Wave Stool Or Posture Chair

Is it okay to play piano on an office swivel chair? It's a lot more comfortable than my bench.

Have you ever noticed that trees can stand tall and strong because their roots go deep and the branches can wave freely in the wind? Tall buildings are also anchored into the ground and they sway, too. What about pushing something heavy across the floor where you BRACE YOURSELF, get traction and push with you legs and feet? Have you ever pushed a refrigerator? You would push from the center or bottom, never the top because it could topple over. Maybe if you are sitting in a row boat, you keep your center of gravity low so you don’t tip the boat but, stand up and the whole thing becomes unstable.When playing the piano, your arms and hands must be free so that means your body needs to be solidly anchored so the arms are not pressing down for balance or any outside force, like a swivel, can destabilize your grounding. Sitting on a cushion or soft chair or anything other than a solid base will disrupt your playing, balance and center of gravity.You should instinctively know this unless you already have technical issues with your arms. It is your arms that play the piano, not (just) the fingers. If you don’t know this, you wouldn’t know. That is not flippant. We don’t know what we don’t know and if we don’t know something is wrong, we acclimate to it and think it is normal - until something breaks.Find a teacher to teach you to use your arms to place your hand and not use the fingers to drag the arm around. Use your big, strong, indefatigable muscles first before you abuse the flexors (they actually move your fingers - your fingers have no muscle). Your hand has abductor and adductor muscles but you should avoid using them, too. Pianists mostly do both.I beleive Steinway sells piano benches with a slight tilt to them that will help give you proper posture a solid base and make movement much easier.If your glutes don’t have much padding to them, take up jogging and squats or eat a donut. A dozen donuts. Daily.

What practices can I do today to prolong a career in programming in terms of carpal tunnel, or overuse of the wrist. Are there any special keyboards or mouses, positions while using a computer, or any other information I can be directed to?

I have suffered from Carpal Tunnel Syndrome at various points in my career, but have never seen a doctor about it. Here’s what I have done to mitigate and (after some time) heal completely from it:Stretches. Put your fingertips together. Holding that, push your palms together. Holding that, rotate the point where your palms meet, down and away from you, while simultaneously pushing down on that same point. This will hurt. Do it, and hold it.Massage. Massage your wrists. Do this fairly strenuously, while simultaneously flexing the hand attached to the wrist being massaged. Open and stretch out the fingers, then form a fist and squeeze; repeat this the entire time that you are massaging the wrist. Then repeat the process on the other wrist.Mouse. Avoid the mouse. Learn keyboard short-cuts. Use them. The mouse is your enemy.Track ball. This helps some people, and is used instead of a mouse, but still should be used sparingly. (I didn’t find that it helped me much; avoiding the mouse helped far greater.)Keyboard. Advantage2 LF (PC & Mac) - Kinesis — do not skimp on the keyboard.Screen. Important to have a good quality IPS display with enough brightness to avoid eye strain.Chair. Again, do not skimp on the chair.Desk. The keyboard should be in an adjustable tray below desk level, and the monitor(s) should be adjustable for height to reduce neck and eye strain.Force yourself to get up and take a walk (or just pace) now and then. Movement does a body good.Additionally, I use a sit/stand desk, which allows me to stand and work comfortably, but sit and work comfortably if I’m in the mood to do so. A standing pad is helpful to reduce strain on hips and back for a standing desk.