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Jonathan the 2nd

Moving away from attaching stuff to my fingers I came across a very unusual idea for a keyboard layout .The Janko Keyboard .Plenty of information on Piano sites seemed to be a good answer. The octave is much narrower with that layout.But the penny soon dropped that you could not reduce the width wit...

Jonathan the 2nd

Perzactly . The tapes are supple and subtle .

Jonathan the 2nd

See also J Cree Fischer .Piano tapes and stirrups. Closely connected with repetition . Grand pianos don`t need tapes for repetition .

Jonathan the 2nd

I have read that No 20 was not originally classed as a Nocturne. But it did not say what it Was classed as. So it seems to be drifting in Limbo at the moment . Is there another edition that contains it ?

Jonathan the 2nd

Anyway. My piano still has the list of casualties written on a sheet on the piano.A circle around 3 lonely notes that have a solid one note sound. All the rest have some kind of slow beating or drifting going on when played. Not good enough . We had windows changed last year.The surrounding frames w...

Jonathan the 2nd

Today a youtube music video came in the e mails. Nocturne no 20 in C# minor(?). Hang on a minute. My ABRSM book only has 19 in it. Wiki tells me there are 21.The plot thickens. What`s happened to the last 2 ? I am dying to play those starting chords in the no 20 . The book does not say Part 1. It do...

Jonathan the 2nd

One effect that was causing a bad tone was the hammers not contacting the three strings exactly together . It made a whining sound.

Jonathan the 2nd

The magazine cover does not do anything so it must be the look on his face. The Cape Town explanation was much better for me than others I have seen, Well it worked too .That must mean something. The tiny effect of the tapes you yourself have mentioned is the most important factor for repetition as ...

Jonathan the 2nd

I actually was an absolute beginner as you quoted from my first post . Two days ago I could not do trills.I thought it was time to learn. As the piano was adjusted ( or not ) I could not do trills . Now , two days later , I can do trills. Simple as that . There was an extra point in the article abou...

Jonathan the 2nd

An article in 1998 --"Function and Replacement of Bridal Straps " by Bernt W Damm. He is a technical piano man from Cape Town , South Africa. The primary function of the straps is explained clearly. Notice how he mis-spells the word Bridal instead of Bridle. It matches his sentences in par...

Jonathan the 2nd

Bridle . Used on a horse to keep it in control . Pulls it back . That`s the origin of the word. Also pulls the hammer back! Reins were attached to the bridle. One quick jerk was sufficient . The word tittuped describes the way a horse would suddenly put on the brakes . The poem "A Code of Moral...

Jonathan the 2nd

Well how easy is this ? After searching some history of pianos I found a page in Wikipedia--" Action (piano)" . There`s the standard diagram of an upright with all the parts labelled. Run down the list of parts till you see " Bl " which indicates the Bridle Tape. Last 2 sentences...

Jonathan the 2nd

I have not seen any mention of the speed of return by an upright hammer in a piano with no stuck or jamming parts . But ,after the note sounds ,apart from the rebound action between strings and hammer felt and the little spring there is not much to alter the speed of return. Loud playing will be cau...

Jonathan the 2nd

Partly to answer some of my own questions from reading about the soft pedal . Some teachers would recommend learning to play softly without using the upright soft pedal.They refer to that as a crutch. In my case I examined the wooden rod connections between the pedal and the internal parts to make s...

Jonathan the 2nd

Opus 27 No 2 Bar 18 .Real tragedy there. Pure nectar.

Jonathan the 2nd

I saw an article yesterday by a technical piano person who did not think the left pedal was much use and you should learn to play softly without it. If push came to shove and I had to choose between effective trills or a left pedal I would lose the pedal first. In the original state there was massiv...

Jonathan the 2nd

I have edited the line about the vertical hammer as I was talking about the hammer falling backwards after the note was played. In reality the trills were not working properly because the speed of the hammer falling was setting the speed of trills possible.That was a fairly constant speed. If you va...

Jonathan the 2nd

That trip to the shop was last week Karen. Yesterday to sort out the favourite Chopin Nocturnes in my new book I cheated and had a quick flick through the youtube videos to give me some targets to aim at. I am trying trills now and something made me re-read posts in the Piano World forum .They menti...

