Tone Production by the Pianist

[Israel Stein]

At 06:50 AM 11/25/2005, "John Dorr" <a440@bresnan.net>
  wrote:
>In your experience and philosophy can different pianists create 
>different tones on the same piano, at the same volume (velocity of 
>the hammer striking the strings) with different touch 
>techniques?  It seems to me that the player always throws the SAME 
>weight at the SAME target and doesn't have a direct connection with 
>the string at the moment of impact, so would therefore have no 
>control over what the tone generated by the instrument is, except 
>and unless they could somehow control the checking point of the 
>hammer so that it influenced a very small part of the 
>acoustics.  Shouldn't MY (drummer's touch!) mezzo-forte middle C 
>sound exactly like Chick Corea's on the

Two additional factors one must consider when discussing piano tone production:

1. Speed of pianist's hand when key is struck. That will make a huge 
amount of difference in what type of blow the hammer will deliver to 
the string and how quickly the hammer will bounce off the sting - 
both of which will affect tone.

2. Articulation - essentially, how long a pianist's finger lingers on 
the key for each individual note in a passage.

That affects how soon the notes are damped and therefore:

a. you get a different length of decay. Character of the sound 
changes during decay, and the pianist controls this by deciding how 
long of a decay to allow each note he or she plays.

b. you get a different relationship between the notes being played - 
which makes all the difference in the world as to how the sound of 
the entire passage is perceived by the listener.

These are just some of the more obvious factors controlled by the 
pianist affecting tone and perception of tone. I'm sure there are others.

Israel Stein