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As a piano technician/rebuilder I have been wondering what preference pianist's have concerning the way the black keys are made.

I am not asking about ebony verses plastic but would like opinions about the width, tapered or not-tapered height, etc.

I have noticed the shape, size and texture of the naturals seems to elicit more opinions than the variables found in sharp key-tops.

I find narrower widths harder to play on, because it requires more precision to hit them quickly.

I imagine if I were Rachmaninoff, with his large hands, I would appreciate as much space between the black keys as possible, because sometimes it's hard to fit your fingers between the spaces of the black keys.

Semi-off-topic, I would love to play a piano with the black and white keys reversed.

Do you mean 5 flat keys to 7 raised keys? That does not work!

If you just mean that the colors are interchanged, it seems like a strange desire, but you could get some paint and have at it, as long as it is your piano!

In my experience Ed there are as many opinions on that issue as there are options. Pianists tend to like what they know, so many people will just enjoy something similar to what they are used to, with very little consideration of something different.

Those that do express an opinion fall into two camps:

1) Wide sharps with lots of bevels

2) Thinner sharps, tapered - bevels optional

I think it has to do with size of hands and repertoire played. IMHO, getting a consensus on this is about as likely as getting a consensus on which shade of stain is best to use on a mahogany veneer.

It is a good subject for a thread though and I look forward to other responses.

My 2 cents,

If the keys are too sharp, you can cut your fingers.

I like for the sharps to have a good key-level position. In other words, I've seen pianos where the sharps would bottom out below the neighboring white keys. This can happen when the white key-tops are replaced and the sharps are not leveled in proportion to the white keys properly.

I also like a sharp with a flatter, smoother top rather than the oval or tapered top surface.

Well, that's my .02. (FWIW )

Rick

The JA Stein fortepiano had the B&W reversed. Good luck in trying to find one to play. Replicas of these and similar are around. These may be easier to find. Permission to play may be another thing.

Good observation on the Rach.

To the point in question:

The variety of shape and size is incredible.

You wouldn't think that sharps could fall off (or get whacked off) and get lost very often, but it was quite surprising how many calls we received to this effect. (Mostly from high schools. Perhaps that should not be surprising at all.)

Consequently, mobile inventory included sharps of all size and shape - plastic and ebony. With ivory reclamation we salvaged sharps when possible. All necessary just to find a match especially on some of the really old and obsolete instruments.

All indicative of no attempt ever at industry standardization perhaps due in part to varying pianists' preference and technique (or the lack thereof.)

One reason we like our Hamilton grand is the size and shape of the sharps: plenty of flat surface (not too narrow), all beveled, and plenty of space in between. Ebony has a little texture, somewhat akin to the ivory, and we like that too.

Just right for us, but maybe not Rach.

Friends:

In my experience, no sharp key has ever rivaled the old Masons for comfort. However, I'm told that some pianists with esp. thick fingers get them caught between keys.

I played a glittering Fazioli some years back whose sharp keys were positively painful.

Karl Watson,
Staten Island, NY

I love the feeling of the big fat old Mason sharps when playing them. I hate the lack of space when playing naturals between them. The extra short naturals on the old Masons forced one to play deep into the black key area more than other makes with longer naturals.
I think it more important to have the space between the sharps.

Current Kluge sharps are a good standard.

Like this guy:



I grew up playing mostly Yamahas, and the first time I ever played a Steinway, I remember being intimidated by the narrow width of the black keys.

A good pianist must adapt to whatever he has, though.

Most harpsichords and fortepianos, and many old style organs have the reverse color scheme of what modern piano keyboards have.

You can get a piano keyboard this way if you like, just talk to Mike Morvan

http://www.pianoandorgankeys.com

Ed, to me the biggest problem is the width of my fingers. I drew up a keyboard in AutoCAD with the sharps 0.300" wide, a minimum of 0.700" between them, and the total width for 88 keys under 48.5", just like most existing keyboard instruments.

It would also be interesting if the sides of the sharps could be undercut rather than beveled, to give you even more room. On some older pianos they are -- not intentionally, but as the result of years of players' fingernails taking out little nicks. (Of course I'd want a lot more undercut than that....)

Some day I'll get my machine shop out of storage and find a junker digital keyboard to try this on....

... or talk to David Steinbuhler. If he can fix you up with a 7/8 keyboard I bet he could do a 9/8!

Larry.

That might work but one has to be aware that the width of one's fingers and the width of one's hands are two separate measurements, so widening the keyboard may mean that more people will not span an octave on it. It is one of life's compromises.

Aye, there's the rub -- I can span an octave, but at the edge of discomfort. A 9/8 board would be a pain for playing stride -- a goal of mine. Length of arms becomes a problem there, too.

Go Janko (go!).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cK4REjqGc9w

Nearly a decade ago I read about a concert pianist who had small fingers, and got a piano with smaller than normal keys (both black and white). She said it improved her technique tremendously.

I used to practice on an old Steinway B that had great big huge square black keys. I loved it. I used to find thinner keys intimidating, but I've gotten used to them, and sometimes find them easier to play on, depending on what I'm playing.

I recently played a Hailun 178 and one of the things that stood out to me was I thought the sharps were too wide. I had other nits with the keyboard, but the wide sharps gave it this unrefined feel. My hands aren't that big so I don't think I'd have problems fitting my fingers in between them, but it just seemed clunky and unnecessarily wide. And I've played many other pianos and haven't complained about the sharp's dimensions before.

I was going to say I like my RX5's keyboard, but not sure if that's part of the reason why I bought it or I'm just used to it.

re: the RX5 (sounds like a major appliance) - funnily enough, I was practising on a small Kawai grand, recently, and found the keyboard and esp. the accidentals to be very comfortable.

Kawai pianos often seem to have little touches that endear one; the pedals like old-time Bechsteins are quite nice.

Karl Watson,
Staten Island, NY