Hey, whaddaya doin', hijacking your own thread?

But since you asked.....

I don't sit anywhere near there. The exact position depends on the piece, as you said, but very little. My default position is at the F above middle C. Sometimes it's half a key to the left of there.

And that's about it.

OK, who else.....(I've never wondered about this before, or asked, and I have no idea what other people do)

I sit in between the E and the F above middle C, since that is exactly the middle of the piano. My previous teacher taught me to sit there at our first lesson together and I've been sitting there ever since.

Wow,
my keyboard measures 48.25" and 24.125" is, as you say, between the E and F!

I'm a middle C man. Nobody ever talks about middle F or middle E and a half...

Yes, but on a modern piano "middle C" is not in the middle, exactly, is it?

Well, it is the middle(most) Cl; hence "Middle C" as opposed to "Highest C" or "Lowest C".
I don't recall anyone referring to it as "the point intersecting the exact middle of the piano ambitus at C."

Yes, this.

Let's also not forget that until around the turn of the 20th century, it was more common for the piano to only reach a high A, rather than a high C - and in earlier periods, the range was more limited still. Modern portable keyboards come in 61, 73, 76 and 88 key variants, so it makes sense to use a certain key as a reference point rather than an arbitrary midpoint.

All this talk of the geometrical midpoint is rather irrelevant. A pianist will position oneself wherever it feels most central to the notes one normally plays. I think for most of the classical piano repertoire, middle C is pretty central. Most students begin with middle C and learn notes to either side of that - hence the tendency to see middle C as the central note. It's hardly a critical important point though. Sit where you please.

Finally, why the heck are we talking about this anyway?

I sit with middle C right in front of me. It was instinctive, not instructed, but never "corrected"

As for height issues, I have one friend who is 6'8" and his wife is 5'2". I have quite a few friends who are over 6' and they all seem to have short wives.

I prefer to sit on the bench. It's easier to play that way.

I'm at D. I don't really know why. Maybe there's a subconscious connection to the fact that the contrary motion arrangement of blacks and whites is symmetrical from D, and so it functions as a kind of axis.

[...] I'll find myself drifting more towards B or C.

I centre on C. Always have. No-one ever told me to, or not to.

Of course I move up if I'm playing duets...

That's obviously what influenced Delius, too, n'est-ce pas?

I prefer to sit on the bench. It's easier to play that way.


Seriously, e-f above middle c

Deepest apologies for being naive, but what do you mean?

Yes, grammar fail, haha. I realized right after I posted but only mods can edit titles.

Yes, grammar fail, haha. I realized right after I posted but only mods can edit titles.