This was brought home to me just this past week, with me as performer. I was playing a piece in our composers symposium where I was asked to do pianissimo glissandi in the bass. Which means that instead of the typical glissando move of fingernail with a good deal of momentum, I was using fingertips at a very low angle to the keys - kind of sliding the whole palm of the hand along, making contact with the key first with the plam, and only after the hand had slid along - fairly slowly - would the key be depressed all the way. Anyhow, bottom line, I was utterly amazed at the resistance I found in several pianos I thought were not so bad, including the performance piano I was to play the piece on in concert (though it was the best of the lot). In some cases there was so much friction that my hand simply wouldn't move along at all, though I could gliss okay with fingernails and more speed. My solution was to remove the keyslip and spray prolube up at the front pins, then wipe the residue from the keys. Worked quite well, but I'll check to see how long lasting. BTW, the worst was with pianos with worn bushings, so probably there was some glue residue contacting pins in some cases. Fred Sturm University of New Mexico Richard Brekne wrote: > > Hi list. > > Newton is always on about the need to polish key pins, and I have a > story to relate that underlines the importance of as slick as possible a > relationship between key pin and bushings. > snip > > So listen to Newton and his "polish the darn Key pins" line. I for one > have learned not to underestimate the value of the least possible > friction (of any kind) between key pins and bushings. > > RicB > > -- > Richard Brekne > RPT, N.P.T.F. > Bergen, Norway > mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no > http://home.broadpark.no/~rbrekne/ricmain.html
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