Pinning on new flanges

[David Love]

I don't think it's that complicated.  The pianist sits down to the piano,
and if they are skilled, determines within a very short time just what kind
of touch produces what tone and extrapolates that to the entire keyboard. 
If the piano is regulated evenly, they will be successful, if not, they
won't.  Good pianists will adapt to different pianos, different levels of
touch, different weight, different friction via a straightforward  feedback
loop of touch and sound.  They do it at every venue and they do it
relatively quickly.    

David Love
davidlovepianos@earthlink.net


> [Original Message]
> From: V T <pianovt@yahoo.com>
> To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
> Date: 8/30/2004 7:53:23 PM
> Subject: Pinning on new flanges
>
> Hello Sarah, Ric and Friction Thread,
>
> For the sake of keeping the discussion on target,
> let's assume for a moment that we have no way of
> finding out what exactly is going on in the pianists
> body/mind as he tries to control the pressure on the
> key.
>
> To summarize, there are at least three options
> available:
>
> Option 1.  The pianist does not have any time to react
> to his movement once he starts pushing the key down. 
> He is playing "open loop" and acts from some previous
> knowledge of what might work well.  Depending on how
> well he knows the piano and his skill level, he gets
> it more or less right.  Maybe he is really great and
> learns very quickly, so after playing a new piano for
> a short while he figures the instrument out.
>
> Option 2.  On slow passages, he has enough time to
> adjust his touch, and that in combination with his
> general pianistic skill gets him through.  On fast
> passages, there is no time to react and dynamics take
> the back seat.
>
> Option 3.  Some combination of the above.
>
> Going back to mechanical systems with mass,
> springiness and friction, I have made a plot of two
> theoretical scenarios.  The plots are attached (I hope
> they get posted correctly).  The plots are pure math,
> showing two systems which are equal, except for the
> friction.  In other words, the inertia and the
> springiness are unchanged.  This mathematical concept
> is universal in nature and can be found just about
> everywhere.
>
> The horizontal axis represents time.  The vertical
> axis represents the momentum in the hammer.  The red
> trace represents a system with more friction than the
> blue trace.  I have normalized them so that they
> coincide in time at about 90% of the final momentum
> value.  This means that both pianos will sound the
> note at the same time, assuming that the jack releases
> at about 90% of the available momentum.  For the sake
> of this discussion, that number can be 95% or 99% - I
> just had to pick a number - it doesn't really matter
> much.
>
> The important thing to notice is that for a constant
> force on the key, the system with more friction will
> take more time to get the hammer to the required
> momentum.  It takes about 2.4 units of time for the
> blue trace to go from 10% to 90%, but it takes about
> 3.5 units of time for the red (higher friction) trace.
>
> Back to the issue of control: Up to a point, if the
> musician has more time to push the key (for a given
> required momentum), he will probably be in more
> control.  If there is too much friction, things will
> not be so pleasant, as he will have to push harder, or
> else he will run out of time.  If the action has less
> friction, he will have to be more nimble - there will
> not be much time between the pressing and the
> releasing.
>
> Also note that the piano with the higher friction will
> require the pianist to start with the note just a
> little sooner so that the note can sound on time; in a
> sense he too has to be fast.  It's just that on the
> higher friction piano he has to be faster moving his
> hands/fingers between notes.
>
> I think that this is fundamentally the first order
> effect we are discussing.  It gets more complicated,
> of course, but I hope the description sheds some
> light!
>
> Vladan
>
>
>
>
>
> 		
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