Elementary Technique - Introduction & Basics

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Posture

Piano Stool

It is vital to find the correct seating position for you, which is why an adjustable piano stool is ideal. I recommend the pneumatic type, the one I have has been in daily use for some years and does not creak or wobble like the more traditional wind-up concert stools can tend to after a while.

Seating Position

Balancing on the ischial bones we sit on the front part of the stool, which we have adjusted to the correct height and positioned far enough away from the keyboard to make a comfortable angle at the elbow. As we move across the keyboard, we make small changes in our centre of balance. Freedom of movement and absence of tension and fatigue are essential ingredients in all piano playing from the very beginning.

Hand Positions

Naturally curved fingers

The natural hand position is very easy to find if you swing your arm by your side and lift the hand up to the keyboard. You will find a natural curve in the fingers, with all the knuckles supported. We avoid flat fingers and curled fingers, because they tend to create tension.

The hand consists of long (2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th) fingers and short (thumb and 5^th) fingers. While traditional beginner methods of yesteryear instruct us to keep the thumb in contact with the keyboard, modern trends in piano pedagogy require the thumb to be away from the keyboard when the long fingers are involved on white keys (to avoid the need to curl the long fingers). This video looks at how we use in-out movements to preserve the naturally curved finger position as we negotiate the black-white terrain of the keyboard:

Thumb

The thumb moves from the root where the thumb meets the wrist joint and plays on the tip by the nail: