk magnitude were calculated to quantify muscle activity and motion smoothness, respectively. Experiments conducted with ten violinists with varying experience levels (1?30+ years) demonstrated the effectiveness of quantitatively assessing muscle tension and arm motion smoothness during violin playing. Furthermore, the proposed quantitative assessment method showed that repetitive practice can effectively reduce muscle tension and improve motion smoothness, as evidenced by significantly lower mean EMG amplitude and mean jerk magnitude. Together, these findings demonstrate that repetitive practice enhances both physiological and kinematic efficiency, suggesting the potential of combined sEMG and IMU sensing as objective tools for performance evaluation and pedagogy in violin instruction.
Keywords: Music technology, Music education, Sensor technology, Violin pedagogy, Violin performance
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