When playing the piano, is it important for us to keep our wrists not moving?

I am assuming you mean that your wrist must remain level with the keyboard, like this:

If so, then the answer is yes. Your teacher is correct.

Your wrist should be level with the keyboard, with your arm in a line with your wrists, no bending at any point between your hand and your elbow:

See how straight her arm is from the fingers to the elbow? That’s what you want.

I can give you a few reasons why you need to keep your wrists level:

• A level wrist will protect you from injury-if you bend too much at the wrist, you’ll risk carpal tunnel syndrome. Show me a pianist with carpal tunnel, and I’ll show you a pianist who never learned to keep the wrists level when playing. I’ve been playing classical music for 40+ years, and have never had an issue with wrist pain.
• A level wrist will keep your hand in the optimal position for performing scales, leaps, arpeggios, and runs efficiently-dipping your wrists will put your hand out of position and limit your ability to span the keyboard. You need to be able to keep your hand open and relaxed to play scales, runs, leaps, and arpeggios freely and with the necessary speed, and a wrist that isn’t level will hinder that. Your hand must be level with the keyboard at all times, and in order to do that, you need your wrists to be in the position you see above.
• A level wrist will also mean that you will be able to use your upper arm and forearm efficiently for octave/chord work or for passages that require volume. With everything straight like you see the woman playing, you can exert as much force as you need to make loud passages loud. Bending the wrist will compromise your ability to do this. Octave work will be impossible without a level wrist.

So yes. If you can train yourself to keep the wrists level, then you will maximize your ability to play difficult music well. At the very least, you will prevent wrist injury, and that’s not a bad thing, even if you don’t aim to be a classical pianist.

I think that there are a few, just a few important things about wrists:

1. Fingers should come down perpendicularly on the keys - if they come down at an angle, you lose control, and not strike keys cleanly. If the wrists stay is basically the same position, the fingers “know where they are”, and you can play with confidence.
2. Wrists in a twisted, unnatural position cause tightness, strain and weariness. I ask my students to let their arm fall to the side, completely relaxed, and say “There! that’s a good position for your wrist, only it will be parallel to the ground instead of hanging down.”
3. In general, the most relaxed, and most consistent positions are best.
4. Notice that as you move up and down the keyboard, your wrist will move a little in relation to the rest of your arm. In a very fast change of octave, you’re not going to jab your elbow out for just a few notes! There, the wrist is still level, but may angle out towards those few notes in a high or low passage. Common sense is the main factor here - if high or low notes force you to an uncomfortable position, either change the position of your entire body, the angle of your arm, or your wrist, or everything - just so it is natural-feeling and comfortable and does not make it difficult to get back to the middle of the piano.

Wrist movement is something I see ignored far too often. Give this video a watch it should cover what you need to know:

Everybody learns best in different ways but personally I was getting nowhere until I tried this course: Pianoforall | Learn Piano & Keyboard | 200 Video Lessons I like having everything laid out so I can see myself progress through it and I know what I need to be working on.

The videos comments:

Perfect explanation. He is a great musician, his ideas are simple and efficient.

great video and huge help especially for us players with no teacher.

These are probably my favourite videos on YouTube. Very much appreciated.

Great teacher and very informative, however my piano teacher (former student of Karl Urlich Schnabel) suggests moving the wrist up to emphasize important notes and letting it down gently on less important notes. At first I was skeptical of this technique, but he explained that raising the wrist logically helps to strike a note louder as gravity is in your favor when the wrist is elevated. This seems to be the exact opposite of the ‘drop-roll’ motion which you describe in the video. Very interesting content regardless.

perfect timing my teacher has complained to me about this :/

Video source: youtube video: pLCy4j1FSa4

Everybody learns best in different ways but personally I was getting nowhere until I tried this course: Pianoforall | Learn Piano & Keyboard | 200 Video Lessons I like having everything laid out so I can see myself progress through it and I know what I need to be working on.

The people who have written so far have done such a great job of answering your question, I really have nothing substantive to add. I wanted to just add that if you watch virtuosic performances by the great pianists - Tatum, Horowitz, Rubenstein, and so on - one of the major observations anyone can make, is how effortlessly their hands move over the keyboard.

I believe this is due to how well everything connects in a physical sense - fingers, hands, etc. Everything works together when proper technique has been learned. Without the right technique, playing often becomes labored and perhaps awkward.

Great pianists have taken the time, and the advice of their teachers, to develop the best technique, including properly using their wrists.

There is good information here about the fundamental position of the hands - keeping the wrists straight and avoiding excessive motion. However, there are times when the wrist is called into play - namely for playing fast octaves and chords.

Here is an article and video on how to approach the use of the wrist for these specific techniques:

How to Play Piano – IT’S ALL IN THE WRIST

The people who have written so far have done such a great job of answering your question, I really have nothing substantive to add. I wanted to just add that if you watch virtuosic performances by the great pianists - Tatum, Horowitz, Rubenstein, and so on - one of the major observations anyone can make, is how effortlessly their hands move over the keyboard.

Everybody learns best in different ways but personally I was getting nowhere until I tried this course: Pianoforall | Learn Piano & Keyboard | 200 Video Lessons I like having everything laid out so I can see myself progress through it and I know what I need to be working on.

The wrist should never twist to the right or left. Those movements are called ulnar and radial deviation. They are bad for two reasons; they put strain on the soft tissues of the wrist and will cause pain and fatigue. The second reason is they hinder speed and accuracy. If you twist and need to straighten out, that not only takes time but throws off the balance of the arm. It is better to use in and out motions to get to the notes you cant reach. Also complimented by forearm rotation and simply moving the arm to place the finger where it wants to go.