Technique and posture.

For all the newcomers, and maybe even veterans.

Basically, let's discuss various aspects of technique and posture for playing keyboards and piano which we can later compile into a sticky. I'll start

For posture, here is what I learned you should and shouldn't do:

- Sit upright. Avoid using a chair or bench with a backrest since it can make you slouch or not sit upright.
- Your feet should be flat on the floor, with your knees roughtly bent at a 90 degree angle, with one foot(usually the right) slightly ahead of the other one by about half a foot's length(for balance). This is naturally when you arn't using pedals.
- Your elbows should hang down relaxed and you shouldn't tuck them in or raise them while playing. They should extend just past your body when you look from top-down.
- Your forearms should be roughly parallel to the floor, so you should adjust your keyboard or chair height to match this.

You should play around with different setups and positions until you find what is comfortable, but generally the advice above should act as guidelines. People come in many different shapes and sizes.

Technique:

I don't know much about this but here is what I know:

There are, from what I researched so far, two schools of thought for technique. One is what I will call the finger driven technique and the other the arm/shoulder driven technique.

The fingers driven technique advocates that all the strength, control and dynamics in playing comes from your fingers. They therefore advocate playing style and exercises that developes only the fingers. Some(mostly the arm/shoulder school of thought) have criticised this as being a cause for RSI and injury. One commonly cited flaw with this approach is that the ring finger is alot weaker than the other fingers, and excessive exercise for this fingers causes injury/RSI. The Hanon exercises, for example, is to develop fingers strength and dexterity.

The other school of thought is the arm/shoulder technique where the strength and dynamics of playing comes from the arms and shoulders, with less fingers movement. But, I don't know much about this. From what I understanding, the fingers only do the minimal work of changing position, while the arms and shoulders carry the burden of providing the force for pressing down the keys.

Personally I think both has merit, but I havn't been able to even determine which style I currently play under, but I think it's probably the finger approach.

Then, onto general advice:

Avoid tension. Although everyone probably know this, just to be concise. Tension is when your muscles are doing self-defeating work, or in other words, the muscles used to extend a limb and the muscles used to retract the limb are working against each other, which slows you down and can cause injury. This also includes using muscles that you shouldn't, like having a raised shoulder to play on a keyboard that is too high for you. This effects your expressiveness badly.

So, best way to avoid it is simply to relax your entire body(without slouching your back). You can be perfectly upright without tension. Breathe in, and as you breathe out just relax. For me it took some practice to learn how to relax properly. Another thing is also to always pay attention while you are playing or practicing that you don't tense up without noticing. If you do, just relax your whole body again.

And, the last bit of advice on practicing: Practice doesn't make perfect. PERFECT practice makes perfect. Simply put, try your best not to make mistakes while your practice, because your mind remembers mistakes too. If you can't play something fast in 100 tries, do you think you will get it right the 101st time? No. Always practice at a speed where you can play what you are trying to play correctly. A good thing to do is throw out tempo completely and just focus, for as long is it takes, the get every movement in a sequence right.

Well, that is all I can remember for now. The last two points about tension and Perfect practice applies to all music and even lots of other activities(where I first learned about them), but they deserve mention here.

Hope this helps someone out there, and please add anything I left out or correct me if I'm wrong. We can discus details about exercises for the different playing approaches, but for now I have to go

Makes sense to me. Thanks for the insight.

Real good insight letsel...I started playing keyboards out in live situations because of a disabilty and this thread should lend itself to all players of all types, and there are alot of different people playing instrumens who have different approaches that are of personal nature. As in your first review of finger technique, and no backrests on your seat... I do use a backrest on a drummers throne, simply because I have a back injury and it affords me some additional comfort and the ability to sit up straight, although another player may not find this a comfortable seating position. My fingers, arms and hands still work so I am thankful for that, but I can't stand for over 5 minutes with out pain, so the seating position to me is very important. Technique is another story, since I don't consider myself an accomplished pianist or keyboard player, but I do love to play the keys. I guess mine is more arm movement with the fingers, and I do like to raise my arms in crescendos, and dynamics with the band, also what about the slides on the keys...don't know what you call them, but I do this mostly on piano for dynamic purposes, sliding into a part. Will this develop some type of injury over time? Good post for a sticky, thanks. ROT

Nice to see no one has corrected me yet, since I still consider myself a novice

I think the purpose behind not using a backrest is to force players to learn habits and be aware, consciously or subconsciously, of their posture and form while they play and practice. I usually try to think of reasons why teachers and instructional materials tell people to do things a certain way, and that makes the most sense regarding that. But, like you said, you have a back problem, so you can quite safely throw out the rules since they are meant for your average joe, which is usually someone without back problems.

