Correct posture & hand placement / technique

[genuinely_genuine]

Hello all!

Newbie to this forum and to the piano. I've been wanting to learn to play the piano and after periods of procrastination I've finally started. I've picked up books and videos and whatnot to get me started and began playing the beginning exercises (a good hour) and noticed i was twisting my wrist to get to certain keys, which then my wrist began to hurt alot and had to stop. It's really hard to pick up correct posture (height / distance) and hand technique (not twisting) through text and video. Any advice at all before I give myself a serious wrist injury??

P.S.
i have a 66 electronic keyboard and was wondering if i should place myself in front of middle C or in the middle of the actual keyboard.

THANKS A BUNCH IN ADVANCE!!   

[go12_3]

How about getting a good piano teacher.     

[genuinely_genuine]

Trust me, i've considered and hoped for that option! haha. The problem is that the times that teachers are able to teach are during my mon-fri day job hours (9am-6pm) and there are strictly NO teachers / instructors after those times, more or less any teachers around my town because i live in a very small town (no exaggeration on this part lol).

Just thought I'd ask and maybe get some helpful and more informative tips than the ones ive been getting from books who shoot too fast through that portion, which i would think good hand technique / posture is the foundation of your piano career whether it be short or long termed.

[genuinely_genuine]

No tips at all?

 

[go12_3]

No tips at all?

 

The only thing I can suggest is make sure you don't sit too high nor too low in front the keyboard so when you play, your arms from the elbow to hands are in a square.  Then have your fingers arch but not too much.  Each finger has a different length and action as you strike the keys down.  Keep your back straight and strike each key with confidence but not bang, make a nice sound that is pleasing to the ears.   You could get the Adult version of the Faber & Faber which is popular piano course.   If you can go to a music store then you can find that book and look at it.  Or go  online.  Faber & Faber has their own website(just google it) and you can find some helpful tips there. 
Hope this will help you,

best wishes,

go12_3

[m19834]

No tips at all?

 

The best tip would indeed be to get a good teacher, like Go already mentioned in her first post.  From personal experience, I have found several thoughts on "correct posture and hand placement/technique" to be helpful at different times in my life.  Funnily enough, I have often learned something that initially is a kind of breakthrough for me and brings about more freedom in my playing, and then if I am not careful, it can quickly become a kind of prison for me, as well.  The key is in knowing when to use what, and that's one of the reasons that having a good teacher to work with can be so helpful.  

[rmbarbosa]

As a beginner, one gold rule: no tension in your fingers, hands, arms. Relax the fingers, put them slightly curled, meeting de keyboard at angles <> 45 degrees. The thumb pointing slightly down and bend slightly towards the other fingers. Play the thumb with its tip, below the thumb nail. For the other fingers, play with de front pad of the fingertips. Put right thumb on C1 and 2ºfinger on D, 3ºon E, 4º in F, 5º n G. With fingers on the keys, relax your arm, keep your wrist flexible and let gravity drop your hand. Do not move your fingers. Let de wrist flex slightly to take the shock of landing and depress the keys. Doing so, you may feel a total relax. Then, with the five fingers pressing the keys, play thumb as fast as possible 4 times, like a quad: 1111. With complete relaxation, if possible 1 quad/second. If you can do this, try two: 1111 - 1111 until 4 quads. If you feel tired, do the same with left hand. Do this with each finger. Play softly. Next day, you`ll see that during sleeping your brain learns this movements and you`ll play better. This is the beggining. Meanwhile, you may download  free the "Fundamentals of piano practice" by Chuan Chang - www.pianopractice.org/. Read it. I think it`s the best for you.

[genuinely_genuine]

Thank you all for the replies! I really appreciate it. If you don't mind me asking I have one more question.

I'm beginning exercises that introduce chords. Now my fingers / hands aren't used to the positions and I've been twisting my wrist to get the notes. Now for good practice should I be stretching my fingers so I'm playing the narrow white keys in the black note area (if needed)? If not I've been trying to play specificly in the white note area, hence my wrist pains. This was never mentioned in any of the books I bought and/or internet websites. =(

thank you again for your time.

[tunneller]

Watch out for wrist pains, or any other pain. When first (re)started at a late age, my chosen piece needed me to alternate fast 1-2 and then 4-5 trills with hands spread out in an octave. I started to get aching tendons near elbow. I though (duh ) that this was a good thing as it showed I was excercising my whole arm, but in fact, of course, all I was doing was creating tendonitis. Had to stay off piano for months.

A good tip I picked up here somewhere was that, by and large, you should try to make sure the desired fingers are going up and down with in line with your wrist in a more or less a straight line to your elbow. If you are rotating your wrist significantly out of that position then you can cause damage. Instead, use your elbow to move the wrist into the position it needs to be so that the fingers can go straight up and down.  So for my case, that meant have my hand in a relaxed position for the 1-2 trills with thumb/finger right above the two notes, then zoom (rotating elbow and wrist) up the other end of the octave so that now my 4-5 fingers were above their notes, with my hand again completely relaxed. Basically, the fingers do the "small" motion, the wrists, elbows, shoulders, etc, do the "large" motion.

Hope this makes some sense. Regards, John

[lostinidlewonder]

Since you are asking technical questions posting a video of yourself practicing, or even pictures of your posture before during and after you do whatever will give us good information to correct your inefficiencies.

Notice the Chopin natural hand form:

RH: E(1) F#(2) G#(3) A#(4)  B(5)
LH: F(5) F#(4) G#(3) A#(2) C(1)

Fingers should be slightly flattened and the black notes should feel like springs for your hand. This form is what your hand strives for.