There is a reason piano benches are designed the way they are, i.e. no back, no arms, very little padding, decent width, etc. They are designed to sit you forward so that you can freely move your arms and to be able to adjust from one end of the keyboard to the other.
There is a reason why piano benches do not have backs. Sliding forward, so that the legs are completely free and not necessary to stabilize the torso is very important for piano playing. Office chairs are not good for this, because they are not level.
Particularly for younger players, you will want a stool that still allows them to comfortably reach both the pedals and keys without strain. Another great point to touch on is storage within a bench, many benches allow the user to store their music books or other utensils within the seat itself.
Pianists usually sit at the edge of the piano bench to allow their legs to comfortably use the pedals. Sitting at the edge of the piano bench depending on the height of person you are cuts off the blood circulation to one or both of your legs.
This promotes stability while playing, but has the drawback that the pianists hips can't move as easily from side to side. A good piano chair is built and designed such that it is wide and stable, and should not wiggle or slide while playing.
This is generally more comfortable, especially when you're using one or more pedals. While you could simply use a dining chair, your playing posture is almost always better when you're sitting on a real piano bench, stool or keyboard bench.
Practice slowly and consistently
Slow practice is an effective method for reducing musical mistakes. The reason behind it is that slow practice allows pianists to work out a consistent rhythm, which is almost always the first element lost when mistakes start happening.
Shorter fingernails come in handy because they allow pianists to grip the keys better and produce a rich tone. There's more control over the sound and achieving dynamics and articulations become much easier to do.
This is especially helpful when learning scales and playing through them faster. Curving your fingers when playing the piano allows your hands to be flexible enough to rotate in the direction that you are playing.
Another practice technique is to try playing your music with your eyes closed altogether. Blind pianists are able to find their way on the piano keyboard by feeling the groups of black keys.
Experienced pianists don't need to watch their hands to make sure they're holding their fingers in the right position, but they will still need to look at their hands whenever they make large movements up or down the keyboard.
A well-maintained piano will have clean keys and they should feel smooth and even in touch throughout in terms of the key-depth (how far they go down when you play). Keys that get stuck could indicate broken action parts, or swollen felts due to poor climatic conditions.
Sit in the right place.
Sit on the front half of the seat and always in the middle. Make sure that you're always sitting in an upright yet relaxed posture. Lay your hands on the keys and check once more than your elbows are at the same height as the keys.
While the piano may sound a bit jarring without a rug, especially in a room with hardwood floors that doesn't have carpet already dampening the sound, adding a rug will help muffle the noise without causing it to have bad sound quality. The style of the area rug will affect how much sound is being absorbed.
You might find yourself wondering “can you lay an upright piano on its back during the move?” We don't recommend moving a piano on its back. For the best possible results, you should secure the instrument tightly against the back wall of the van in an upright position.
It is a mode that helps the artist transcend into the piece they are performing. Nearly all pianists close their eyes when they are practicing in order to get the feel of the tide.
Rule #1: The natural hand position
The first rule of piano fingering is that the shorter fingers play the longer keys, and the longer fingers play the shorter keys. The shorter fingers are the thumb and pinky, fingers 1 and 5. The longer fingers are the index, middle and ring fingers, fingers 2, 3 and 4.
Playing with flat fingers is unnecessarily hard and results in music that, quite simply put, doesn't sound very good… which could very well result in piano students quitting lessons.
Why do pianists wear gloves? So.. They don't leave smudge marks all over the keyboard when they are not playing. This is why at piano competitions, someone always cleans the keyboard between pianists.
A prepared piano is a piano that has had its sounds temporarily altered by placing bolts, screws, mutes, rubber erasers, and/or other objects on or between the strings. Its invention is usually traced to John Cage's dance music for Bacchanale (c.
Most professional pianists practice around 3-4 hours a day, though they may have had to practice as much as 8 hours a day to get to their current skill level.
Piano Sonata No.
29 more famously known as the Hammerklavier is the granddaddy of all difficult pieces for the piano. This is the piece that most other piano pieces are compared to. It's Beethoven's hardest sonata and is widely recognized as one of the most challenging piano pieces of all time.