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

[Bob Hohf]

As a point of clarification, the bulk of the article is by Alexander Galembo, the Russian physicist, and is based on his work at the Red October Piano Factory in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). Several sections (including the one on shank vibrations)are drawn from Askenfelt's work and contain clarification and edits by Askenfelt.  Galembo wanted Askenflet's name in the byline because of their long term collaboration in many areas of piano research.

I wouldn't read too much into the results of the shank vibration study because the vibrations were generated in an experimental setup.  As far as I know the different modes have not been isolated in real piano playing.  I also don't believe modes have been related to tone production.  The systems we're dealing with are incredibly complex, and generating meaningful data is unbelievably difficult.  Stay tuned--there is more coming in future articles.

Bob Hohf  

> -----Original Message-----
> From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org]On Behalf Of Cy
> Shuster
> Sent: Friday, September 01, 2006 7:49 AM
> To: College and University Technicians
> 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
> 
>