More about inertia

[Steve Brady]

On Fri, 6 Jan 1995, Michael Wathen 556-9565 wrote:
>
> By the way, too little inertia is also a problem for actions.
> The pianist will claim that he has no control especially when
> playing soft.

      I have to agree with Michael on this. I get to see a lot of
Steinways with very low inertia here in the Seattle area, due to keyleads
having been removed. I also get to ask a lot of pianists what they think
of these actions. Some like them very much, and some detest them. The
most common complaints have to do with difficulty controlling soft
playing and with what seems to them to be a lack of dynamic range. Some
pianists also mention that the action *seems* too light and tends to run
away from them.
      People who like the low-inertia action like the quick repetition and
the ability to articulate cleanly.
      I think the difficulty in controlling very soft playing may be
due to a lack of the "mass damping" effect most pianists are used to. The
lack of dynamic range sensed by some pianists is probably due to both the
lighter hammers and, perhaps more importantly, to the lack of "feedback"
from the keyboard when the playing gets louder. Pianists who have trained
their technique on pianos with higher inertia expect the keyboard to
fight back a little when they lay into it. When this change in resistance
in missing in the louder playing, some pianists translate it to mean that
they're not getting dynamic response from the instrument.
      I agree with Bill Spurlock that the acceptable range of inertia
is fairly broad, and I think most pianos today tend to have too much
inertia in the actions. I just think that since most pianists have
developed their technique on pianos with some lead in the keys, it
probably isn't prudent to take out *all* the lead.


Steve Brady, RPT        "The most expert and rapid tuners are...
University of Washington       possessed of a highly excitable,
sbrady@u.washington.edu        nervous, and emotional temperament,
                         verging on the border of insanity at times."
                              -Daniel Spillane, The Tuner's Guide