Sitting properly and correct height

[Daniel_piano]

Can anyone explain me what this instructions mean:
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From Howard_Richman pain-prevention tips:

Sit Far Enough Away.

                  Distance to the piano is crucial to pain-free playing. Most people sit too close to the piano and wrongly establish this as the correct distance. Notice if you keep raising your shoulders when you play. This is usually because you are sitting too close and your own body simply blocks the mobility of the arms. The best guideline here is to see if your elbows can touch one another when your hands are placed on the white notes directly in front of you. If not, move back.

Sit So Your Elbows are Just Below Key Level.

                  Height is also extremely important. Most people sit too high or too low. We really have to be more respectful of our natural body-type. Are you long-legged or long-torsoed? Usually women have long legs and a short torso, and men have the reverse. The problem is that standard piano bench height is for the short-torso person. This means that the person with a long waist will tend to tower over the piano. Why is this bad? It means that the elbows are positioned above the key level when they actually should be positioned slightly below the key level. The reason for this is that the hand, wrist and forearm should all be in a straight line, to allow the least friction on the tendons of the forearms which actually control the fingers. (See Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Prevention Tips.) People who sit too high, too low, or with a “low wrist” or with a “high wrist” usually acquire pain and ultimately tendinitis, or carpal-tunnel syndrome. This is really so unnecessary! The solution is to get an adjustable bench, or sit on a chair, so that the correct height is achieved

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What does he mean when he says: "The best guideline here is to see if your elbows can touch one another when your hands are placed on the white notes directly in front of you. If not, move back." ?

How can my elbows touch one another? It seems impossible to me, my elbows never touch one another no matter what distance I am from the keyboard

Also, he says that the elbow should be below the keys level so that the hand, wrist and forearm are in a straight line position
But it doesn't seem like that to me
If my elbows are below the the forearm is bend compard to the hand

Any thought?

Thank
Daniel

[xvimbi]

What does he mean when he says: "The best guideline here is to see if your elbows can touch one another when your hands are placed on the white notes directly in front of you. If not, move back." ?

How can my elbows touch one another? It seems impossible to me, my elbows never touch one another no matter what distance I am from the keyboard

It means the elbows should be in front of your body, so that they won't bump into the sides of your torso when you move them towards the middle. They need to be able to move around in an unrestricted way.

Also, he says that the elbow should be below the keys level so that the hand, wrist and forearm are in a straight line position
But it doesn't seem like that to me
If my elbows are below the the forearm is bend compard to the hand

I am not sure if he really says that. It should be like this: the elbow should be below|at|above keylevel AND the hand, wrist and forearm should be in a straight line.

In any case, this is of course highly personal (that's why I indicated three choices for the elbow). mechanically, the most efficient structure is a slight arch in the line going from the elbow through the wrist and hand to the fingers. Slight changes in the position of the elbows won't make much of a difference.

Whatever you do, just don't try to imitate Glenn Gould...

[bernhard]

xvimbi beat me to it.

Never mind:


All he means is that your arms should be free to move in front of your body. If your elbows are too much back, your body is on the way of the arm movement. My own guideline is to keep the distance of a fist between your elbow and your body. If you do that, you will see that it is possible to bring both elbows in front of your body so that they touch. If the elbows are back you will not be able to do this since your body will be on the way.

Also you do not want your elbows too much forward (more than a fist’s distance from your body), since this will put a lot of strin on your middle-back muscles (in fact if you sustain such a position for more than 10 – 20 minutes, you will get a sharp pain right in the middle of your shoulder blades).

As for elbows being below the keyboard, I prefer them to be level with the keyboard. My image is this: If you drop water in your forearms, the water would run in the direction of the keyboard. That is I do not recommend a low elbow position where the forearms slant down towards the elbows (water would run away from the keyboard), but just a bit higher than parallel (where water would not run at all).

Now – and this is important – such directions are not to be adhered to while you play (it would be impossible to play in such rigid posture), but rather they represent a “neutral” position to which you must return as often as possible. Move around as the piece requires, but always return to neutral.

Best wishes,
Bernhard.