Ed, Well put, although I'm pretty sure you'll get spanked for saying it. <G> It's been my standard procedure to play about 6 or 8 notes (pp up to ff) in various places on the keyboard, and to listen for a timbre change. It cannot "break up" until the very top, and even then not disagreeably. (loaded word there!) The timbre/volume changes should be gradual. It mustn't come up to soon, but it must come up. I think Ron will disagree, seeing any "breaking up" as distortion, and therefore a flaw. But this is how I was taught. Pianists have actually articulated this to me nearly as you put it. As Fred said in other posts, this is what he likes in a piano. This is what Eric Schandall and other S&S guys teach, in my understanding. When it doesn't change, isn't this called monochromatic? IMO this is mainly what I see as the conflict in the last few weeks over several renamed threads. It all comes back to this anyway. Waiting with wrists extending out, Jim Greetings, I would submit that color is the quality given to musical expression that makes use of the piano's ability to alter the tone with volume. Since we are more sensitive to higher frequencies, being able to bring out a melodic line with a slight change in volume accompanied by a slight increase in brilliance makes us more aware of the contrast between harmony and melody. An overly bright piano makes that quality difficult to produce, since there is little tonal contrast between mf and FF. Regards, Ed Foote RPT http://www.piano-tuners.org/edfoote/index.htmll >
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