Pinning on new flanges

[Isaac OLEG]

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Hello,

May be it is simply easier to relax the arm when there is less difference in
pressure between the first 2/3 of the stroke and the letoff moment ?

One can begin to take its reperes earlier in the stroke and prepare to let
off, wile a more free action will produce a larger difference in the braking
sensation -  what can occur with an inadapted regulation also.

A more free action will switch you to "base ball mode" or pearled stacatto
mode more fast, some pianists will prefer that as it gives more speed, but I
still feel it restrict the tone palette somehow. That is a voicing question
of course, also ,and very certainly depend of the mass of the parts as well.

Best regards

Isaac

-----Message d'origine-----
De : Sarah Fox [mailto:sarah@graphic-fusion.com]
Envoyé : lundi 30 août 2004 01:42
À : Pianotech
Objet : Re: Pinning on new flanges


Hi Vladan,

For best expressiveness,
the musician would probably like to have as much of
those 10 mm available to modulate the pressure without
feeling that he is moving the key stick through
molasses. If he doesn't have the physical ability to
redu! ce the force quickly, he will feel that the action
is "temperamental".

The situation changes when very fast playing is
required. The requirement for a precisely controlled
dynamic level may give way to the need for speed. A
fast (low friction) action becomes advantageous. I
think that pianists who like to play fast pieces and
have phenomenal control over their touch may prefer an
action with very low friction. They have the ability
to put just the right amount of energy into the hammer
in the shortest amount of time, basically using the
initial stage of the key movement to send the hammer
on its way with the precise amount of momentum. Since
they did all the work in the initial stage of the key
movement, they are free to quickly move on to the next
note.

Hmmmm....

I do agree that there are distinct fast- and slow- modes of control.
Slow-mode involves closed-loop feedback for the the individual note, in
which attention is paid to the movement of the key, and pressure on the key
is modulated accordingly.  Fast-mode control involves open loop activity for
actuation of a single key.  Control occurs over the course of several notes.
It's a bit like the difference between curling and throwing a baseball.
Curling is a very odd sport in which participants with brooms sweep a path
in front of a sliding stone to change and correct its direction as it moves
across a frozen pond.  (The Scots do this, right???)  A baseball is, in
fact, thrown, and no amount of feedback will change its course, once it
leaves the hand.  A pitcher may change how he pitches the ball if he sees
he's pitching consistently high or low or left or right.  However, there is
no feedback control over the individual ball.

So the point becomes one of where the switch-over occurs between "curling"
and "baseball" modes of piano play.  That's really a matter of how fast
one's reflexes are, and how fast the person can *think* about every nuance
of key movement, in order to control it.  I submit that there are very few
situations that are fine-controllable in the way you have described.

Let's consider a very familiar and slooooow piece:  Beethoven's Moonlight
Sonata, 1st Movement.  (See the score:
http://www.mfiles.co.uk/Scores/moonlight-movement1.pdf)  The opening note
(or three notes) demand the fine level of feedback you're talking about.
The pianist has as yet been unable to calibrate to the piano.  It's a bit
like a French horn player opening up with the first note or two of a solo.
It's an awkward moment, made less awkward only by the stability and
predictability of the instrument.  By the time the pianist reaches the
second beat, he or she should be calibrated and should be playing much more
smoothly.  Speaking for myself, when I reach this second beat, I've switched
wholely from curling mode to baseball mode.  My next "curling" note is the
downbeat of measure 10, which requires great subtlety.  Then beats 1 and 3
of measure 12 and beat one of measure 13.  All the rest is baseball.  It
continues much like this, until the end, with mostly "baseball" notes and a
few "curls" thrown in.  The last three notes, of course, are very decidely
"curling" experiences.  Now this is a VERY slow and subtle piece, and it's
at least 95% "baseball" to me.

So am I just a "slow" sort of musician who doesn't have the level of control
that most musicians do?  No, I don't think so.  My reaction times are
actually unusually rapid.  I know this because nobody could beat my reaction
times in an Experimental Psych Lab course I took during my undergraduate
days.  Also nobody could beat my finger tap rates, both L and R hand, in a
Neuropsych course I took during graduate school.  I'm older now, but even
so, a teenager or two has been impressed that I'm almost as good at video
games as they are -- without practicing them all day.  Now, I'm not the
fastest of pianists, not even close, and my abilities are only modest.  But
still, my point is that I'm not slow either.  Even with pretty good reflexes
and reaction times, I find myself ***UNABLE*** to micro-control the movement
of a key during even slow/moderately paced musical passages.  Thus, the
"braking" power of friction is of no benefit to me.  It's only a nuisance,
because it creates more work, slows me down, and adds to the unpredictable
nature of the action response (wherever friction is not dead-even from key
to key).  Perhaps concert pianists can achieve this control (or might claim
that they do), but I would be very skeptical.

Think of this also from an information processing standpoint.  Can you
imagine the amount of data throughput that would be required to achieve the
type of control you suggest?  A passage of even moderate speed would crash a
computer easily!  Pianodisk systems don't employ feedback loops, to my
knowledge, and this would be why.  I'm simply not smart and/or fast enough
to handle that sort of data throughput.  Moreover, my nerve conduction
velocities could not even begin to keep up with the relay of info between my
arms/fingers and brain.  No way, no how.  Even while I'm playing the opening
8th notes of the Moonlight Sonata, there's only time enough for 20 round
trips of information to and from my arms/fingers per note, not counting the
most time-intensive part of the entire feedback loop, which is the
processing of information on each round trip.  Realistically, I'd put it at
about 1 or two round trips, max.  I'd say that 10 or 20 measures of
microcontrolling each note would be enough to drive most people batty.

So I don't disagree with you in principle, only in practice.  I submit that
the "phenomenal control" to which you refer is actually quite garden-variety
and, further, that the low friction actions that you say may benefit those
with "phenomenal control" would benefit most pianists.  Finally, I repeat
that we've never given these piano characteristics a fair try.   Ric, you
say that fly-away actions have been available for a long time, but how long
have we had fly-away actions with rock-solid rigidity?  Now that's another
question entirely...

Peace,
Sarah

PS  Sorry folks! I didn't know (or at least didn't remember?) that there is
a separate joke list.  <shrug>

PPS  Now if you want to talk about letoff clearance and control...  *THAT*
is an issue that matters a lot!!

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