Common mistakes made by beginners

Hello and welcome to my first blog of 2022!

Today's blog is about common mistakes made by beginners on the piano. Hope you enjoy it!

If you do please share it!

Hand shape

Playing with a round hand shape is important and most beginners play with "flat fingers." Although at more advanced stages of piano playing "flat fingers" can be used. It is better to use a round hand shape to begin with as it will make a more rich sound.

Arm/elbow shape

For beginners another usual mistake is for them to have their elbows at the same height as the piano. This is incorrect for playing the piano as this is not the natural position for playing the piano. For beginners' arms they should be relaxed and not tense as this can cause injury. Their forearms should also be in a straight line.

The wrists should be at the same height at your hands. A common mistake is to have wrists too high or too low which can cause injury.

Posture

For posture as you can see from the diagram

1 - The feet should be flat on the ground to provide balance

2 - knees should be slightly below the piano as apposed to above or level with the piano. This can be done by moving back from the piano and having flat feet.

3 - The student should sit on the front part of the bench instead of the whole bench so they can move their torso.

4 - Having a straight back - I will get to that in a moment...

6 - Not having any tension in the shoulders will prevent injury

9 - Having a long neck will provide balance and prevent injury

10 - For this part I think of it as being held by a piece of string to get the correct posture so not to cause imbalance.

Back

I disagree with the picture above on the point 4 - Straight back. As you can see from the picture below the natural human shape of the body is an "S" shape. So, this should be kept to prevent back pain.

Tension

Having no tension in the body at all is important to prevent injury. As playing louder doesn't come from tension it comes from how fast you press down the keys.

Pedalling

Most beginners don't know how to pedal properly. They either pedal too much or too little. Also, as you can see from the picture, it is important to not lift your whole foot off the ground. Instead keep your heel on the ground for pedalling. This will prevent the movement of the pedal from making a loud noise.

Counting

For counting, some beginner's find it difficult to both count to 4 and play notes on the piano at the same time. Instead they try to learn how the song goes in their head. If they don't learn to count while playing the piano then this can make playing the piano more difficult in more advanced stages of playing the piano.

Thanks for reading my first blog of 2022. Watch out for more content coming soon!