Re: piano (Erlich)

>>Piano keys should not be heavy or hard to push down. A properly-regulated
>>piano's keys are actually lighter than un-weighted synth action keys.
>
>Huh? That seems contrary to all my experience (and the very definition
>of un-weighted)! Of course "lightness" is subjective, but it's
>definitely easier (for me) to play unweighted synth after playing piano
>for a while than to play piano after playing unweighted synth for a
>while.

Piano keys are balanced. It should require almost no pressure to move
them. Visit Faust-Harrison pianos in Manhattan sometime, and see if you
disagree. The pianos they sell are expensive, but ask them and they'll
tell you the secret is the boys in the back with the screwdrivers.

The majority of pianos are poorly regulated. It isn't too difficult, and
you can do it yourself with $20 worth of tools.

Another problem is technique. Somebody said their hands were too weak to
play the piano. Strength is a mistake. The action has to do its thing.
Just tickle.

Unweighted synth actions are done with springs. They do not have
consistent force throughout their range, and they have no momentum. They
just dumbly hug your finger. They also mistakenly assume that actuating a
sound at the point the key slams into the bottom of its stroke and
actuating a sound at a specific point during the stroke is the same.

Weighted synth actions are, by and large, junk. They slow the action down,
and offer no improvement over unweighted actions. Weight=bad.

I think somebody said they could play faster on an electric piano than an
acoustic one. Many harpsichordists say their instrument is faster too.
Maybe for runs. But ask yourself why nobody plays Rachmaninov on a synth.
There's more to speed than runs. Repetition is the most important place to
have speed, and the piano has got everything else beat by a mile. Because
the keys have momentum and move independently of one's finger, and because
the action has momentum and moves independently of the key.

It should not be difficult to build a synth action that has all the
desirable properties of a piano action, and requires no regulation. It
should also be possible to design synth actions that do new types of
things, that pianos don't.

Many people assume that the keyboard is some sort of urinstrument whose
particulars don't effect what you can play on it. Not true (I do buy the
Sapir-Whorf for musical instruments)! For example, one does not play
Prokoviev on an upright. Upright actions do not reset until the key has
almost reset. A good grand action resets the instant the hammer leaves the
jack. Stride was developed on uprights, because it took that long for the
keys to pop back up.

C.