Piano and Movement
When we first start playing the piano, the thing many people notice first is how new it is. This seems obvious, but what I mean is that playing the piano is an experience unlike anything we encounter in our “regular” daily lives. The closest thing most students think of is typing on a computer keyboard, which isn’t entirely untrue, but is still very far from what we do physically while playing the piano.
So let’s start there, if you have never played a piano before, but you have typed on a computer keyboard, you have definitely used your fingers independently, which is a similarity. The typing I am thinking of is the standard “home row” typing that many of us (at least in my generation) learned way back in 3rd or 4th grade, sorry to those one-finger typers out there!
Now the weight of a standard computer keyboard is pretty light. Not the keyboard itself, but the weight required to actually depress the keys. I couldn’t find an exact number, probably because no one else is interested in figuring out how heavy the keys are, because they are so light.This is where the similarities between computer keyboards and piano keys end. The standard acoustic piano key requires 50 grams of weight to depress the key, some grand pianos and digital pianos can be heavier up to 80 to over 100 grams to depress the key. Because of the increase in weight, there are important techniques and hand postures/positions we need to use while playing the piano to do so efficiently, and to avoid injury.
If you have ever taken a piano lesson, you were probably introduced to lifting your wrists and curving your fingers through many different analogies. From holding an imaginary bubble, to creating a tunnel for a train, the aim of these is to keep your wrists above the “key line” and your fingertips curving down onto the keys. The “key line,” as I call it, refers to an imaginary line coming out from the tops of the keys, like the keys themselves are continuing past the piano. Generally, we want our wrists to stay above this imaginary line.
While in this position two important things should happen, your fingers will naturally curve down on to the keys, and elevating your wrists will allow the very long tendons running from your fingers up into your forearm to stay more relaxed and released when they are not being used. This is important not only because it is a far easier and more efficient way to play those heavier keys, but it significantly reduces your chance of developing musculoskeletal injuries in your wrists and fingers.
Now getting this “setup,” is important, but there is one more component at play here, movement. As we play the keys, there is already lots of movement just in the fingers alone, but playing the piano should involve to some extent, your entire upper body. From sitting with a straight back, to involving your entire arms and shoulders, your body wants to move and we should absolutely allow it to. The piano is not designed to fit the shape of the hand naturally, so we need to allow a lot of movement within the wrists, arms, elbows and shoulders to continuously release tension while playing.
If you move your arm in front of you to the piano keys, try keeping the outside of your pinky (5th) finger straight with your forearm. You will notice that as you get closer to the centre of the piano, your hand ends up completely angled, and not in a good position to actually play the keys. You will have to twist your wrist, compressing the outside of your hand in the process, in order to place your thumb on middle C. Allowing your hands to move and shift, with the movement from your arms as well, will benefit your playing and allow you to play more consistently, and more expressively.
DISCLAIMER
I am not a medical doctor. These posts are all anecdotal, based on experiences through my own learning, understanding and teaching. My musical knowledge is based primarily in the Western classical tradition, which by no means defines the only perspective to learn and understand music.
