Rhonda Boyle

Independent Researcher · None

A summary of the evidence of the need to move away from the paradigm of today’s ’standard’ keyboard. Available for others to use as desired.

The availability of keyboards with reduced key width has been recently promoted as an ergonomic aid for small-handed pianists to overcome any potential physical disadvantages that may restrict their piano repertoire. However, a lack of biomechanical data exists to support whether reduced piano key size is effective in achieving this outcome. This r...

Hand span data was collected from 473 adult pianists and analysed using descriptive and inferential statistical methods, focusing on differences according to gender, ethnicity and level of acclaim. For comparative purposes, similar data was collected from 216 non-pianist university students and 49 children and teenagers. Gender differences are cons...

I noted with interest your recent editorial in the June 2014 issue about keyboard instruments and fully support your comments. Thank you for mentioning the PASK website (Pianists for Access to Smaller Keyboards, www.paskpiano. org) which I maintain on behalf of pianists around the world who are keen to see change in the "one size fits all" approach...

Previous research by the author has documented the perceived benefits of reduced-size piano keyboards for smaller-handed pianists. This paper reviews the biomechanical and physiological factors that might explain these perceptions. Referring in particular to the work of Otto Ortmann early last century, the factors described include direct mechanic...

Reduced-size piano keyboards are gradually becoming popular with many small-handed pianists in North America but are little known elsewhere in the world. They are also gaining favour among teachers and are the focus of research at a number of American universities. This paper describes the results of a survey of 22 adult pianists who play smaller...

The width of piano keys became standardised approximately 120 years ago, based on the needs of European male pianists. Only recently has piano keyboard size come into question, as more pianists experience the benefits of reduced-size keyboards. There is strong evidence that small-handed pianists are more likely to suffer pain and injury than those...

For around 100 years, there has been a ‘one size fits all’ approach to the piano keyboard, despite the wide variation in hand sizes within the human population. Much of the literature relating hand size to piano playing is in the performing arts medicine field, identifying small hand size as one of the possible causes of pain and injury among piani...

CSIRO's coupled meteorological and pollutant chemical dispersion model, the Air Pollution Model (TAPM), and the EPA Victoria multi-pollutant emission inventory for the Port Phillip region (including Melbourne—covering a region of approximately 24,000km2) were used to simulate 1 year of hourly averaged air pollution concentrations for smog and parti...