In a message dated 16/06/03 9:43:40 PM, hoffsoco@martin.luther.edu writes: >the "no pain:no gain" philosophy of playing on a >70gm keyboard, >IMMHO, is like beating your head >against a wall because it feels so good when you stop. I took care of a pianist once, a student of Serkin's, who constantly broke strings on his Steinway A II, in a small room in his farmhouse. I told him if he raised the lid full stick, he would not break strings because he wouldn't have to drive the piano as hard. But, he insisted, if he raised the lid he would drown himself out. The impetuousness of the artist. The health issues here are quite similar to those in tuning. The question is which is more stressful to tune, a high-torque pinblock (150"/# and up) or a medium one (75-100"/#). Regardless of what conditional we're in athletic or potato, or how at ease we are with a tuning hammer, when you put us on a tight block, it requires more muscle and if you've got that, more energy. It's an extra physical challenge no matter what physical shape you're in. I know my stress level is much lower with a 100"/# block than a 175"/# block. And I'm not convinced that a solid tuning necessarily requires such a tuning pin grip. The same could be said of an action with a stiff dose of inertia. I imagine that someone well-grounded in the natural way to play would feel any more comfortable with a high inertia action, than a compulsive-obsessive piano performance major. I see nothing wrong with lightening people's actions. Who knows, maybe a light filing of the hammers would give the sound the teeth they're trying to get the piano to show. The interesting part of this thread is that it started off with the a Steinway vertical, got transferred into a grand, and from there generalized and abstracted, with an interesting tangent of RSI. Does kind of hint at the group of us for whom pianos seem mainly to be grands, doesn't it. <g> Bill Ballard RPT NH Chapter, P.T.G. "Lady, this piano is what it is, I am what I am, and you are what you are" ...........From a recurring nightmare. +++++++++++++++++++++
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC