Key Leads and Inertia

[David M. Porritt]

John:

When a concert pianist selects a piano to use in our recital hall I
feel that the highest compliment I can get is if they comment that
the action feels "even".  Of course this means more than just the
touch weight.  They're referring to voicing also.  What they want is
to get the same level of sound from each key for the same amount of
effort.  I think they subconsciously compensate for where they play
the key, after all they finger each piece exactly the same each time
they play it.  If the fingering requires them to play a note close to
the fallboard, their brain helps them compensate.  They still want
even touch weight, and even voicing.  OK, we might get a little anal
about making the touch weight exactly the same, but since "everything
progresses from order to disorder" it's good to set up an action as
well as we can when regulating, since that evenness will deteriorate
over time.

dave

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 6/7/2003 at 4:01 PM John Hartman wrote:

>Stephen Birkett wrote:
>
>>
>> One factor that does have a serious impact on all of this is the
mass of 
>> the dampers, all the more so because it is relatively far away
from the 
>> fulcrum. These do seem to be treated in rather cavalier fashion in

>> discussions of key balancing [it never seems to be made explicitly
clear 
>> whether the dampers are on or off when doing measurements, like a
balck 
>> sheep relative in jail who never gets mentioned in polite
company]. The 
>> *inertial* effects of dampers being lifted vs pedal up are
certainly 
>> quite significant. Again you can feel this in playing. Why do you 
>> suppose most modern pianists habitually keep the pedal down?
Hmmmm.
>
>
>Stephen,
>
>Thanks for bringing this up, it's another reason to be suspicious of
the 
>benefits of precision static calibration. It strikes me as absurd to

>worry about small discrepancies in static balance weight from note
to 
>note with the damper action disconnected. This means that all of the

>effort taken to get the action even is wasted if the pianist plays
with 
>the pedal down. Another thing that is usually disregarded is the
fact 
>that the front arm of the key is a variable target. For convenience
we 
>measure the key input out near the end were we use our weights to 
>measure down and up weights. This is not how the piano is played -
the 
>whole exposed surfaces of the keys are used. What does this do to a 
>carefully calibrated action's balance and leverage?
>
>What we need to do is convince pianist to firmly press the right
pedal 
>and keep it down while playing. In addition they should keep the
tips of 
>there fingers precisely 9 mm from the ends of the keys. This is the
only 
>way that pianist can experience the full benefits of a precision 
>balanced action. Oh, I forgot, they should only play very softly.
>
>John Hartman RPT
>
>John Hartman Pianos
[link redacted at request of site owner - Jul 25, 2015]
>Rebuilding Steinway and Mason & Hamlin
>Grand Pianos Since 1979
>
>Piano Technicians Journal
>Journal Illustrator/Contributing Editor
[link redacted at request of site owner - Jul 25, 2015]
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives

**************** END MESSAGE FROM  John Hartman *********************
_____________________________
David M. Porritt
dporritt@mail.smu.edu
Meadows School of the Arts
Southern Methodist University
Dallas, TX 75275
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