Sitting at the piano

Everything starts before the first note. The way you sit determines how free your arms are, the quality of your sound and, in the long run, the health of your back and wrists. Pianists who play pain-free for fifty years nearly all have one thing in common: a stable, relaxed seat that they never have to rethink while playing.

The four essential settings

1. Bench height. Sitting down, let your arms hang, then place your hands on the white keys. Your forearm should be roughly horizontal, the elbow level with the keyboard or very slightly above. Too low, and you "pull" your hands up and the wrist bends; too high, and you crush the keyboard with your shoulders.
2. Distance from the keyboard. Let your arms hang, then raise your forearms: your fingers should reach the front of the black keys without leaning forward. Your elbows are then slightly in front of your torso, never glued to your ribs. If you have to lean back to play the middle notes, you are too close.
3. The seat. Sit on the front half of the bench, your weight shared between your sitting bones and your feet. Your back is straight but not stiff, tilted slightly forward from the hips, as if you were about to talk to someone.
4. The feet. Flat on the floor, slightly apart; the right foot a little forward near the right pedal, the left one further back for stability. Children whose feet do not reach the floor need a footstool: otherwise the whole body tenses up to avoid slipping.

Where to sit sideways?

Centre yourself roughly in front of middle C (in practice, between the middle D and E). For a piece that stays high, shift the bench slightly to the right; for a low one, to the left. To reach the ends of the keyboard, do not stretch your arm: tilt your torso from the hips, like a tree swaying on its roots.

Exercise: your set-up ritual (1 minute)

1. Sit down with your hands on your thighs. Breathe slowly twice.
2. Check the height: forearm horizontal, shoulders low.
3. Check the distance: elbows slightly in front of the body, free to move.
4. Put your right foot near the pedal, the left one further back.
5. Let your hands drop onto the keyboard, place your right thumb on middle C and play it softly. Listen to the note fade away before you begin.

Do this ritual at the start of every session for a month: it will become automatic, and you will immediately notice when something is wrong (badly adjusted bench, somebody else's chair, an unfamiliar piano).