PpiF Books One and Two
Pointers section (piano stool)
The Pointers section is a gentle reminder to students on the many aspects of playing the piano properly. It reminds one to observe a good sitting posture, hand posture, articulation, dynamics, rests to name some. In this post I am sharing with PpiF teachers a few pointers which we might tend to put little attention to as we jump eagerly into teaching at each lesson.
We teach the students to play. We have to remember that there are many areas we have to be aware besides teaching fingers to play! The physical growth of the student, the make of the piano (eg height of keyboard/stool), distance of stool from piano and position of the stool, key size, etc, etc.
Let's discuss about the stool and the keyboard. Is the stool too high or too low for the student? Sometimes you have raised the piano with castors and castor cups. With the adjustable stool (for height) this is made easier for adjustment to match the raised piano. For unadjustable stool, you might want to suggest some form to raise the seat (use of a cushion) or buy a new piano stool in order that that you can match the difference in the raised height. A helpful observation - watch the student's arms - are they 'hanging' from the keyboard when playing?
Ideally, the feet should rest comfortably on the ground.
We need to consider whether a feet support in the form of a mini stool is necessary. Some teachers provide a mini stool to support the student's feet if the legs and feet are dangling in mid-air. Good observation by these teachers! To these teachers, please make sure that the the knees are not higher than the thighs when the feet are on the supporting foot stool. This can be uncomfortable as it is not a normal position. Next question that I would like to bring forward for food of thoughts - when to withdraw the use of the stool? I have seen students 'outgrown' the use of the stool and the teacher has yet to advise them to stop using the mini stool. We have to monitor very closely. Every child is different. We cannot fix a timeframe for 'using' the piano foot stool. We have always to be observant and to keep each child's interest in mind. They all have different growth spurts.
I wish you good observation on your students and advise them accordingly. Voila!
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