Alexander Technique: Sitting
Alexander Technique is incredibly useful to musicians. It can help us play difficult passages with more ease, and it can even improve pain and injury. In this article and video, we’ll discuss how to sit at the piano while keeping Alexander Technique in mind.
Students usually sit at the piano in a slouched way with rounded shoulders, or with an overly tense neck and back in an effort to “sit up straight”. When we begin a lesson in the Princeton Piano Teacher studio, we usually start by thinking up along the spine. Although there’s no need to “do” anything, our chin might tuck down slightly when we think up along the spine.
After thinking up the spine and allowing the chin to tuck slightly, we can then connect to the sitz bones. It’s easiest to feel the sitz bones when we sit on the front half of the bench, a little more toward the edge. Then draw an imaginary line from the sitz bones out through the knees, and then from the knees down through the heels, and from the heels out through the toes. Then we can notice the arms coming from the back in order to play. We should move the torso as we play, and avoid trying to find and maintain an “ideal position”. Whenever possible, we can reconnect with the idea of thinking up along the spine and noticing the sitz bones on the bench.
If you’re a piano teacher who is interested in learning more about how to incorporate Alexander Technique into your playing and teaching, sign up for our mailing list below. We’ll let you know when new Alexander Technique classes are added to the schedule!