PIANO PROPRIOCEPTION

roprioception is our ‘sixth sense’; how the body moves itself using proprioceptors located in our joints, muscles and tendons. Sometimes interchanged with kinaesthesia, proprioception explains how we coordinate simple as well as complex physical motor movements and store these away to be used when, say, riding a bicycle, striking a tennis ball… or playing the piano. For pianists, some of these movements can become ingrained consciously through mindful repetition, while others are subconscious, reflex-based or linked with left/right-handedness. Every task we encounter taps into our proprioceptive skills, starting with the simplest up/down movements of one finger. Importantly, these movements live a kind of virtual existence as well as a practical one, helping us quickly to gauge intervals between