<HTML>In a message dated 6/28/2002 11:47:32 PM Pacific Standard Time, pcpoulso@pacbell.net writes: <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">Subj:Re: Feeling the Hammers when playing Date:6/28/2002 11:47:32 PM Pacific Standard Time From:<A HREF="mailto:pcpoulso@pacbell.net">pcpoulso@pacbell.net</A> Reply-to:<A HREF="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">pianotech@ptg.org</A> To:<A HREF="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">pianotech@ptg.org</A> Sent from the Internet Hi Patrick</BLOCKQUOTE>    This sounds like an excerpt from the Everday Voicing class that Bob Davis and I taught for a few years. I find this to still be a valid concept. I also remeber the pinky test that Bob suggests, which is that if you're unable to get enough tone/volumne in the melody notes with your right pinky finger it's a good indication the hammer and subsequent tone would benifit from being stiffer which effects its string contact time and therefore its voicing/tone. >>>>>Dale>>>> <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px"> Hello All: I remember a discussion in a convention voicing class about the phenomenon of "psychoacoustics."  The contention of the teacher, whose name escapes me at the moment, is that what we hear influences what we think we are feeling as we play the piano.  A very bright piano will be perceived by many as being "easier" to play, because it seems louder and therefore doesn't require as much effort from the pianist.  Vice versa for a very mellow piano, where the pianist may have to play harder to get the piano to project.  In both cases the pianist is not actually feeling the hammer itself, but is reacting to the kind of tone the piano is producing and is automatically and perhaps unconsciously adjusting his or her playing to compensate for what the instrument is not giving. Patrick Poulson, RPT </BLOCKQUOTE> </HTML>