Musicians can develop and suffer from playing-related musculoskeletal disorders (PRMDs) with pianists being a group of instrumentalists that experience a higher occurrence of PRMDs in comparison with other musicians. One cause of PRMDs is posture. The Alexander Technique (AT) is a popular somatic method among musicians that purports to alter its students’ postural and movement behaviour. Such changes may be beneficial in improving music performance. However, there is a lack of quantitative research to offer support for the effectiveness of the AT in altering posture in musicians, especially in pianists. To address this issue, four studies were conducted. The first study addressed the AT alone to determine what postural changes could be expected following lessons in the AT. Findings of this study showed that changes include a larger craniovertebral angle, head tilt, and head-neck-trunk angle as well as smaller trunk, thoracic, and thoracolumbar angles. The second study addressed variability in individual pianists’ postures and its implications for intervention studies. The results of this study demonstrated that within-person variability is present in posture between performances but does not vary widely enough to exhibit inconsistent posture across measurements. The third study examined the effects of 10 AT lessons on pianists’ postures. Findings showed that, in comparison with their pre-lesson measurements, pianists demonstrate a postural pattern of larger craniovertebral and head-neck-trunk angles as well as smaller trunk, thoracic, and thoracolumbar angles in both the post-test and follow-up tests. The fourth study explored the relationship between pianists’ perceptions of their posture and their application of the AT with quantitatively measured changes in their posture. The results of this study showed that participant perception and reported application of the AT does not necessarily always reflect the postural changes that have occurred.

Back pain and injury are a global health issue and are a leading cause of work and activity absence. Prevention would not only save those affected from the burden of pain and discomfort, but would also save people from loss of over 290 million workdays annually and save the healthcare system billions of dollars in expenses per year. Successful research and development of a wearable technology capable of comprehensively monitoring spinal postures that are leading causes of back pain and injury can result in prevention of mild to severe back pain and injury for high-risk people. To accomplish this, the Smart Spine Tape is being developed with specific focus on accuracy, usability, and accessibility, all of which are important factors to consider when engineering for a wide array of populations. Accuracy was assessed using three human participants, with spinal angle data of the Smart Spine Tape being compared to established motion analysis technology data. Prototypes of the device showed promise in the ability to accurately measure spinal postures, but inconsistencies between samples and trials indicated that further development is necessary. Usability and accessibility were assessed using ten human participants who completed one workout each and reported on the tape’s comfort, durability, and ease of use, as well as their thoughts on how much they would be willing to pay for a fully functional version of the device. Participants reported high comfort, high durability, and moderate ease of use throughout their experiences, with the average price range that they would be willing to pay being between $25 and $75. Future directions have been identified that address inconsistencies in data collected by the Smart Spine Tape, possibly caused by inconsistent resistive properties of the piezoresistive ink and plastic deformation of the tape during testing. These future directions involve modifying testing, material, and fabrication methods.