Pianists – move that booty!

OK, ‘pianists – move that booty’ is, I agree, bit of a click bait title, but I promise I have a serious point behind it.

Traditional expectations

I’m sure amateur pianists of my generation grew up watching the likes of Arthur Rubinstein, almost statuesque, at the piano.  It seemed that he moved very little, if at all, whilst playing even the most demanding repertoire.  This impression, I feel, is further reinforced by the ample, traditional ‘concert attire’.  Equally, there were limited camera angles in general and so we could see much less.

We’re told that there is a specific way to ‘sit’ at the piano.  Bench height, distance from the keyboard, fully supported on both sitting bones – I could go on.

As a result, I think many of us have a tendency to remain fairly still when playing.  Indeed, my very first piano teacher (when I was about 11 years old) congratulated me on how little I moved when playing!

Are these necessarily true?

However, I was watching an old video of Yuja Wang playing Rhapsodie on a Theme of Paganini at the BBC proms.  Naturally, these days there are cameras everywhere.  We now typically have views from above, from behind, from each side or in front. As a result we get to see much more of what the pianist is actually doing.

One thing that struck me was indeed just how much she moves on the bench.  Not only does she lean a surprising amount from left to right, but she will often actually move across the bench for certain passages.

Of course, Yuja Wang whilst being a giant of a pianist, is only actually 1.58m tall.  This makes me a good 20 cm taller than her.  Thus, by the law of averages her arms are probably shorter than mine. However, does this alone explain why she is so mobile whilst playing.

This question prompted me to try consciously leaning from side to side whilst playing.  Specifically, as the right hand moves more towards the lower end of the keyboard to lean to the left and as the left hand moves higher up, to lean to the right.  I noticed an immediate improvement in many passages.  This I suspect was mostly due to the fact my hands no longer needed to twist to try to keep the fingers aligned.  The effect was equally valid for different challenges such as octaves, chords or fast scale passages.

However, I also had a try at leaning as far over as she does and almost fell off the bench completely.  To be able to do this requires a surprising amount of core strength that I clearly don’t have.  However, the more we consciously work on doing something, the better at it we become.  We also, of course, can use our feet to support us.

Just how still are most pianists?

Since watching this, I have started specifically paying attention to this with pianists past and present.  Many (male and female) actually move far more than we might think.  This is especially evident when there is a camera angle which shows them from behind.  Even the past masters such as Horowitz can often be seen moving the left leg – perhaps as a counter balance to a shift in equilibrium!

So, I think I’ll put the ‘perfect piano posture’ on my list of Lies to Pianists.  Sure, there is very likely a good starting point.  However, we should not be afraid of using our entire body to bring our shoulders, arm, hand and fingers into the best alignment we can for the passage we’re playing.

Experiment with this for yourself – you might be surprised!