I still struggle myself without adhering to what I posted, but, practice and being mindful will help over time. But I'm starting to understand more why it is generally preached to play that way.

But what I'd really like to see is other more experienced players share some advice from their, well, experience. I started this thread to learn more, not preach

Hi ya doing Im shane Im studing keyboard performance in a conservetoir, but i also play rock and jazz piano I am big into technique and i have a good grasp on the vast majority of all different styles of piano
Firstly the not using a backrest is the total classical way (USUALY the best way) but if you have good posture the back shouldnt be a prob

and after all for rock keyboards you can always stand......you cant get this posture wrong!!!
FEET ALWAYS FLAT except for pedal use but both feet should be symetrical cause both use the pedals

Hand to elbow.....paralell to floor!

The piano is never ever just about the fingers you play not only with your fingers but your arms and your whole body, the music should be in your whole body and your instruments should be an extension of yourself, using only fingers the worst possible way to do it and will cause your fingers damage if overused. Hannon does work on the strenght of the fingers but its never suggested in any of the hannon books that you only use your fingers (i know i play throught the entire Hanno virtuostic pianist everyday) if you look inside a grand piano and see how much of a hammer you are moving with each key (its quite substancial) you will realise thats its too much for your fingers alone

TENSION = BAD

you would be surprised the places you will get tension too, i didnt realise till it was pointed out in a master class that i play with slightly raised eyebrows...... when you relax them it actually relaxes all your body cause your whole body is linked!

Perfect practice....spot on!!!!

Hi ya doing Im shane Im studing keyboard performance in a conservetoir, but i also play rock and jazz piano I am big into technique and i have a good grasp on the vast majority of all different styles of piano
Firstly the not using a backrest is the total classical way (USUALY the best way) but if you have good posture the back shouldnt be a prob

and after all for rock keyboards you can always stand......you cant get this posture wrong!!!
FEET ALWAYS FLAT except for pedal use but both feet should be symetrical cause both use the pedals

Hand to elbow.....paralell to floor!

The piano is never ever just about the fingers you play not only with your fingers but your arms and your whole body, the music should be in your whole body and your instruments should be an extension of yourself, using only fingers the worst possible way to do it and will cause your fingers damage if overused. Hannon does work on the strenght of the fingers but its never suggested in any of the hannon books that you only use your fingers (i know i play throught the entire Hanno virtuostic pianist everyday) if you look inside a grand piano and see how much of a hammer you are moving with each key (its quite substancial) you will realise thats its too much for your fingers alone

TENSION = BAD

you would be surprised the places you will get tension too, i didnt realise till it was pointed out in a master class that i play with slightly raised eyebrows...... when you relax them it actually relaxes all your body cause your whole body is linked!

Perfect practice....spot on!!!!

Call this some thread necromancy.

I've been playing for years. University. Conservatory. I developed RSI while working on some highly virtuosic material about 10 years ago. This technique saved me: http://www.wellbalancedpianist.com/bptaubman.htm The technique uses forearm rotation and noodle limp fingers. It can look a bit strange but I was able to play again. Volume is totally made by velocity of the hammer strike.

Muscle tension is the enemy of all musicians.

fortunately I'm at that age now where I can sit regardless of music style. lol.

good stuff! im mostly self taught so this helps a ton!

One other thing.... technical exercises.... personally when I was performing, I used about 6 Scarlatti Sonatas and a couple Chopin etudes for my technical work. I figured if they were good enough for Chopin's students they were good enough for me. Plus the added benefit is that they're musical and if you're called to play something in a pinch you've got a few little pieces always ready to play. Otherwise I'm of the old school that says if you study a piece of music you will learn the technique necessary to play it well. Start it slow and if it's a fast piece only increase tempo when you can consistently play where you are without tension.

Julia, do you practice with a metronome?