Jonathan the 2nd

Now I am using trills more than avoiding them I find ,on this upright, that my fingers move too quickly for the notes to sound. The key does not return quickly enough . Added note .----I tested this in a music shop last week. All on electric pianos. Some had a sluggish action and I could feel a dela...

Jonathan the 2nd

Just back from the music shop. Eager to see which pieces I had always loved were inside my new book of Chopin Nocturnes . Lets get some hints from the notes first . First one Opus 9 No 1----- " Number one suffers from prolixity and over-repetition ?? ---The section 17 to 50 suffers from repetit...

Jonathan the 2nd

I happened to drop into the music shop today and tried the sounds of a lot of electric pianos. I was surprised how much warmer a small "real" upright sounded . It was a midget compared to mine . The electronic ones were in tune but so very sterile . The upright had a sold sign on it and a ...

Jonathan the 2nd

As a late beginner the sound of chords is what interests me more than banging out a tune. I play Chopin and Bach mainly slowly ,which is good to learn pieces anyway , so I am not really your average learner in that way. I can read music . My thumbs and one finger are getting creaky . Savouring the s...

Jonathan the 2nd

In case the question sounds too theoretical I did check the string groups and to my ears there are only 3 piano notes in the whole piano that I would leave alone if I was tuning a violin or guitar . They are the main C note . C# above and the E above that . All other notes were listed with a cross o...

Jonathan the 2nd

The plastic plectrum was a square of polypropylene folded over to leave a corner sticking out .Then a hot iron melted the centre in position.

Jonathan the 2nd

Simple question for a tuner. If a new inexperienced player needs to check the unisons , because he is by nature very curious and suspicious ,it can be interesting to press the damper pedal and use a small piece of plastic to twang the separate strings. Should they all sound the same in one double or...

Jonathan the 2nd

Bach knew the two hands problem already from teaching his children and teaching or learning from his brothers. That`s why the first C major Prelude is so accomodating . No unruly stretches and mostly convenient repeats to drive the message home. The piano would be a poor instrument without the colou...

Jonathan the 2nd

I get the feeling that playing consecutive notes close together with the same finger or thumb may be a bad habit. It would happen mostly where the finger grouping has not been worked out sufficiently. Scales and scale fingering patterns do not seem to apply much to the randomness of compositions . A...

Jonathan the 2nd

The Bach No6 D minor piece mentioned above should be tried if only for the beautiful last line . I started this one slowly and was shocked to hear the way completely different notes were stressed ,beginning with the second note and not the first note as I was doing it . I might keep trying both ways...

Jonathan the 2nd

The Railsback Curve only gets one mention ,which is on this topic, so I shall ask a nice juicy question about that . What is the effective relation between the Railsback Curve and the tuning system ? The equal temperament exists so ubiquitously for a technical tuning reason . On the unequal tuning v...

Jonathan the 2nd

Have you told Pianotek about this Barrie? They have a photo on their catalogue . Some tuners don`t even approve of using 3 needles. They say one is better . The Steinway tuners have an article about the pattern of needle piercing . But you already know that I`m sure .

Jonathan the 2nd

Looking at the way the thumb acts on a piano key you need the flex at the joint but something to counteract the sideways contact against the key. Some firm material below the tip and also above the second bone in the thumb . I`m sure the Gridiron Football designers have worked on this for metal knee...

Jonathan the 2nd

Pianotek have a tool that reminds me of a wirestripper. It has the plier type handles and jaws equipped with needles that act on the sides of the hammers. That way makes more sense for an upright piano . It`s possible to take the whole hammer mechanism out of the piano but that could be avoided .

Jonathan the 2nd

There was a reference earlier to string instruments matching the notes of a piano which has stretched octaves. It might be on the other forum . A violinist will usually adapt the intonation to match the piano . That`s what they do . Violinists also change the exact intonation for expressive purposes...

Jonathan the 2nd

Comparing my small-finger-to-thumb stretch today I noticed it was possible to match the left hand reach which was always 1/2 an inch greater. The trick is to pull the small finger upwards as well as outwards . If your palm is flat on the table the fingertip will come up an inch off the table. It fee...

