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In 55 years - have had more than 5 strings break on different pianos:

I might add here that I previously broke no less than 3 bass strings on a Baldwin Hamilton upright that my parents had bought for me (when I was very young and both of them are now gone) as I was a rather heavy-handed player.

The strings had snapped as I was playing on three separate occasions (during practice of some Rachmaninoff and/or Liszt pieces) and my parents weren't so happy to find out that they had a demolition son as a pianist!

In later years I paid the price for my powerhouse approach as my hands and wrists suffered injury as a result. As for now I only own digital pianos and don't ever need to worry about broken strings or tuning.

Extra note:

Here is Horowitz breaking a string in a live performance:

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

It can happen on a concert grand!

Thanks for sharing your experience of injuring your hands. It is a personal part of your life which could not be pleasant to share with others.

The unique aspect of your story relates to the Hamilton/Baldwin upright that you broke stings on. And, I say that for the following history:

Carey and I matriculated at the North Texas State University in the early 1970's. At that time, they had 1,500 music majors, 300 of which were graduate students.

Did they have practice rooms? Oh, yes they did, and all of them (100%) had Hamilton uprights.

During that time, I was friends (and followed him around to most of his tunings) with Robert Spears, who was the tuner technician to the music school. He taught me the concept of "stretching an octave."

On point, in that entire time, I never heard of anyone breaking a string on a Hamilton upright. And remember, these pianos were played daily for the better part of 16 hours a day for nine months a year.

I am very sorry that some teacher taught you that in order to get a big sound, in regards a Romantic Period or Post-Romantic Period Composer, that you had to beat on a piano in order to get the desired result.

Parenthetically, what no one is talking about is voicing the hammers on a given piano and more importantly the key dip on any piano.

@Louis,

I am no longer the piano pounder I used to be although it was ironic that after the first string snapped (on the Baldwin Hamilton) then the other two followed very shortly, thereafter. Lots of pedal, resonance, and stiff fingers will do it.

Turns out that no one had "taught" me any method as I only had two teachers in my past and I played loud and hard just to get the attention of anyone who was listening (only my parents). It was this obsessive heavy handedness that resulted in chastisement by my father who had to come downstairs and literally drag me away from the piano since it was after 11:00 PM and he had to get to bed to go to work early in the morning. Those were the days!

It's better to have a digital where you can turn down the volume to acceptable levels or put on headphones although since I own my own house now this is no longer an issue. I just can't imagine someone owning a decent sized grand in an apartment situation.

When would anyone allow you to play it?

I broke the high F on my '77 Yamaha. I suspect the strings are original.

Anyone wanna guess what I was playing when I broke it?

In well-built older apartment buildings it may be no problem. I have a voice teacher friend in a high-rise whose neighbors don't hear her Steinway M.

Probably not one of those pieces by Ustvolskaya or Ligeti that are awash in forte marks, which almost seem to be asking for strings to break. Probably something much more domesticated, like Chopin's 2nd Scherzo.

For once at least, WR and I agree.

Yes, and I got a little carried away. (it broke on the final note )

The good thing is, when you break that string on the last note, it's not a problem because you're done.

(I seem to remember a story of someone breaking a string in the middle of the piano, then playing the entire Liszt sonata while avoiding that key.)

One of the strings I have broken was during the coda of the C# minor etude, opus 10/4.