Improve your playing with a Coordinated Technique

Establishing natural movement is fundamental to the very core of piano playing. Whether a keen amateur, a conservatory student, teacher or professional pianist, the goals of piano playing are the same: to play as effortlessly as possible so that musical expression is unhampered by physical limitations.


So much has been written about piano technique and yet students still struggle with the physical aspects of playing. Hours of  traditional finger exercises often bring little improvement, and many still report stiffness and tension, as well as a lack of variety in colour and tone. 

Learn, Play, and Teach with Ease

The lessons take you step-by-step through the fundamentals that make great piano playing feel natural — no unnecessary tension or frustration at the keyboard

  • Develop a balanced posture at the piano

  • Understand and apply arm weight for natural tone production

  • Build joint support for stability and control

  • Learn how to create beautiful legato and expressive phrasing

  • Use gestures to effortlessly increase speed and shape musical lines naturally

  • Master the mechanics of scales and arpeggios with ease

  • Explore all things rotation

  • Identify and release unnecessary tension

  • Teach these principles confidently to students

About Rae

Dr. Rae de Lisle

Founder of Fit 4 Piano

Dr Rae de Lisle, MNZM is one of New Zealand’s foremost piano pedagogues. Formerly Head of Piano at the University of Auckland, she has produced many outstanding students, most notably John Chen, first prizewinner of the 2004 Sydney International Piano Competition. Since then her students have won all the major piano competitions in New Zealand and have also been prizewinners internationally in the Lev Vlassenko Australasian Piano Competition, the Bradshaw and Buono Competition in New York, and the Perrenoud Foundation International Piano Competition. She received an Excellence in Teaching Award from the University in 2011 and, in the same year, the Marie Vandewart Award for outstanding service and commitment to fostering the love of chamber music in New Zealand.

Rae’s groundbreaking PhD research into focal dystonia, the most devastating of musician’s injuries, has resulted in specific concepts about instrumental retraining which have led to presentations and keynote speeches throughout the world. For many years Rae has been researching methods of piano technique, interviewing more than 40 international pianists and pedagogues. Her experience in teaching students from the very beginning to international competition winners, as well as her own studies with renowned pedagogues Brigitte Wild (student of Claudio Arrau), Cyril Smith (student of Rachmaninoff) and Maria Curcio (student of Artur Schnabel) gives her a unique perspective on the development of injury-preventative piano technique at every level, from the beginner to the advanced pianist.

Exploring Piano Technique - our flagship course

A comprehensive, research-based guide to developing healthy, musical, and effortless piano playing.

Over 9 hours of engaging, bite-sized video lessons, Associate Professor Rae de Lisle takes you through every aspect of functional movement at the piano, from posture and arm weight to scales, arpeggios, gestures to octaves, rotation and release and so much more. You’ll learn how to replace tension with freedom, understand the biomechanics behind great playing, and apply practical strategies to your own practice and teaching. Whether you’re a teacher wanting to inspire your students or a pianist looking to transform your own technique, this course provides the tools to play — and teach — with confidence, ease, and artistry.
Read more about Exploring Piano Technique Full Course

Fit 4 Piano Focus Sessions

World-Class Piano Masterclass, Only $9 a Lesson

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Reviews and Testimonials

Join hundreds of pianists, teachers, and students who have transformed their technique through Rae’s innovative approach.

“Dr. Rae de Lisle is to be congratulated and praised for such a comprehensive course on piano playing technique. Twenty chapters, lasting nine hours, of sheer love to every detail of piano playing that is explained and demonstrated by Dr. Rae de Lisle in a very pleasant environment. Workouts are demonstrated by the lovely assistant Melody. All produced in top professional manner by film maker Bill McCarthy. I have to admit, there are so many similarities to the ideas about technique and fingering that I use in my playing, teach, and write about in my own books. This is all invaluable stuff without which you can’t play the piano well. But some things are just too precious. I simply love “sing the ornaments”, “everything should sing”, and “Large intervals need more time (like in singing)”. So, this course doesn’t only teach you technique, but also how to make beautiful music. Highly recommended!”

Rami Bar-Niv, Israeli pianist, composer and author

“This course is an incredibly rich resource for both teachers and pianists, comprehensively guiding them through key concepts that are necessary in developing a piano technique which allows them to express themselves fully at the instrument with ease, grounded in an approach that lays the foundation for a lifetime of healthy piano playing. Rae’s research draws on decades of experience, resulting in a distilled wisdom that all can benefit from in this course. I employ these concepts and strategies in my own playing and in my teaching practice, and consistently see joyful results across all levels. The video explanations and demonstrations are professionally shot, with camera angles that let you see the techniques applied at the piano, and you feel as if you are receiving a personal masterclass from Rae every step of the way, supplemented with downloadable PDFs and summaries. This course provides the opportunity to learn from one of the finest piano teachers, and I highly recommend it to all.”

John-Paul Muir, Classical & Jazz Pianist, UK

“Whether you are teaching first-stage beginners, intermediate, advanced or concert-level pianists, whether you are a piano teacher wanting to keep up your playing or a concert pianist looking to keep yourself in finest form, in my experience the exercises in this course work for everyone. I have been trialling Fit 4 Piano at all levels of teaching, as well as using the exercises every day for my own warm up, and have found them indispensable.”

Katherine Austin, concert pianist and chamber musician

“What a fabulous resource this course is for pianists wishing to develop a healthy, reliable and effortless technique. The course unfolds over 20 chapters, each comprising a series of bite-sized videos, accompanied by on-screen written summaries, and supported by a comprehensive downloadable PDF containing fully-notated examples of Rae’s short, pithy exercises. The videos themselves are beautifully shot, with various camera angles providing close footage of Rae’s demonstrations. Her commentary throughout is clear and warmly engaging. Of particular benefit are the Workouts with Melody which conclude each chapter. These are incredibly valuable and could be used by students as part of their daily practice routine. This comprehensive and well-organised course provides a means by which anyone interested in gaining a deeper understanding of piano technique can benefit from the insights and experience of one of the NZ’s most highly regarded and successful piano teachers. Highly recommended.”

Dr. Dianne James, Principal Teacher, Sherwood Piano Studio

“This is a wonderful new resource for pianists and piano teachers around the world. As a holistic guide to piano teaching at all levels it can’t be bettered – this will become a hugely influential course, with practical solutions and applications for every stage of teaching.”

Stephen De Pledge, NZ concert pianist & senior lecturer at UoA

“Thank you Rae for producing such a wonderful course. The fact that it was online enabled me to go back to view different topics once I had completed the course. Also I could proceed at my own rate and convenience. My approach to teaching followed many of your principles but to have it laid out like the way you had and explain reasons why a technique or process is used was invaluable. As I was going through the course I applied some of the technique that was demonstrated, and the students involved noticed an improvement almost immediately. I myself suffered badly from Tennis Elbow as a teenager due to probably practising incorrectly playing octaves. I have used the Workout exercises shown and wished my teacher at the time had that knowledge of approach. I just don’t have enough words to express how invaluable the course is. Thank you to all who made it possible. Eileen”

Eileen Moy