Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum height of piano bench

How high should one be? Mine is 21" high and I think I would benefit if it were higher.
Thanks.
EBB

You talking about your bench or your piano/keyboard?
Either way it should be ergonomic.

Proper height of the bench depends on the height of the player and the height of the keyboard.
I think the player's forearms should be about parallel to the floor.

The bench should be where when seated your elbows are level or just slightly higher than your wrists.

Thank you very much. I saw a concert pianist somewhere on this site say that your forearms should be inclined slightly to the keyboard. Since I am a newbie I don't know where that was but it generated my question above about this. I am six feet tall and with my bench at a Yamaha Clavinova keyboard my forearms are not so inclined.....the reverse. So it seems I need a taller bench; an I can't imagine my 21 inch bench sufficing for someone smaller than I am.

I looked for benches on Amazon and found that most are between 21 and 24 inches high. That would not be high enough for me if the concert pianist as above was understood by me.

In any case.....I am a lousy pianist so it probably doesn't matter anyhow. :-)

EBB
That stands for Ex Bonanza Bucko which was our personal airplane for the last 30 years but which is gone now because of my failure to qualify physically to fly that kind of high performance bird. Thus the Clavinova in the hangar is my new "traveling machine." :-)

I have an adjustable bench that was too low at one setting, but raising it up a notch added 2 inches, which was too much. So I bought a 3/4" board and a small area rug to go over it, and put my bench on top. Might not be the prettiest setup ever, but at least it's at the right height now.

If you can't lower your keyboard stand--get a taller bench! My keyboard stand is on its lowest setting and it is definitely higher than my piano's keys. A traditional piano bench wouldn't work with my keyboard. I found a "Jamstands" bench by "Ultimate Support" that was tall enough.

I found a problem with not getting a comfortable sitting height also. I am 6 foot 4 and while I could lower the seat to get my forearms nearly parallel to the keyboard, I couldn't do anything about the height from the bottom of my feet to my knees. This resulted in not being able to get my knees under the piano for comfortable seating and/or pedalling. I raised my piano (digital with connected stand) up a couple of inches and then I was able to raise the seat to a more comfortable height AND get my knees comfortably under. My two pence worth anyway

You can also use a firm cushion to raise yourself to the right height. My husband and I need different heights; we have a 2-inch cushion for me and 4-inch for him. Closed-cell foam is good because it keeps its shape. Someday maybe we'll invest in an adjustable bench.

Just curious -- is it undisputed among piano teachers that the forearms should (slightly) incline down towards the keys?

I could swear I've read that some advocate the opposite -- that forearms should incline up slightly.

Of course, given the internet, one can probably find support for a lot of ideas that are wrong.

But is this proposition universally accepted (or nearly so)?

By the way, you didn't say how high was your keyboard. The surface of the white keys should be between 28.5-inch to 29-inch from the floor, no more, no less.

It is the standard, but lots of famous concert pianists do not follow standards.

As an alternative to an adjustable piano bench:

. . . I removed the arms and back from an adjustable-height
. . . ("gas-piston") office chair.

It's well-padded, and does the job nicely. And (because I owned it already) it was cheaper than a drum throne.

I think "forearms parallel to the floor" is a good rule-of-thumb. It doesn't set the keyboard height, or the bench height -- it sets the relationship between them.

I'm sure that some excellent pianists do something else. There was a story in this forum, in which somebody was holding his wrists in a peculiar way, and defended himself by saying:

. . . "But Horowitz plays like this!"

to which his teacher responded:

. . . "You're not Horowitz."

. Charles

PS -- I never thought of listing:

. . . "You can raise or lower the keys"

as an advantage of digital pianos. It's quite difficult to do that with an acoustic instrument.

Forearms level is the lowest your bench should be. Reaching up is very hard on wrists and tendons.

Try sitting both too low and too high. Find the places where it's equally bad, and then split the difference.

Another thing to try is raising the back of the bench about 3/4". It helps the lower back by keeping you from rounding your spine outward.

Also pay attention to how your foot feels on the pedals. I keep a block of wood under my heel to get it into a comfortable range.

I have the same problem even though I have a Jansen at the highest point. I do what jdw suggested, just sit on pillows for the right ht.

It's the ratio of your torso length compared to your upper arm length that's important.

In my case I have long arms and a relatively short torso for my height so I need the bench to be higher than it should be for most people who are shorter than I am. My elbows hit my hip bones.

EBB - This might be the issue with you too, as you and I are the same height.

Someone with a long torso and short arms is going to need a lower bench somewhat regardless of their height.

Forked tail or conventional?

The important thing is comfort and ease. The fly in this ointment is that we may think that we are comfortable and playing with ease until we experience something better. Whatever is normal to us is, erm, normal (as I'm still discovering). I'd say, take the general principal of "forearms parallel to the floor - maybe a bit higher or lower since there are arguments" and then experiment for both height and distance until you find what feels best.

I haven't found this bit easy at all, because if you do anything weird in your posture, then the height you think you have - isn't. I think that's why it's important to get at the right height from the beginning, before you have adopted some strange posture.

My elbows hit my hip bones. . . ."I wanna be like you. . .".

Sorry, not hip bone, the lumpy bone where your belt goes - pelvis, I think they call it.