<html> John,     The archives are full of this one, but I'm not sure what the subject lines will look like. As for explaining the physics, that's your trick question. As a tech, I can reduce the action characteristics down to numbers, but as a player and knowing real players, I have to admit that there are unmeasurable factors. "Love" is as good as any, when you're talking about a feedback loop such as a piano. I have watched a superior piano teacher produce tone with her pinky that I couldn't reproduce.     We live in a world where easily half the people believe in an invisible friend. Why shouldn't we be able to transcend the laws of physics? Isn't that why we call them "laws"? I mean, the word "law" implies that we humans created it, and can amend it to our needs and wants.    The various responses that could follow your query may not resolve any lingering doubts, but life is full of mystery. Enjoy. Guy At 07:40 AM 11/25/2005 -0700, you wrote: <blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>In your experience and philosophy can different pianists create different tones on the same piano, at the same volume (velocity of the hammer striking the strings) with different touch techniques?  It seems to me that the player always throws the SAME weight at the SAME target and doesn't have a direct connection with the string at the moment of impact, so would therefore have no control over what the tone generated by the instrument is, except and unless they could somehow control the checking point of the hammer so that it influenced a very small part of the acoustics.  Shouldn't MY (drummer's touch!) mezzo-forte middle C sound exactly like Chick Corea's on the same instrument? I ask because I have a piano teacher friend who insists that SHE and her students are ultimately in charge of tone.  And when I ask her to demonstrate, she really can't.  She just plays louder or softer on her Steinway.  Sure, the tone changes with volume, but she can't prove to me that she's capable of tone change at the SAME volumes.  She holds her ground, though, and says, "Well I can't do it right now, but I know that sometimes when I play I can make it SO BEAUTIFUL, and other times..." and goes on to say that it has to do with the "love" she inputs to the keys.  I responded that I thought it was her emotional attachment to the music at the moment and the voicings her fingers were able to  respond with, by which I mean each individual finger is capable of its own velocity (and therefore TONE character) that expresses the music according to her emotional interpretation. Sorry to get so long-winded about it.  It's really a simple question, isn't it?        Does the pianist have the ability to influence tone character differences at the same dynamic level?  If so, can you explain the physics of that? _______________________________________________ pianotech list info: <a href="https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives" eudora="autourl">https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives</a> </blockquote> <x-sigsep></x-sigsep> "To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." - Teddy Roosevelt</html>