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I'm designing a musical instrument stand, and so it would be great to know which position everyone favours. Is sitting or standing to play piano/keyboard more comfortable for you?
Thanks!

I could never play while standing. The low keyboard would require an awkward position for the hands and arms.

But if you mean to raise the keyboard to a suitable level ... I might have been willing to try that some time ago. But today my back problems make that untenable.

The convention is to sit at the piano, but I’ve recently been thinking about buying a sit/stand music desk simply to spend some more time standing. It seems that we spend too much time on our collective asses, and experts recommend standing more often; apparently this helps with all sorts of health-related issues.
So, can you design the stand with a hydraulic system so that it accommodates both standing and sitting?
The stand/desk I’m considering is the “Summit Sit-Stand Studio Desk.” It works at the push of a button and ‘favorite-height’ can be saved for automatic recall.

Perhaps not a hydraulic adjustment, but some sort of variable height would be possible, I'm sure.

Just make sure to choose the right height



Time tag does not work with PW. Look at 1:22.

Yep, I'm investigating that too!

It depends what you want to do. If you want really play piano (particularly for classical music), sitting is the only possible position. Fingers position, hand position, arm position, elbow position..... these are things you can not change, and if you do not respect all these, you will always play bad. Instead, if you are a keyboardist, and you like gigging or similar.... ok, you can play standing. But this is not playing piano.

Still remember nights in the 60's, standing behind the mighty Farfisa - right foot on the volume pedal, and all my weight bearing down into the pointed toe of my left Beatle boot. Not pleasant.

Exactly so. Remember, though, that modern music is stripped of most of the qualities of classical.
Not always ... but it seems that the higher the "popular score" the cheaper, poorer the music ... to the point that a monkey could stand on his head and play some of it!

But how would fngers position, hand position, arm position, elbow position be dependent on what is happening below your waist? The piano stool only supports your butt, not your back, shoulders or arms.

Edit: I can see though that pedalling must be difficult while standing up.

I have an adjustable desk, and I have been seriously thinking of using the base or modifying the desk (a second desk) to create a sit/stand keyboard station.

Here's what I have:

https://www.fully.com/standing-desks/jarvis.html

They come in various sizes and trims.

We have those at work, complete with second-party dual-arm monitor stand (quads in some cases).

Are the ones you linked to have a motorized lift? Because $449 for the small size ... with motor ... seems mighty inexpensive.

They appear to be motorized, you can see the controls under the surface on the right hand side. There is a wide price range in motorized standing desks, I paid about $600 for my home office one without a surface. The ones I have seen in business offices have been much more expensive but also much sturdier with almost zero movement when fully raised, mine wobbles a bit. It's great for coding, particularly in the afternoon when lethargy sets in.

I don't see why you couldn't buy one without a surface and adapt it to install a slab dp. I think the only downside is that it is definitely not that portable.

I am certainly In the minority but I prefer to (and only) play my digital pianos / keyboards standing. Of course I play my acoustic sitting....

You could always just buy something like this (home version, business version holds more weight):

https://www.autonomous.ai/standing-desks/diy-smart-desk-kit?option16=37&option17=40

You can sit your keyboard(piano) directly on it if you want to go cheap. If you want an actual slab of wood you can either buy the entire setup from that company, or buy a slab from Ikea or somewhere.

It's odd that these were meant to be desks. They have no drawers. They have no keyboard tray. They'd have nothing you'd expect from a desk other than a flat surface.

They might serve better as keyboard stands than as desks!

I myself have a spinal disc protrusion (a slightly better state of disc herniation) and would sometimes suffer from a sciatica pain in my leg while playing the piano sitting. That’s the reason why I use a kneeling chair at my office when working for long hours at a computer. Some colleagues use standing desks. I might have to try. With that in mind I would like to play a piano standing but the immediate problem is use of pedals which would lead to loss of balance. Let alone using both soft and damper pedals. I’m skeptical.

It's funny that a seemingly similar problem can have opposite effects ...

I recent began have back pain, with pains shooting down my legs. An MRI revealed stenosis and arthritis at L4/L5.

Sitting is completely pain free, but standing and walking is a problem. PT has helped, but my long-term situation is not yet clear.

I approach the idea of standing as an opportunity to change from a fixed sitting to a flexible -standing- position, and in the process alleviate some of the issues associated with sitting for long periods of time.
Ideally, one can perform different repertoire whilst standing; also transcribe, compose, arrange, play along to YouTube videos, and try other alternatives to the conventional pedal-heavy-sit-down repertoire. If standing, one is more likely to stretch, take little walks and back; whereas, sitting is more static and constrained. Keep in mind that we also spend hours on end driving, watching tv, and sitting in cubicles; and not enough time standing and moving. Exercise, anybody? No?