#Proper hands on keyboard how to

If you’re more of a visual learner, check out this infographic depicting the proper piano hand positions below: Check your wrist, shoulder, and forearm – if they feel tense, relax them while keeping your fingers on the keys. Step Six: Finally, make sure to notice whether or not any part of your arm has tensed up.Move your wrist upwards and downwards and notice the tension created by having the wrist be either too high or too low. Now find the place in your wrist that feels most natural often it will be where the wrist is even with the arm. To find the ideal position, hold your fingertips on the surface of the keys while maintaining the firmness of the knuckles of the hand. Step Five: The wrist should be relaxed and level with the hand.It should not collapse or cause the fingers to become perfectly straight. Step Four: The result should be that the fingertips are in contact with the lid, the knuckles of the hand should be fairly even with one another, and they should be slightly higher than the wrist. The first knuckle closest to the fingertips should be flexed during most playing styles.Keep your hands and fingers in the same position as this, but bend your arm at your elbow so your hands are in front of you with your palms down.

Also, notice how the thumb and index finger make a slight “C” shape. Step Three: Notice how your fingers natural curve in toward your body and how your knuckles curve out slightly away from your body.

Step Two: One should sit far enough from the keyboard to let the fingertips rest on the keys without effort when the arms are normally bent, and the feet should reach the pedals without stretching.

If you feel tense, shake out any stress that you may have in your arms, hands, and fingers.

Step One: To get a natural piano finger position, try standing up beside your piano and relaxing your hands at your sides.

Follingstad, as well as tips from renowned piano teachers like Leschetizky, Dohnanyi, and Alfred Cortot. I will be using piano hand positions approaches that have worked for me, specifically that of my teacher Dr. Thankfully, a good piano hand position is actually much easier to learn than many people think! Like any new skill, however, maintaining good piano hand placement requires consistent practice on behalf of the student.

#Proper hands on keyboard how to

With all of the aforementioned benefits of using a proper piano hand positions, it would seem that the only thing left to do is to learn how to actually do it! In addition to the previously mentioned benefits, proper piano finger positions allows a pianist to play quicker, with more agility, and with greater accuracy. I didn’t realize that the position of my hands could absolutely affect the sound coming out of the instrument. I remember when I was a beginner and thought that the tone of the piano was unchangeable. Good piano hand placement not only prevents injury, but it also allows a pianist to get better tone quality. Follingstad, immediately began to address and remedy the issues within my piano hand positions. It wasn’t until I came to San Diego State University to further my piano playing, when my piano teacher Dr.

At the time, I didn’t know that this pain was caused by poor piano hand placement. Very quickly, my hands and arms would hurt to the point where picking anything up would be painful. As a college level pianist, however, I was required to practice many hours a day at one point, I was doing 5 hours a day. When I first started studying piano at college, I had a teacher who didn’t teach me proper piano hand position.įor a while, this didn’t matter, as I was able to get a satisfactory sounding tone, sense of phrasing, and musicality out of the instrument. Why does good piano hand position matter? So glad you asked! To answer this question, allow me to give you a small glimpse into my history as a pianist. Let’s get started! The Importance of Proper Piano Hand Position In this post, we will discuss the importance of proper piano finger position as well as some exercises you can do to perfect your piano hand position. Whatever the case may be, having good piano hand placement is extremely important for both aspiring and accomplished pianists.

Perhaps the concept of having a consistent piano hand position was never taught to you or never occurred to you. If you were to sit down at a piano right now and throw your hands on the keys, how would they land? Would your fingers be curved or flat? How would your wrist look relative to your arm? Would you feel any tension in your shoulder or would you feel relaxed?Ĭonsiderations like these are often overlooked by both amateur and accomplished pianists. shares some tips and exercises on how to perfect your piano hand placement… Learning the proper piano hand position is essential for both beginner and accomplished piano players.