[CAUT] touch & tone & tuning (was why does it feel better?)

[ed440 at mindspring.com]

This is a good thread.  
Here is a simple experience (much simpler than Askenfelt's htypothesis).
I have a P-22 which tends toward brightness in a typical Yamaha way.
I voice it down about once a year, and it gets bright again ASAP.

I put office clips on every other note. Playing whole tone scales and tone clusters, I felt that maybe there was a little difference.  Measuring a few before and after with RCT Pianalyzer showed a very slight change, usually a little more energy in the lower partials.  (Maybe systematic measuring would have given better statistics.)

Then I put clips on all the hammers and played the piano.
When I played the Chopin e minor prelude...wow!  Previously on this piano I could never get good "separation" between the melody and the accompaniment chords.  Keeping the chords under control required "walking on eggs."  
Now with the clips on the hammers I could get the piece to sound the way I wanted, full and resonant, but definately piano and subordinate in the chords and singing expressively without being overly percussive in the melody.

I would guess that the slightly greater inertia in the hammer allows my clumsy fingers a wider range of control of velocity for expressive purposes.  Also the greater weight lets the hammer "hang" a little longer, damping a few more higher partials, giving a "simpler" timbre in the softer dynamic range.

In any case, it is important to remember that a difference which may seem infinitesimal when measured objectively may pay compound interest when used expressively.  This is what artists may be trying to say when they say the piano "feels better."

Ed Sutton


-----Original Message-----
>From: Cy Shuster <cy at shusterpiano.com>
>Sent: Sep 1, 2006 8:48 AM
>To: College and University Technicians <caut at ptg.org>
>Subject: Re: [CAUT] touch & tone & tuning (was why does it feel better?)
>
>The current Journal has an interesting article by Anders Askenfelt (of "Five 
>Lectures" fame) dealing with the question of whether a pianist can affect 
>tone with different playing techniques.
>
>He discovered that a hammershank assembly can have several different 
>vibration modes: one involving primarily the shank itself, and another with 
>more movement in the hammer head.  He posits that a skilled pianist can 
>alter the force and timing of a keystroke in a way to emphasize one or the 
>other vibration nodes.
>
>Certainly changing the weight distribution on the hammershank assembly would 
>affect vibration modes, similar to putting weights on the bridge.
>
>--Cy--
>www.shusterpiano.com
>