AN ERGONOMIC MODEL OF KEYBOARD FINGERING FOR MELODIC FRAGMENTS

The fingerings used by keyboard players are determined by a range of e rgonomic (anatomic/motor), cognitive, and music-interpretive constrain ts. We have attempted to encapsulate the most important ergonomic cons traints in a model. The model, which is presently limited to isolated melodic fragments, begins by generating all possible fingerings, limit ed only by maximum practical spans between finger pairs. Many of the f ingerings generated in this way seldom occur in piano performance. In the next stage of the model, the difficulty of each fingering is estim ated according to a system of rules. Each rule represents a specific e rgonomic source of difficulty. The model was subjected to a preliminar y test by comparing its output with fingerings written by pianists on the scores of a selection of short Czerny studies. Most fingerings rec ommended by pianists were among those fingerings predicted by the mode l to be least difficult; but the model also predicted numerous fingeri ngs that were not recommended by pianists. A variety of suggestions fo r improving the predictive power of the model are explored.