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What's your 'home' spot on the keyboard where you center yourself when you sit down to play?


I started off at C, then soon moved to D, and now I'm quite at home at Eb. If a piece has a long section in the upper treble or lower bass clef, I'll shift a bit, but otherwise I'm back to being centered at Eb.

I would have to go with Ab major.

Between E# and Fflat

Hmm. Either you sit far to the right of middle C or I didn't make my post as clear as it should have been (would not be the first time ). I was trying to get at where people sit as a default position with respect to (for example) middle C on the keyboard.

I don't center myself with that precision. Normally I sit close to the center of the central octave.

Me too!

My pedals are positionable, so I suit them. At the moment, they're positioned at around Eb too. C is of course, not the middle point of the keyboard.

I tend to be somewhere around e...

C###

After all these years playing I will have to look next time I'm sitting down at the piano to see if I actually do have a central spot.

The crack between E and F for solo playing, and for duets, D2 for secondo and D4 for primo.

Middle C is my home position, but I gladly move position depending on the music.

Middle C. Stubbie, does Eb give you better positioning...does it improve your playing in some ways. I'm looking for any steps forward.

Yes you’re correct, I misread it. C-D (slightly R of C).

I thought you were wondering which chord you’ll hit first).

As a child, I was taught middle C as a position, so that is where I habitually align myself. HOWEVER, I have been told by two current teachers whom I respect, that an ‘E orientation’ is better. I’m trying to change, but it is hard to teach an old dog new tricks. the E is supposedly the mathematical center of the keyboard. I don’t feel the difference. .

I never even think about it. but I naturally seem to gravitate towards he position in front of the E. Maybe it is where I can best hit the pedals...

WiseBuff, I think it has to do with what I'd call note density--a lot of music is texturally denser in the range between (roughy) E4 and E6 and sitting slightly to the right of middle C places the right hand in a good position to reach those notes comfortably. Most composers don't write densely in the lower registers (they will usually write octaves or perhaps fifths, but rarely dense chords) due to acoustic roughness.* There are of course many exceptions and when those occur for any length of time, we adjust our position.


*Acoustic roughness results from beats that occur based on the absolute frequency of two notes and our ability to hear (or not hear) those beat frequencies.
This is a great book. Dense reading, but well written. I first read it several years ago, but then read it again recently and I got a lot more out of it the second time around.

Another E4 person here. It is where I ended up and I was wondering why it wasn't middle C.

I hadn't thought about it in relation to where most music is written for but I did check that it is close to the middle of the keyboard.

Interesting thread!
Glad to have it confirmed that my centering on E4 is not only not wrong, but sort of normal

I just counted starting at both ends and the actual middle white key is the F

Actually, on an 88 key piano, there is no white key that is in the middle of the keyboard. The gap between the E and F is the middle (26 white keys below, 26 white keys above, for a total of 52 white keys).