Tonal control from the keyboard

[BobDavis88@aol.com]

In a message dated 97-04-13 02:26:49 EDT, Jim Coleman writes:

> The only thing so far
>  which they have come up with is that the keyboard thump sound does affect
>  our perceived values of tone quality.

from Richard Moody:
>The only thing a piano keyboard can do in regard to tonal quality (or
>control) is vary the velocity of the hammer.
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Another factor I have seen mentioned is oscillation of the shank and hammer
head. Take for example two blows, each causing the same sound pressure level
but one of which is a staccato style, which has most of its force at the
beginning, and one a more "pushing" blow. Although the hammers reach the same
final speed, some would say that a different set of oscillations are set up
in the shank/head, which could continue beyond letoff. In the fore/aft mode,
this would change the strike point (although I doubt enough to change the
tone). It also may set up larger oscillations in the side-to-side mode, which
could cause the string to contact a slightly different place on the head,
i.e., on the edge of the groove, which would most definitely change the tone.

I'm not necessarily trying to sell either of these arguments, just trying to
keep the discussion going. At my piano club, I listened to several of us
amateurs play, and I thought "I wish I had voiced this piano. It sounds
edgy". Then a really fine pianist sat down, and suddenly the piano didn't
need voicing anymore. It didn't seem to be the linking between the notes but
the tonal character of the individual notes which changed like night and day.
I'm just saying that a "scientific" argument which may seem self-evident on
its face is valid only if we are sure ALL the variables have been included.

Bob Davis