Richard, You wrote: > >What I would like to know in regards to the hammer hitting the >string, and only that tiny parameter of piano tone for the moment, >what can be controlled other than its velocity? >Sometimes to see the whole picture especially as technicians, we must >focus on one event at a time, scrutinize it and go on to the next. >That does not mean one is having "such a narrow view" >How else are we to get past "There is so much that we as technicians >don't know about the piano" How do we get to the dialogue with the >pianist of what can and cannot be controlled? This is a very real, vast issue. The problem exists on many fronts. As technicians, we are, as a group, not well educated musically - and yet, as a group, pianists know absolutely nothing about the piano as a mechanical device. These are _heavily_ qualified generalizations, folks, so please, don't melt my terminal. If you are a music graduate, think back to what, if anything, was offered as to even the most rudimentary introduction to piano technology as a part of your curriculum. If you were lucky, there was a one semester/quarter course. If you were really lucky, the person teaching it wanted to do so, and was capable of teaching this arcana in a group setting. Over the years, I have worked with about 4 or 5 pianists who really had a substantive understanding of the instrument. Most have knowledge that ends at the fallboard. Conversations with other technicians who also do a good deal of concert work have convinced me that this experience is not unique. We could make a great, long thread here, and really have some good dialogue. Best to all. Horace Horace Greeley hgreeley@leland.stanford.edu "Always forgive your enemies, nothing annoys them so much. - Oscar Wilde LiNCS voice: 725-4627 Stanford University fax: 725-9942
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