Loud Blow, Soft Blow

Laurence Beach lbeach@sfu.ca
Fri, 17 Nov 1995 19:57:24 -0800 (PST)


>Michael Wathan wrote Aug. 12th:
>>
>> A hard blow produces a strong attack that is several times louder
>> in comparison with the tone that immediately follows.  A soft
>> blow will produce a many times much smaller attack than the hard
>> blow relative to the tone that follows the attack.  Also, the
>> softer blow does not last as long as the tone of the hard blow
>> because the it was not given as much energy as the hard blow.
>

If you take a really good listen to the decay of the sound after various
types of blows, you may notice that the loudness tends to decay more
quickly.  What I mean by this, is that if you give a note a really hard
blow, you should notice that the sound becomes quieter within the first
millisecons after the initial blow.  You should also be able to notice
that the sound becomes quieter during the next few seconds.  For a soft
blow, the initial effect (during the first few milliseconds after the
initial blow) is barely perceivable, and the decrease in the intensity of
the sound does not decrease, as far as most ears can tell, during the
next few seconds.  I am, of course, talking about good pianos.

This discussion, however, sparks a question of my own.  On many pianos,
in the extremes of the treble section, the sound often decays so rapidly
that the sound is perceived as a 'knock' rather than a tone.  Not only is
the sound unpleasant, but it also makes for very difficult tuning.  I
have not experimented with altering wire size in this range, but I am
curious if using a thinner wire would improve the sustaining ability of
the note.  I do know that it would definately affect the tone of the
notes in question, and from the previous discussion on breaking bass
strings, increase the risk of snapping treble strings.

Laurence Beach
Vancouver BC
Canada




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