Horace: We have had a 7/8 (actually 41.2") action for several years. Most of the research that Dr. Leone has done has been with college age players who have small hands. Her research so far indicates that these people can switch back and forth quite easily. The main thing is that they simply have to choose repertoire appropriate for the piano they are playing. Dr. Leone herself has had a good career playing on standard actions but she gave up certain repertoire that was starting to cause injury on the standard keyboard. Now with this keyboard she can go back to some of the pieces that she abandoned. We just got a new 7/8 for one of our "D"s this past fall. Tom Servinsky came here to install it for Mr. Steinbuhler. He kept hearing one very good student practicing and was justifiably impressed. At one point I introduced the two of them and since this 7/8 action has the new Ronson Wurzen hammers we asked the student to play it so we could hear it in the hall. This particular student had never played a 7/8 action before and I was astounded at how well he played it that first time. The transition has proved to be easier than most expected. Our piano preparatory department is just now starting to do some experiments with younger students (Elementary age). We have 3 studio uprights with the 7/8 keyboards in addition to the grand actions. I'm looking forward to reading the research on this. So far, our experience with the 7/8 actions has been very positive. dave -----Original Message----- From: pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org] On Behalf Of Horace Greeley Sent: Tuesday, January 04, 2005 4:49 PM To: Pianotech Subject: RE: Una Corda Adjustments and Christian Zimmermann Dave, At 02:28 PM 1/4/2005, you wrote: >David: > >Where did you hear about the action swapping? That one is hard for me >to buy having done quite a bit of installing a Steinbuhler action in >several "D"s. The Steinbuhler action is designed to be adjusted for >different pianos but it still requires several hours to set up. What >kind of action is he taking with him? Does it have a non-standard >keyboard? > >Inquiring minds...... I did it with stock NY keyframes, keysets and action rails, with combinations of NY and Renner/Hamburg parts. While it certainly did take several hours per move, the results were generally well worth the trouble. As to the Steinbuhler - Several years ago, I was able to spend some time with a D which had been fitted with the Steinbuhler action (though, clearly not as much as someone who works with them regularly). It was, in many respects, the best instrument at the show. At the same time, after spending a fair amount of time listening to a wide variety of (mostly younger) pianists, I came away from the whole thing thinking something along the lines that....here are these young kids, with the skeletal and muscular systems still very much in quick development, doing (in that setting) a fair amount of practice (which is to say, developing the muscle-memory that comes from repetition in practice) on an instrument which gave them an ungrounded sense of accomplishment and ability. This is not to say that there were not some exceptionally talented people playing. It is to say that one wonders how these folks might, if afforded such actions for protracted periods of time (for, say, a number of years), adjust when the get to the more "real" world, and have to play on whatever is presented to them. There is already such a tendency for younger students to be pushed into literature which they are simply not sufficiently developed physically that I really hate to see those problems exacerbated. FWIW, it was particularly informative to go to the performances of those same students who had been given so much time on the modified D. While I did not make any effort to get reductive data, it was clear that a significant number of them had noticeably more, and more serious, technical errors than the students who had been practicing either exclusively on standard keyboards, or who had spent only limited time on the Steinbuhler. Knowing that you have one of these beasts, I would be interested to know if the above has any correlation in your experience. Best. Horace >dave > >-----Original Message----- >From: pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org] On >Behalf Of David Love >Sent: Tuesday, January 04, 2005 4:13 PM >To: 'Pianotech' >Subject: Una Corda Adjustments and Christian Zimmermann > >I heard a story from a pianist recently about Christian Zimmermann who >apparently regulates his own pianos for concerts. The story is that he >regulates the una corda so that it has 4 distinct positions that produce >four unique tones. Has anyone worked with him to know what that's all >about. > >An interesting side story about him (if true) is that he apparently used >to travel with his own two S&S D's. They were evidently on their way to >NY when 9/11 happened. The story is that the pianos were traveling with >some type of chemical that triggered some sort of bomb alert and the >pianos were subsequently hacked apart in an attempt to find the >material. Now he travels with his own action which he fits to each >piano that he plays. > >David Love >davidlovepianos@comcast.net > > > >_______________________________________________ >pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives >_______________________________________________ >pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives _______________________________________________ pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives
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