At 19:48 -0500 23/1/09, Dean May wrote: >I learned that adjustment technique on this list a couple of years >ago. To restate: make sure that when the damper pedal is on, the >keys do not contribute towards any lift on the dampers. This is for >a vertical piano only. > >The opposite is true for a grand. On a grand when the damper pedal >is on the keys should lift the dampers slightly off the tray. >Otherwise if the pedal raises and lowers the dampers off the key >when the key is depressed, the pianist will feel it. That means that right at the end of the keystroke you would have the added weight of the damper coming in, which would make sensitive playing very difficult. The pedal should always raise the dampers higher than they can be lifted with the key. The only exception I know of is the Brinsmead, the geometry of which is such that the key always begins to lift the damper at half-blow, so that the touch is always the same, whether or not the damper pedal is depressed -- a very clever arrangement. JD
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