Feeling the Hammers

[Stéphane Collin]

Hi Richard.

Interesting subject.

Definetly, I have the feeling that when you alter the voicing of a hammer in a grand, you alter the touch feel at the bottom of the key.  I presume it is the quality of stroke, at the moment of the impact of the hammer with the string, that is transmitted not only to that string, but also to the whole body of the piano, and that is what you feel in the key, as it is in contact with the keybed.  (Hope I am not boring, as this is obvious).

What I find way interesting is to notice the analogy between an agreable sound (produced by a well voiced hammer, and/or a well (let's say that, I am sure it is true) voiced hammer shank) and the agreable touch that goes with it.  Oppositely, disagreable touch (was it too hard or too mellow, or unfocused) comes presumably from a bad sounding hammer (too hard, too mellow, or unfocused).  Harmony seems to involve acoustical vibrations and touch vibrations.  I'd like to say more and include optical vibrations, or thaughts vibrations.  (Fire jacket zipped).  I noticed that when you deal with such subtle vibrations, the moment of the day (morning, evening, after dinner or before) or the light in the room (sunny, grey) and the meteo (cold and humid or hot with or without breeze) all work together in a, say, symphony, where you should (who else) master every single little part to achieve the perfect delight.  And one thing is clear, delight only occurs when every aspect vibrates in harmony with all the others.  Of course, the more subtle your feelings, the more vibrations you feel, the more difficult to have them all vibrate in harmony.  (Hope I am not boring again).

Regards,

Stéphane Collin
(Brussels, Belgium)
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Richard Brekne" <richard.brekne@grieg.uib.no>
To: "PTG" <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Tuesday, June 25, 2002 11:29 PM
Subject: Feeling the Hammers


| List
| 
| Some while ago I had a discussion with one of the piano majors here at the
| conservatory about voicing and touch. It was his stance that the voicing of the
| instrument was not just something you could hear, but you could feel. I was in
| the process of voicing a new set of hammers and I remember being quite suprised
| at how much you actually could "feel" the change in hammer hardness.  I
| personally have begun to rely somewhat on this feel as part of my voicing
| technique.  However since that encounter with the pianist I have run into
| several technicians who do not believe that hammer hardness can be sensed
| directly by the fingers at the key.  
| 
| I would be very curious to hear from as many of you as possible what your views
| on this.
| 
| RicB
| 
| 
| Richard Brekne
| RPT NPTF
| Griegakadamiet UiB
| 
|