Does anyone know the recommended distance between the seat of the piano stool and the underside of the keyboard.....excluding fat legs allowance of course!!! Not that I have fat legs! I think that if this is not correct it can lead to back ache and neck ache. I think my duet stool is too high and as it is a lovely one I do not want to saw off a bit of the legs unless it is really necessary. I just FEEL it is too high but my daughter (who also plays, at Grade 7 level) is smaller in height than I am and may need it left as it is?????

Caroline

I'm not sure that there is a recommended distance. Would it not depend on the length of your torso?

Agree here - to my knowledge it depends on the individual.

But correct me if I'm wrong.

Your knees should be literally just under the edge of the keyboard. (As a general rule.) And you should really ideally be sitting on the front half of the stool with your feet flat on the floor slightly (or slightly more than slightly!! ) in front of your knees....... if that helps at all....


Oops - sorry - read your question wrong........ Generally you should be sitting at a height where your arms are parallel to the floor........so no, there is no fixed x cm distance as such......it depends on the person......

My piano has no castors, and hardly any feet, so the keyboard is quite low. I can only just get my knees under the underside of the keyboard, so I am really sitting higher than most pianists (My tool is not adjustable), I like it that way. When I visit my daughters, her new Kemble has castors, and I always feel I am too low, and have to crank the stool up.

(oops left the misprint in for amusement value, shoud be stool not tool!)

thanks f#minor - brightened my monday morning!

Many thanks everyone for your advice.

I discover that my arms are NOT parallel with the floor and so will now practise with a chair at the piano instead. Perhaps this is why I feel so different at my teacher's piano. Things can only improve. The duet stool was not bought with the piano. I bought it at an antique fair for obvious reasons...

Gone to try it now...

Yes!!! There is a great difference!!!! Much better. Now I have no excuse to mess up my pieces.