<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2713.1100" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY> <DIV>Obviously it's more than just the hardness of the hammers, but I've seen some breakage from trying to get more sound than those hammers would give.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>dave<BR><FONT face=Arial size=2>*********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********<BR><BR>On 4/5/02 at 1:45 PM Wimblees@AOL.COM wrote:</FONT></DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid"><FONT face=arial,helvetica><FONT size=2>In a message dated 4/5/02 11:29:12 AM Central Standard Time, dm.porritt@verizon.net writes: <BR><BR><BR> <BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px" TYPE="CITE">I think soft hammers break more strings than hard ones.  Why? <BR>Because the pianist wants a certain sound for the fff climax of the <BR>piece.  If the hammers are soft, he/she has to hit the keys harder. <BR>Still not enough sound, hit them harder yet.  Bang!  It happens all <BR>the time. <BR><BR>dave <BR><BR></BLOCKQUOTE><BR><BR>I do agree that a pianist wants to hear a loud sound, and he will play hard, but I don't think it is necessarily the condition of the hammers. The same pianist who broke strings on his B, didn't break them on the D in the concert hall, either before the concert when he practiced, and during the concert. And he played the Rach 3, quite a loud and boisterous piece, to say the least. <BR><BR>I think part of the problem is the playing technique. Some pianist have a technique that will cause strings to break, regardless whether they are soft or not. A very good jazz player in St. Louis had reputation of breaking strings. It was something in his attacking the notes that caused strings to break. A lot of fundamental churches break strings, because they constantly play hard. So I don't think it is all related to the condition of hammers. <BR><BR>Wim </FONT><FONT size=2 Arial></BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></FONT></BODY></HTML> <PRE> _____________________________ David M. Porritt dporritt@mail.smu.edu Meadows School of the Arts Southern Methodist University Dallas, TX 75275 _____________________________</PRE>