Simple and Easy Piano Posture Tips

Correct piano posture is incredibly important to piano playing, however bad habits and bad posture can easily form without practice and awareness of your position. This is something our Piano teachers, here at PianoCommuters, work on with students developing skills for good posture for piano playing. These positions can become easier with time, provided practice from the student to maintain proper posture and be aware of how their posture can change as they’re playing piano. Not sure where to start with proper piano posture, not to worry – we’re here today to bring you some easy and simple tips for helping improve piano posture!

Step One: Sitting

Correct posture starts before you even sit down to play. One of the first things you want to do is ensure your seat for piano playing is set to a comfortable height so you’re able to reach the piano keys and peddles as needed throughout your playing.

Once you feel like you’re in a comfortable position with your seat then you can take a deep breath. It’s encouraged to hold that breath for a moment or two and then slowly exhale. While exhaling roll your shoulder back, you can repeat this process as many times as you need to feel relaxed and that your shoulder is to the back and relaxed.

Step Two: Positioning

From here you want to ensure you’re sitting comfortably on your piano seat. Wiggle yourself forward so you are on the edge of your piano bench and try to have your feet reach the floor if you can. If you cannot reach the floor and you are uncomfortable with your feet dangling then you can put a pillow, thick book, or foot support pillow underneath to provide you a place for your feet to rest.

As well, ensure your spine is in a neutral position. This means you should not be slouching, and as well you should not be holding your body rigid. This is also a good reminder as you begin to play your body may naturally being to slouch, this is a good time to remind yourself of a neutral spine.

Step Three: Wrists & Shoulders (again)

The last tip for your improved piano posture is to lift your wrists. Your wrists should not be laying on the piano or being supported by the piano in any way. Your fingers should be on the keys with your wrists lifted. An important reminder to check your shoulders are back when lifting your wrists.

Reminders

Over time these tips will hopefully become second nature and you will remember each one before you begin playing. However, if you’re having trouble remembering, or just beginning to learn how to play then check out these helpful tips below. While we don’t expect you to read this blog each time you play (although we’d love that!) you can do a couple of simple things to remind yourself.

One of our tips is to have someone else take your picture on your posture is correct. Print this photo and keep it nearby as a visual reminder of how you should be looking before you begin to play piano. Secondly, you can also have a checklist that you keep near your piano (or with your organized piano materials) for each reminder. This will allow you to go through each item mentally before you begin, and you can even laminate it and check each item off if that helps! Lastly, place a sticky note or reminder tab on your piano music or piano practice books to remind yourself of your posture! 

What is one thing you’re going to take away from this correct piano posture tips post? Let us know and feel free to reach out to our teachers for even more piano positioning and piano playing posture.