Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Tuner-Technicians Forum Una corda question

Lately I find myself using the una corda a lot to spare my ears. I don't know if it's confinement in the pandemic or what, but I often find the sound too much, especially e.g. practicing mvt 3 of Beethoven's Moonlight sonata. Sometimes I've even used both earplugs and una corda.

Is there any problem for the piano from too much una corda? Peculiar wear to the hammers?

I can’t imagine how it’d be a problem for the hammers, although perhaps not the best solution to your piano being overly bright If you use it enough that softer part of the hammer will compress and get increasingly bright. I tend to use the soft pedal a lot and that actually happened to my former Steinway after a few years.

The better solution of course is to have the hammers voiced for how you like it in their default position and then have the soft pedal even softer.

I'm not a tech

But FAIK the una corda panel is for changing the timbre of the sound, not to make it softer.

If you use it to play softer, you probably press the pedal all the way down and keep it there. After some time the hammer will become just as hard in the new spot as it was in the old spot and the unacorda will then sound roughly the same as without the una corda.

So in short, yes you will loose the effect. And you are using it for the wrong reasons

I suggest you let your piano be voiced properly so that you have the sound you want without the unacorda pedal.

If you use it too much then you might end up losing the tonal distinction between the two - besides the shift from 3 to 2 strings, one of the reasons for the tonal shift you get with una corda is that the hammers are striking the strings on less used (and therefore less compacted) felt. If you end up using una corda most of the time, that felt in the shift position will get compacted and you might not notice as much of a reduction in volume anymore.

Thanks for the replies thus far.

Hmm, well, voicing might be nice. But actually, I think one reason the sound bothers me is that I haven't been able to get the piano tuned in quite a while. So of course, another thing the una corda does is reduce the number of strings to compete with each other.

I'm looking forward to the day when I can get the technician back.

I never use the una corda unless it's a performance. Piano hammers compress and harden very quickly.

There is some different thinking on this, but there are plenty of technicians and pianists (such as myself) who deliberately setup the piano action to shift over to the right only enough to play on a softer (deliberately voiced that way) part of the hammer. This doesn’t make it softer in volume but softer in timbre.

I know there are some who still set it up to strike only two strings (for trichords) but I personally think that has quite a bit less usefulness.

Some simple things you can try before digging into your hammers:
Close the lid. Put a thick carpet under the piano.
Use curtains or other fabrics to partially cover smooth flat walls.
Attach fabric to the underside of the piano.
If the piano is on a solid floor, think about insulated caster cups.

This topic has come up a few times before. My tech told me that it's possible, although rare, that continually striking the hammers off center can cause the hammers to eventually twist. Not every tech agrees with this.

I forget what it's called, but there is an inexpensive mute rail that can be installed if you're concerned with some of the possible problems others have mentioned.

If you are adventurous, you could try doing some voicing yourself. Get a Hart Voicing Tool (a slender brass rod with a needle in the end). It allows you to voice through the strings. Place a light to the side so you can easily see the string groves. Start out by just giving each string grove a deep poke just past the very center of the groove. Avoid going directly right into the middle of the grove as you might kill the power. Sometimes you do it anyways as a last resort of less aggressive needling doesn't give you the desired results.

You want to play the note and have the hammer in check when you push the needle in. In other words, hold the key down while using the tool so the hammer is held up with the back-check.

I did a quick search and found this video which does an ok job showing this type of voicing.

I am not that adventurous! would be afraid of messing things up.

Thanks, all--will try to find other means of sound control until the technician can come.

I would strongly caution anyone considering using glovers needles for any kind of voicing - particularly in this application where you're using the needle very close to the strike point. Cutting the felt, even in small amounts - that close to the strike point is a terrible idea. It might get you quick results, but using a traditional chopstick voicing tool with a typical quilting between needle will get you very similar results without potentially ruining the integrity of the felt in that crucial 11-1 o'clock area.

JDW, I say this only because for the first 11 years, I didn't think of it. My piano has a big voice in a bright room, and I did follow the advice to place a thick carpet under the piano (and some other things, too). What I didn't think of, was to bring the carpet far enough forward so that it was under my feet. A lot of sound energy was being let out from the underside of the soundboard, and reflected directly to my ears.

Less than two feet later, everything was beautiful.

I think there is no problem with an unacording piano

https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/keys/una-corda/

But in this case do not press the pedal. It becomes a silent piano.