piano competition/Mason&Hamlin vs Steinway

[Delwin D Fandrich]

----- Original Message -----
From: "James Perkins" <jimperkins@mac.com>
To: "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: May 05, 2003 9:14 PM
Subject: Re: piano competition/Mason&Hamlin vs Steinway


>
> But speaking as a pianist with fat fingers, it has always puzzled me
> why the gaps between the sharps vary so much and even on the same
> piano- e.g. the C#-D# gap is nearly always larger than the F#-G# gap
> which is usually larger than the G#-A# one. On some pianos I cannot
> play on the tails of the white keys (between the black keys) which is a
> great problem with some chord shapes.
>
> One would have imagined these spaces to be uniform in the interests of
> pianists' finger accuracy.
> Or is it aesthetics coming into play here?



Not really. It has more to do with the fact that the piano keyboard is not
symmetrical. It is made up of two separate groups of keys: one with three
naturals and two sharps, the other with five naturals and three sharps. Get
a piece of paper and try to lay this out with complete uniformity between
the sharps and you'll see the problem. You either have to fudge on the gaps
or you have to alternate the width of the sharps.

Del