Feeling the Hammers when playing

antares antares@EURONET.NL
Sun, 30 Jun 2002 17:39:25 +0200


Hi Avery,

I learned this in Berlin (Bechstein)..
The instructor there (a Japanese guy) suddenly asked me this "when you
strike this key, what do you feel" (instead of what do you hear!).
I felt a strong tingling sensation under my finger and at the same time I
noticed that that particular note sounded very good and strong.
He then asked me to "try other keys" and I found out that they were not all
the same in intensity. Some were weaker, some stronger and a few had no
tingling at all. 
Very interesting aye?
He then instructed me to "make all tinglings the same" and afterwards I
noticed that almost all keys now had that funny vibrating sensation and that
most keys were very strong sounding.
The next procedure was to even out the volume.

Result?

Madonna Madonna!
Un Miracolo!


friendly greetings
from

Antares,

Amsterdam, Holland

"where music is, no harm can be"

visit my website at :  http://www.concertpianoservice.nl/


> From: Avery Todd <avery@ev1.net>
> Reply-To: pianotech@ptg.org
> Date: Sun, 30 Jun 2002 10:17:33 -0500
> To: pianotech@ptg.org
> Subject: Re: Feeling the Hammers when playing
> 
> Hi Andre,
> 
> Could you possibly expound on this a little? Thanks.
> 
> Avery
> 
> At 02:44 PM 06/30/02 +0200, you wrote:
>> When voicing a piano we must always feel vibrations in the key.
>> No vibes, tone nor strong enough. By feeling the differences between the
>> keys we have a second sense to aid us in voicing.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> friendly greetings
>> from
>> 
>> Antares,
>> 
>> Amsterdam, Holland
>> 
>> "where music is, no harm can be"
>> 
>> visit my website at :  http://www.concertpianoservice.nl/
>> 
>> 
>>> From: "Richard Brekne" <richard.brekne@grieg.uib.no>
>>> Reply-To: pianotech@ptg.org
>>> Date: Sun, 30 Jun 2002 14:36:06 +0200
>>> To: "PTG" <pianotech@ptg.org>
>>> Subject: Re: Feeling the Hammers when playing
>>> 
>>> Hi Patrick
>>> 
>>> Say if you could remember the name of the instructor I would be very
>> glad to
>>> know who it was.
>>> 
>>> I have no doubt that what we hear affects what we feel (or think we
>> feel) in a
>>> very big way... but I also wonder about whether or not we really do
>> physically
>>> feel the hardness of the hammers, and if so how and how is that explained.
>>> Lots
>>> of ideas presented but mostly in the form of beponderments.
>>> 
>>> Bill Ballard said something about how difficult it would be to find out
>>> anything definant... perhaps this is true but on the other hand it
>> would seem
>>> easy enough to ascertain whether or not pianists (or anyone else for that
>>> matter) can indeed sense hammer hardness at the key or not.
>>> 
>>> Would seem an interesting and kind of an important point to clear up really
>>> when it comes down to it.
>>> 
>>> Anyways, if you remember his name let me know
>>> 
>>> Cheers!
>>> 
>>> RicB
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Patrick C Poulson wrote:
>>> 
>>>> Hello All: I remember a discussion in a convention voicing class about the
>>>> phenomenon of "psychoacoustics."  The contention of the teacher, whose
>> name
>>>> escapes me at the moment, is that what we hear influences what we think we
>>>> are feeling as we play the piano.  A very bright piano will be
>> perceived by
>>>> many as being "easier" to play, because it seems louder and therefore
>>>> doesn't require as much effort from the pianist.  Vice versa for a very
>>>> mellow piano, where the pianist may have to play harder to get the
>> piano to
>>>> project.  In both cases the pianist is not actually feeling the hammer
>>>> itself, but is reacting to the kind of tone the piano is producing and is
>>>> automatically and perhaps unconsciously adjusting his or her playing to
>>>> compensate for what the instrument is not giving.
>>>> Patrick Poulson, RPT
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Richard Brekne
>>> RPT NPTF
>>> Griegakadamiet UiB
>>> 
>>> 
> 
> 
> 



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