engineering question

[Wimblees@aol.com]

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In a message dated 10/29/02 1:19:45 PM Central Standard Time, 
grieshop@n-connect.net writes:

> 0000
>   From: "winphillips" <winphillips@yahoo.com>
> Subject: Help!  Why are modern piano keys sloping?
> 
> I have never played the piano but my wife does and we are about to
> start lessons for my daughter, who is 7.  We used to have an old
> acoustic and have been discussing whether to start her on acoustic or
> new digital piano.  An issue that has come up for me is that many
> modern pianos now seem to have keys that slope downward, as you move
> from the front of the key nearest you to the insertion point.  On one
> keyboard I measured about a half-inch slope downward on a white key,
> and even more on a black key.  This is no optical illusion - I used a
> builder's level to verify.  If you go to the store, the very old
> acoustic pianos look to have keys parallel to the floor, the newer
> acoustics (such as Kawai) have a slight key slope, as do the digital
> pianos, and some of the keyboard synthesizers have even more of a
> slope.  Piano sales persons have not been helpful as to answering why
> this is.  Does anyone know why, and will this have an effect on my
> daughter learning proper keyboard technique?  Thanks for any
> information you can give.  I used to play brass instruments so I am
> out of my depth on this one.
> 
> 


On an acoustic piano, the reason the keys are not level to the floor has to 
do with the engineering of the mechanics inside the piano. I don't know why 
they are sloped on a digital or electronic keyboard. There are many vertical 
pianos that are built this way. (I don't think I have ever seen a grand piano 
with sloped keys.) I have seen some piano keys that are visibly angled 
downward, but I have never measured how much. It is hard for me to imagine 
that the difference in as much as a half an inch. But if that is what you 
measured, then it must be so. 

Since this does happen on a lot of pianos, I would think that enough research 
has been done to show that this has no effect on playing the instrument. 
Otherwise it would never have been done in the first place. So to answer your 
concern, no, it will not effect your daughter's learning technique. 

Willem Blees RPT
Piano tuner/Techncian
University of Alabama
 

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