Brass Tuning Finger...

[Ron Berry]

I like your various ideas about key pounders.  The best one I have had is a
piece of hammer felt.  (Not pressed into a hammer but raw hammer felt) It is
rounded kind of like a hammer on the business end, and has a long handle
with finger grooves.  It is light enough to hold in my hand while playing
octaves then I turn my hand sideways to strike the keys.  It has enough
resilience to absorb some of the blow.  That was the problem with using a
piano hammer, it was too hard and too much of the shock came through into my
arm.

I do agree that there is no need to kill the keys and break parts.  Even so
I find that having something other than my fingers to hit the keys is useful
even if I don't hit them any hard with the pounder.  Especially in the
winter when the air is dry my fingers crack and hurt if I don't have
something else to hit with.
Ron Berry
ronberry@iquest.net