Unbalanced Sitting - How Interesting...

Has anyone ever wondered whether sitting with one foot in front of the other makes us permanently favour the left buttock? And is this a bad thing..? The other day I noticed that my piano stool's stuffing had shifted partially from the left side to the right. I thought I should try and re-level it to make it even. Then I thought - What moved it in the first place? I sat down and took up usual piano stance - with right foot slightly in front by the pedal. I noticed doing this pushed my weight further to the left, and even swayed my spine over to the left - just a little, but could this be an issue over a lifetime of piano playing? Another thought I had from this - does lifting the right foot for the pedal exagerate this asymmetry even more? Think of driving - the left foot rests on a raised surface. And drummers - both feet rest on pedals, same tilt. So the asmmetry is minimized. Very curious to know Alan's thoughts on this as I am sure you can give some insight... Final bonus question(!): I learnt recently in a video on running that good running posture can be achieved by raising the hands above the head, which tilts/brings your hips forward. I have tried this at the piano with some initial success. It reminded me of the paradigm Good orientation vs Good strength. But I wondered - surely sitting is different to running - can the same fundamental posture really work for both? cheers tom

Very astute observations! I think yes, a certain amount of asymmetry is inevitable. The idea is not to fight against that but to be as moveable and adaptible as possible within the asymmetry. And there are more parallels between running and piano playing than you think! Watch the video on running by Dr. Mark Cuccazella for instance. AFF

Has anyone ever wondered whether sitting with one foot in front of the other makes us permanently favour the left buttock? And is this a bad thing..? The other day I noticed that my piano stool's stuffing had shifted partially from the left side to the right. I thought I should try and re-level it to make it even. Then I thought - What moved it in the first place? I sat down and took up usual piano stance - with right foot slightly in front by the pedal. I noticed doing this pushed my weight further to the left, and even swayed my spine over to the left - just a little, but could this be an issue over a lifetime of piano playing? Another thought I had from this - does lifting the right foot for the pedal exagerate this asymmetry even more? Think of driving - the left foot rests on a raised surface. And drummers - both feet rest on pedals, same tilt. So the asmmetry is minimized. Very curious to know Alan's thoughts on this as I am sure you can give some insight... Final bonus question(!): I learnt recently in a video on running that good running posture can be achieved by raising the hands above the head, which tilts/brings your hips forward. I have tried this at the piano with some initial success. It reminded me of the paradigm Good orientation vs Good strength. But I wondered - surely sitting is different to running - can the same fundamental posture really work for both? cheers tom Maybe that has something to do with pedals. I really do hope we dont subconsciously favour one buttock