Jonathan the 2nd

This offending high note ,a Bb , occurs in the Chopin Mazurka in G minor Op 67 no 2 . Bar 33 , beginning with Bb middle of the treble clef ,then the octave and then an octave higher. The last note is so sharp it pokes you in the eye with a bent stick ( on this piano 2 days after a tuning ).It needs ...

Jonathan the 2nd

Yesterday`s exercise with eyes shut. Sitting the correct distance from the piano and doing a middle finger exercise right handed. F to an F an octave higher. Then back . Up and down Just teaching my arm the angle change needed for an octave. Similar to learning third position on a violin . Straight ...

Jonathan the 2nd

Coming back to an idea after a gap shows the subconscious has been working at the problem by itself. It has just jogged my elbow and suggested a thinner end to the thumb regardless of the normal thumb shape. The splint construction using a small wooden stiffener showed a way to reduce the weight and...

Jonathan the 2nd

The Railsback curve describes the technical numerical frequencies but the sounds, subjectively to a player , should be in tune and not sounding ,subjectively sharp if all c notes are played in sequence from the bass to the treble of the piano. Leave aside for a moment the ghastly out of tune effects...

Jonathan the 2nd

Is it possible for a tuner to hear high notes differently to me when he tunes up a piano. The piano has an traditional unequal temperament and he uses a meter . The meter has 3 disjointed looking graphs on it. I thought the middle notes had to be tuned mostly by checking a meter and then octaves che...

Jonathan the 2nd

Robert Estrin in his teaching video makes the case in favour of Baby Grands (and full size Grands ) in preference to Uprights because you can trill much faster than on an upright. The repetition mechanism ,he says , is designed more efficiently .

Jonathan the 2nd

In one of the videos for hammer voicing the technician uses the sandpaper to brush the felt towards the tip of the hammer ,so he is using fluffy bits of felt to affect the tone as he wants to keep them on the hammer right where the string touches . Not much difference to my little black patches. Tho...

Jonathan the 2nd

Yes the tiny fibre patches stayed in place fine. Felt wool fibres have tiny hooks that cling together. I found out about making decorative felt material on the net. The patches on the hammers had a mildly muting effect but took away strident harmonics . I removed them before the tuner came but admit...

Jonathan the 2nd

The voicing was done after it`s six month tune up. Same day .Tune up plus voicing .Now, a tuning makes the piano sound right again but a voicing makes the sound glowing and radiant. It`s like my tv has suddenly become High Definition . The layer of stray harmonics that used to hang in the air after ...

Jonathan the 2nd

Hohner Grands . For some reason I didn`t think they made Grands. Silly to think that . I shall look them up . Wurzen has a German sound to the name. Either way I can look forward to some new sounds after today .

Jonathan the 2nd

Wednesday afternoon and my tuner will arrive to do the voicing and tuning on my Hohner upright. It will be a bonus if it sounds like an old Bluthner I heard once. No chance . The Hohner hammers don`t seem very "woolly" when you touch and lightly scratch one with a fingernail . More like a ...

Jonathan the 2nd

I still have a lazy left hand ( it just goes on strike ) although I am using the bass clef regularly enough. Knowing where the notes are will come. I tried playing all the right hand notes and sharing out the work between both hands yesterday .My short thumb likes to avoid too much stretching. I hav...

Jonathan the 2nd

Paderewski ran into the problem of heavier keys when he went to America on a tour .

Jonathan the 2nd

The recording in the title above deserves attention for 3 things. Firstly , the immaculate performance . Second , the piano itself for a rich mellow tone . Third for the old temperament used on newer music .The temperament itself , probably Thomas Young ,has no shortcomings in any way . I don`t know...

Jonathan the 2nd

I did start off learning scales and finger patterns but took a diversion and began just memorising which black notes were used. I am surprised how simple and effective it has become. Don`t follow my bad example.

Jonathan the 2nd

But it gets worse. I move on to other Mazurkas and when I return,like a dog who has buried a bone,I hear more details and the piece seems to have changed again. I will need to make up a picture book to help me with this . This week I met my sister who lives at the other end of the country. I was loo...

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