ARE YOU SITTING COMFORTABLY? POSTURE AT THE PIANO

It takes good posture as well as good fingers to play to your best abilities.With the help of some nifty camerawork, Mark Tanner explains

Posture is a topic that is probably never too far from a piano teacher’s lips. Maintaining a good posture has as much to do with our ongoing ‘piano health’ as our control of the instrument itself. While a well-considered seating position enables a comfortable, tension-free movement of the arms, wrists, hands and fingers, conversely a pianist may encounter aches and pains when posture is permitted to slip. It may be tempting to describe a pianist’s posture as ‘static’, particularly if we find ourselves admiring pianists who appear almost motionless. It would be more appropriate to think of our posture as ‘dynamic’ – i.e. continually adjusting, however subtly, to meet the needs not just of our bodies but of the music being played.

Posture isn’t something we set straight once and then forget about, but it is central to a stressfree, sustainable approach. And when we sit for longer periods, as well we might when deep in concentration playing more challenging music, the hazards can accumulate to a point where our playing becomes an audible symptom of tension. That ease of phrasing we’re after when playing Scarlatti and Mozart, or that effortless rubato we’re longing for in our Chopin and Fauré, require us to be seated optimally so as to allow an all-important concept: flow. Just as a hosepipe cannot do its job of spurting water when stymied by kinks and knots, fluidity in the act of piano playing can be thought of as originating somewhere in the brain before travelling south via the neck, shoulders, on through the torso and down to each limb.

The good, the bad and the ugly

The litmus test for good posture is simply that it should enable us to play to the best of our ability without incurring the physical or mental symptoms of discomfort and tension. If you’ve fine-tuned a posture that gives you the physical freedom you need, it will optimise your ability to communicate the music inside you. The problem with being overly prescriptive over posture is that one doesn’t have to look far to find obvious contradictions – for example Glenn Gould and Radu Lupu. Moreover, as we age, our bodies perhaps require us to repurpose

certain aspects of our technique – hence we might wish to consider adjusting our posture accordingly. With this in mind, I’d be more interested in helping a student to strike a happy medium between how they feel and sound, rather than how they look.

Nevertheless, it may help to check your own appearance from time to time, especially if you are self-taught, to be sure you’re not storing up problems for yourself or making piano playing an unnecessarily irksome/painful occupation. It may, for example, be that your scales and arpeggios aren’t flowing as they might, due to either sitting like a telegraph pole or so high that your fingers lose the possibility for crispness and clarity. The images on the previous page offer some viewpoints intended merely as a reference. Why not check your own posture using your mobile device?

Left: an ‘easy’, comfortable posture; Top right: a lazy posture, frequently the result of working for prolonged periods with just one hand; Middle: leaning way too far from the keys; Bottom: hunched over the keys, i.e. too close in.

Sitting further from the keys can make your arms feel heavy and unresponsive (though the fingers can in certain circumstances gain a lighter fluidity), while hunching over the keys will often restrict mobility around the keyboard, causing the elbows to stick out and the wrists to lock up. But bear in mind that different repertoire may require us to reposition ourselves to maximise flexibility, harness additional power, or simply to be able to see what we are doing when embroiled in the heat of a bravura passage. We might try repositioning ourselves fractionally when moving from a Baroque to a Classical or Romantic piece – or perhaps even mid piece! A deft shift of weight from one buttock and/or foot to the other can help keep our centre of gravity.

Sitting like an aristocrat, with a book wedged under the armpit and a ruler on the forearm, are laughably outmoded characterisations, and yet one does come across pianists who seem to feel a compulsion to sit as if straightjacketed. We should avoid unnecessary gesticulations when playing, and yet posture itself is a moveable feast, which with minor adjustments can for example help us to accommodate a heavier action than we’ve been used to. These more nuanced changes need the greatest care, and possibly impartial advice from someone you trust.

Hand position

Many of us will have been shown how to cup the hand to achieve a good position for addressing the keys, perhaps by using the knee as a ‘mould’, or else a tennis ball, orange or other device. Either way, the idea is to allow the wrist to continue the natural line of the forearm, rather than angle steeply upwards or downwards, either of which will likely impact on which part of the keys our fingers make contact with.

The two images on the previous page show a good hand position, both from the side and from above. You may prefer to place your fingers on E, F#, G#, A# and C, rather than from C to G as shown in the images – this can feel more tactile, especially for players with smaller hands. Those pianists with longer fingers should avoid allowing the second, third and fourth fingers to wander too far into the keys, which can cause reduced nimbleness and crispness.

The pair of images above are somewhat exaggerated but nevertheless illustrate the kinds of hand position one frequently comes across. In the first, the wrists are lower than the fingers, which drags down the weight of the arms and reduces independent finger movement. In the second, the wrists are too high, bringing about straight fingers and, once again, reduced freedom and dexterity. If you recognise yourself in either of these images, look first at the height of your seat – this may well be what’s causing the problem.

Summary

Think of posture as among the important variables of piano playing over which you have control. An adjustable stool will help immeasurably, but improvise if need be with cushions. How you sit dictates how easily you can access the full range of keys, how efficiently you can switch between loud chordal passages and feather-light leggiero runs, and equally importantly, how long you can sit at your instrument regardless of age. Signs of tension are myriad, but posture and hand position invariably play a part: check if your neck is disappearing into your shoulders, or that you’re not unwittingly becoming slumped over the keys. Gauge whether your wrists are as supple as they can be when transiting between registers, and don’t be afraid to make small adjustments to your seating or hand position, as these can bring about startling revelations. Do the simple things, such as aligning yourself square on to the piano, feet firmly planted on or near to the pedals (never crossed over, or under your seat!), preserving a clean line of sight to the music desk, and aim for a relaxed, balanced feeling down your spine. Finally, make regular shaking movements to alleviate potential muscle tension: roll the neck and shoulders, dangle the arms and wrists loosely down your sides, and step away from the piano every fifteen minutes or so, just to stretch and recalibrate. ■