Playing piano, for beginners or advanced players, is more than playing notes. Learning to play the piano requires you to learn how to sit at the piano. There are several reasons why you need to pay attention to your posture while you play. For one thing, you need to be able to command every key on the keyboard and your posture can affect your reach and power. Secondly, sitting at the piano keyboard, like sitting at a computer keyboard, can cause muscle fatigue and repetitive stress injuries if you are not careful about your posture. But most crucially, your musicality will suffer and your enjoyment of your piano-playing will diminish if poor posture causes you to have tense muscles, backaches or any other physical discomfort. Time spent playing the piano can be the best part of anyone’s day, unless a stiff neck or tense shoulders makes you too crabby to enjoy it. And it’s hard to let the music flow from your fingertips if your muscles are cramped.
So learning to sit correctly at the piano should be one of the first lessons in piano for beginners. Here are my tips for sitting comfortably and correctly at the piano:
- Sit in front of middle C. If you don’t know where middle C is, simply sit in front of the middle of the keyboard.
- Inhale deeply. As you exhale, lower your shoulders. Relax. Take another deep breath. Smile a little bit. After all, this is your chance to play the piano.
- To have appropriate reach at the keyboard, you need to sit far enough away from the piano, but not too far away, and you need to sit forward in your seat. A good guide for that is to hold your arm out, elbow straight but not hyperextended. Touch your fist against the wooden backboard behind the keyboard. Make sure you scoot forward toward the front of the piano bench. Move the bench back or forward if you need to.
- Sit up straight. I don’t mean be rigid and I don’t mean raise your shoulders. And whatever you do, don’t hold your breath.
- Place your fingers on the keys. Your forearms and thighs should be parallel with the floor, so adjust the height of the piano bench as necessary. Be sure not to let your wrists droop.
- Make sure you can read the music without eyestrain or craning your neck.
- Learning the piano, for beginners or more advanced players, can have challenging moments. Just relax. Don’t tense your body and don’t forget to breathe. It will make it harder, not to mention more painful, to master new music or new techniques if you tense your muscles and let them work against you.
- Relax. Smile. Breathe. You are lucky to have the time to play the piano. Let your muscles love it.
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Interview: TM Krishna | Blogical Conclusion – Thodur Madabusi Krishna says he isn’t just a performer, but a manufacturer’ of music. MAY 7, 2006 IF YOU THOUGHT TM Krishna’s passion was reserved merely for his singing, you haven’t heard him get started about his schooling. The Carnatic vocalist is an alumnus of The School (Krishnamurti Foundation India), and he reveals, almost reverentially, The KFI environment is very, very special.
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