Proper Posture: Designing Posture Feedback Across Musical Instruments

Abstract: There is a recommended body posture and hand position for playing every musical instrument, allowing efficient and quick movements without blockage. Due to humans' limited cognitive capabilities, they struggle to concentrate on several things simultaneously and thus sometimes lose the correct position while playing their instrument. Incorrect positions when playing an instrument can lead to injuries and movement disorders in the long run. Previous work in HCI mainly focused on developing systems to assist in learning an instrument. However, the design space for posture correction when playing a musical instrument has not yet been explored. In this position paper, we present our vision of providing subtle vibrotactile or thermal feedback to guide the focus of attention back to the correct posture when playing a musical instrument. We discuss our concept with a focus on motion recognition and feedback modalities. Finally, we outline the next steps for future research.