Stéphane, (and Jim, see below) The feeling of resistance from inertia certainly contributes to a feeling of control (or lack of it depending on the evenness of it). However friction can also help give a feeling of control by giving a feeling of viscosity and connection. If you look historically back even just a few decades the emphasis on having a specific amount of friction was more prevalent as apposed to the more recent movement towards "less friction is better". In older instruments (100yrs+), with lighter hammers, friction may have played more of a role in giving the pianist a feeling of connection on the way down through the stroke. Erard pianos used to have adjustable friction hammer flanges. The older Steinway touch weight specs had not just down weight but down weight and up weight specifications thereby specifying friction. The modern day specs de-specify up weight and let it be anything above 18g with emphasis on less being better. Bill Garlick who ran the North Bennet St. School learned piano technology at the London Furniture school (early 70's?). He told us that when repinning hammer shanks they were graded by the swing method. Anything over three sings and they flunked the test. I can give an anecdotal piece of evidence as well. In 1988 I showed an experimental action to Rudolph Serkin. It was a Steinway D with very light, extremely cut down, soft, cold pressed hammers with adjustable friction hammer flanges each set to precisely 5g rotational friction measured at a 32mm radius. His comments: "It feels connected somehow. I couldn't believe it at first." "It's amazing. The feeling is so immediate." but although the sound of this piano was sweet, it was too small for the concert stage, hence the move towards heavier hammers of the modern age. Something to think about! David Stanwood (Hammer Weight Standards available at: http://www.stanwoodpiano.com/SW-HWstandards4.pdf) <snip> >I do believe that with more inertia in the action, your finger gets from the >action "resistance" a useful information about how hard it has actually >begun to strike the key, and you have the full 10 mm dip to adapt your >finger action to what your musical mind intended. This goes intuitively, of >course. But more inertia in the action is a >remedy against unwanted out of >range dynamics. <snip> Jim, I agree with you.. I think Chopin would be a little shocked if he came back to life and tried playing todays pianos. When matching hammer weight and ratio we are certainly guided by empirical evidence. It would be nice to have a sensor on the end of our finger attached to a device which told us how much force we exert when playing the keys! Thanks, David >Thanks for your response. >As I mentioned, my complaint is an empirical >one. I do feel that, at least in my >experience, that many action designers and pianists, choose, as a default, a >heavier dynamic touch than I would like to see. Sometimes both the sound and >touch of these instruments seem to target only one monolithic flavor. The >purpose of my post is to raise the possibility of other takes on the issue. >Thanks again. >Jim
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