piano competition/Mason&Hamlin vs Steinway

[Classic Touch Ent]

What an irony that the groups of 2 and 3 raised (black) keys which 
supply the pianist with tactile knowledge of hand position at the 
keyboard
also creates this asymmetrical wonder of frustration for those with 
fingers> say 15mm wide. Does any manufacturer stagger the width of 
their sharps for the sake of uniform 'gap'?
       Funny that (because my fingers fit in the 'gaps') I never 
noticed, but I'm certain I'd notice a width variation of 1-2mm in a 
sharp only 10mm wide at top surface.

Rich Olmsted
On Thursday, May 8, 2003, at 04:47 AM, Delwin D Fandrich wrote:

>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "James Perkins" <jimperkins@mac.com>
> To: "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
> Sent: May 05, 2003 9:14 PM
> Subject: Re: piano competition/Mason&Hamlin vs Steinway
>
>
>>
>> But speaking as a pianist with fat fingers, it has always puzzled me
>> why the gaps between the sharps vary so much and even on the same
>> piano- e.g. the C#-D# gap is nearly always larger than the F#-G# gap
>> which is usually larger than the G#-A# one. On some pianos I cannot
>> play on the tails of the white keys (between the black keys) which is 
>> a
>> great problem with some chord shapes.
>>
>> One would have imagined these spaces to be uniform in the interests of
>> pianists' finger accuracy.
>> Or is it aesthetics coming into play here?
>
>
>
> Not really. It has more to do with the fact that the piano keyboard is 
> not
> symmetrical. It is made up of two separate groups of keys: one with 
> three
> naturals and two sharps, the other with five naturals and three 
> sharps. Get
> a piece of paper and try to lay this out with complete uniformity 
> between
> the sharps and you'll see the problem. You either have to fudge on the 
> gaps
> or you have to alternate the width of the sharps.
>
> Del
>
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