Is a tilted seat right for you?

You are an individual and what is right for you is what is comfortable, encourages a natural posture and allows free movement. From our experience we have found that players who like to perch on the front edge of a chair like the tilted top of the Harmony seat. Those who prefer to sit more deeply on a chair and carry their weight through their bodies, for example when operating pedals on a piano or a pedal harp, a commissioned bench is the seat for you.

Over the past 50 years much research has been done to find the optimum seated position for many activities within the work environments. In a recent research paper “The Seated Musician; Furniture Design and its Effect on Performance and Health”, author David Brothers from the College of Architecture and Design at the New Jersey Institute of Technology specifically examines the ergonomics for musicians in research that supports the tilted Harmony seat design that we have developed. In essence paper concludes that optimum posture is achieved by resting the feet flat on the floor and sitting upright to allow normal concave curvature of the back, or lumbar lordosis.

It is important that whichever seat you prefer to use you feel well supported and able to move freely on it. To quote David Brothers “It is universally agreed that a good understanding of playing posture is directly linked to exceptional instrument control and mastery. What is less understood is the influence of chair design on the ability to achieve these goals” We put good design first.