The Feel of Voice

[Richard Brekne]

Yes, I have this explaination in my experience as well, and certainly that is a
large part of the answer I would think. But its more then that I believe as
well. I have come to be sensitive to some difference in sensation that results
from a hard hammer vs a soft one as well. In fact the only reason I have heard
that speaks against the likelyhood of such sensation being  directly felt is the
circa 1 ms of time the knuckle is decoupled with the jack. Doesnt seem much in
itself, shock wave down the shank lasts for a considerably longer time, and
besides, the shank is coupled to the whippen and keystick by the drop screw at
hammer impact.

A rather informal experiment I did earlier on this past fall also indicated
pianists could directly feel hammer hardness to some degree.

I gotta think there is more to it then just "expectations".

Cheers
RicB

Ned Swift wrote:

> Richard
>
> I have had to deal with this issue with my wife of all people.  It took me
> awhile to understand what she was saying. Over the years, I have learned
> that what she was referring to was the amnount of effort required to produce
> the sound that she wanted.  She stated that she wanted to play soft passages
> without having to play with micro-fine key touch and loud passages without
> having to break her fingers. In short, what she wanted was a piano that did
> not require extremes when she played.  Proper voicing did that for her.  Was
> she still listening to the piano?  Yes.  But her comments were not on how
> the piano sounded as how easy it was to achieve the desired sound, ie the
> touch.  FWIW.
>
> Ned Swift
> Lowell, MI
> --

Richard Brekne
RPT, N.P.T.F.
UiB, Bergen, Norway
mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no
http://home.broadpark.no/~rbrekne/ricmain.html