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Mechanics of the Piano
by Seymour Fink

The piano is a large, percussive, keyboard instrument, homogenous throughout in timbre, with an exceptionally wide range of pitches (larger even than a symphony orchestra) and dynamics. An extremely expressive instrument, it projects easily in large spaces. It is one of the few instruments where the fingers simultaneously control both pitch and dynamics, and where a player is freed from concerns of intonation. Pianists can also play many tones simultaneously and, at the same time, control the dynamics of individual pitches. The pedal mechanism is truly unique in that its use greatly enriches the overall warmth of the sound and presents unparalleled possibilities for the accumulation and mingling of sounds that no other instrument or group of instruments can imitate.

To tap this expressive potential, pianists must fully understand the mechanical workings of the instrument. Only then can they discover and craft an efficient physical approach to the instrument that best integrates with its unique technology and capacities

HOW IS SOUND PRODUCED?
Piano sound is generated percussively. As a key is depressed it catapults a freely traveling felt hammer that strikes the string (or strings) of a given pitch. The hammer recoils at impact, ending all contact with the string. Simultaneously, an associated felt damper is raised, allowing the sound of the vibrating string to decay over time. Players lose all ability to affect a particular hammer stroke slightly before a key reaches its bottom, at the keybed. At this point, control of the vibrating string is limited to sustaining the ebbing sound (by holding the key down) or terminating it (by releasing the key). Nothing else is possible.

It follows then, that once a tone has sounded, any weight or pressure at the bottom of the key, beyond the minimum necessary to keep the key depressed, is wasteful. This all-too-common mistake, referred to as keybedding, squanders energy and interferes with the arm’s ability to shift quickly to subsequent positions. Students can, through proper timing and angling of the stroke, develop ways of playing that discourage or eliminate keybedding, and at the same time permit effective control of the lengths and intensities of the tones being produced.

HOW ARE DYNAMICS CONTROLLED?
Pianists control the dynamics of a particular sound by varying the speed of a key’s descent. Depressing individual keys quickly produces bold sounds, while a correspondingly slower pressure results in softer sounds. This fundamental concept should be one of the first points addressed in piano study; unfortunately, it has escaped the conscious knowledge of many reasonably advanced piano students. Consequently, in an attempt for a big sound, students will too often tighten and constrict muscles and joints or apply useless pressure too late in the keystroke. Both are counterproductive, for they interfere with the very freedom of joint movement, the speed of which they need to generate louder sounds. Rather, what is needed for greater resonance are sharper, well-timed, loose motions downward that deescalate upon approaching the keybed. Although teachers must focus their students’ listening on the qualities of the sound they make, including length, loudness, and evenness, it is imperative that students are made consciously aware of how to manipulate the instrument to control a wide variety of tones.

This includes selectively breaking the rules for musical considerations, be they speed, legato, or the like. In these cases there will be times where varying pressure is maintained at the bottom of the key between tones. In quick finger passages for instance, the hand or arm is too large a unit to release and reset between tones. As a result, hands and arms are lightly fixed close-by, providing a support base for the fingers and causing a slight even pressure at the bottom of the keys. In slowmoving melodic passages, a slight pressure might be added just before playing a subsequent note to enhance the feeling of legato connection. Pianists continually make these kinds of subtle kinesthetic adjustments for both technical and expressive reasons, and are able to do so wisely only after becoming thoroughly aware of the mechanics of the instrument.

HOW IS SOUND SUSTAINED? TERMINATED?
The duration of a single unpedaled sound is controlled by gauging the length of time the key is held down, and eventually releasing it. Mechanically, releasing the key will lower the felt damper that was raised in conjunction with the original hammer stroke. Functionally, these two mechanisms are unrelated. Underlying the development of an advanced piano technique is this realization: the activation of sound and the sustaining of sound are separate and distinct activities on the piano. This contrasts sharply with what is experienced by wind and string players, who sustain sound by continuing the same activating breath or bow; as a result they are able to control and alter the quality of its duration. Relatively helpless, pianists cannot change the color or dynamic of a held tone; they can only let it decay at its fixed rate or terminate it.

Pianists must create a technique that responds to this reality, one that minimizes keybedding, is loose enough to sense and respond to the weight and depth of the keys, and is able to control dynamics and velocity – all in a manner that promotes musical fluency. Although it may happen slowly, students will come to accept the somewhat counterintuitive fact that it takes no more pressure at the bottom of a key to sustain a loud sound than a soft one. Further degrees of comfort and control at the instrument come as pianists discover, internalize, and respond to two inherent values of any instrument: the depth of the keystroke and the weight of the key. Because sound is generated percussively and sustained with limited control, students must also develop the expert ability to switch instantly from striking a key, to holding it, to releasing it. Success in this is an important measure of technical efficiency and finesse.

Wise use of the arms can go a long way towards helping students master these complex technical issues, creating conditions that encourage finger looseness and fluency, and are necessary for reducing keybedding. Players should avoid vertical key entry; they should instead depress the keys obliquely or diagonally as part of a pulsating cycle. The arm cycles might move in either a pushing or pulling direction from the shoulder girdle joint, with fingertips tending to slide either forward or backward. Keybed pressure is quickly and naturally released as the arm follows through beyond the point of deepest contact. (In the pulling stroke, the wrist must recoil to allow the arm cycle to continue smoothly.) The glancing keystroke releases pressure instantly without the need to change arm direction, sparing players the tiring, stop-start changes of direction that vertical key descents make necessary. Longer sounds are achieved by using the wrist as a control gear allowing the fingers to stay at the bottom of the key as long as one wishes while the arms continue to cycle above the held finger without losing their momentum.

In addition to the circular stroke described above, there is another generic arm stroke – the washboard stroke. This is a non-circular, straight-line, back and forth movement, largely in the elbow, but some in the shoulder. Tracing forward diagonal paths to the keyboard, these strokes are quicker than upper arms and circling wrists can manage. They can even reach vibratory speed. The straight-line stroke must be carefully timed to end at the keybed, much as a drill-press operator sets his or her machine not to drill too deeply. Students can lessen the danger of keybedding by maximizing the gravity free-fall aspect of the stroke. They can also incorporate a ballistic throw quality to the stroke that causes it to rebound instantly upon hitting bottom. It is necessary to minimally set or firm all joints on either side of the swinging joint, while at the same time relaxing the active one.

HOW DOES THE DAMPER PEDAL ACHIEVE ITS EFFECT?
Arguably the most unique mechanism of the piano is its damper pedal. When it is engaged, the entire bank of felt dampers is raised, overriding any individual control of single dampers and allowing players to hold, connect, and blend pitches well beyond what their fingers alone can do. Tonal quality and resonance is greatly increased, not only by the accumulation of activated pitches, but also with the added richness provided by the sympathetic vibrations of open strings. In addition, the pedal often masks a good deal of the percussive nature of tone production, allowing the instrument to sing in its own unique way. The musical losses’ in the transcriptions of the idiomatic piano works of Chopin or Debussy exemplify just how special pedaled sonorities are to the quality of piano sound.

Students must come to grips with these mechanical issues, viewing them in an objective manner, as an engineer might, and use them to develop a knowing, consistent, efficient, and effective piano technique. For it is only when one begins to exploit the piano’s infinite subtleties of voicing and pedaling that the true wealth of creative possibilities is opened, providing real grist for the musical imagination and serving the most inspired flights of inner hearing.

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