Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum Is the all white key piano the dumbest think ever?

https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/instruments/piano/sinhakken-only-white-no-black-keys/

To me, this is a ridiculous idea because:
1. It's incredibly difficult to play since one can't use the black keys to to orient oneself
2. It's incredibly limited to what pieces it can perform since it only contains notes in the C major scale

Maybe only one example of this was built? The only reason I can think for someone buying it would its unique look but there are so many other ways to choose something other than the standard black piano.

Yes.


At first I thought *all* the keys were white. IOW, every key would be attached to a hammer, and all the hammers would function. If so, that would be incredibly hard to play, but sort of interesting nonetheless.

But no. This is a piano with a full set of hammer/action, but only the black keys themselves are missing. So, that's just dumb.

Also, how would the tuner tune the strings that should be attached to a black key? As those strings went out of tune, wouldn't they add an out-of-tune resonance?

So yeah, just dumb.

/cranky

Well, I've learned from experience that, sometimes, being really good at something is not quite good enough, in terms of gaining a competitive edge, in an effort to achieve a certain level of success.

But in the case of an all white key piano, as much as I like playing in the key of C major, I wouldn't want one, and I certainly would not buy one. If fact, I would not go out of my way to see or play one.

On the other hand, being different can add a extra edge at times, that can lead to success. On the other, other hand, being too different from the norm can mean failure rather than success.

Rick

The pianist just improvises when the piece (Doctor Gradus) becomes more chromatic.Yes very strange looking too.How many improvisations are there in C major ? Not enough.

There is equal value to each key - no discrimination

You just need one piano per scale...

Maybe you could swap out the keys and buy a set of keys for each scale or possibly specific for each song you want to play.
If this were the software industry, that would be perfectly normal

It only has the diatonic notes of C major, there are no sharps.

From what I can see this is not a specially built piano, but rather a keyboard and action that can be fitted to an existing piano. Sinhakken is on the fallboard but it's only because they put a decal over where it says Steinway and Sons, the piano in the Classic FM video is just a normal Hamburg B. They'll have tuned it with the normal keyboard in it.

It's probably the dumbest idea ever, I've no idea why they'd think to do it, but hey, it got them likes on facebook and that's what counts these days right?

Wow, I thought this would be someone’s novelty design bespoke piano with the sharps coloured white or something. But no. This is so dumb it must be a ploy for social media hype. I agree with Joseph Fleetwood, seems like that’s all that matters these days.

If they want to show the world a piano without any black keys break out the photoshop. No need to physically build anything.

In the thread below, very recently, I voted that this was probably the oddest piano ever.

http://forum.pianoworld.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/2990787/oddball-pianos.html#Post2990787

But the truth is that its main problem is to be an all naturals keyboard, and not the fact of being an all white one.

Why? Because for blind pianists it does not matter at all the colour of the keys. They could be purple or grey, rainbow style or all white. But it is of utmost importance its integrity and completion, for giving them the same possibilities that non blinded people have.

Well, perhaps, for some weirdos it might function as a toy piano.

Fluxo,

Of course the color isn't relevant, but I wonder how much of an impact there is due to the fact that the black keys are raised and shorter. Those would be potential tactile guides. I would guess that plays (har) at least a medium sized role. It would be interesting to see a video of a blind pianist playing with the camera directly over the keyboard....

Yes, completely ridiculous and stupid. Also, maybe it’s just the angle but I couldn’t see any distinction from one key to the next, which would make playing even more difficult. How would you find middle C? Is there a little notch like on a typewriter or computer keyboard? I might just try it to try it but no real interest here.

Strangely enough, googling "Sinhakken" brings up nearly nothing about the company behind this publicity stunt. From what I can gather they appear to be Japanese (there are images on Google of the piano at some sort of trade show in Japan), but they have no website that I can find, or a product page. Only articles like the one OP linked to.

SinhaKKKen

Wow! So many grumpy people this morning! The all-naturals keyboard is interesting. I'd love to sit down at it, but it wouldn't be to play Op. 10/5. I'd want to try something new. And, no, it doesn't only play in C major.

Was the Janko keyboard the dumbest think ever? How about Christopher Seed's left-handed piano? How about when Joe Zawinul reversed the keyboard on his Arp 2600 (while simultaneously playing a Rhodes with a standard keyboard right under it)?

I was intrigued.

Larry.

We’re not grumpy. We were just trained for years on the standard keyboard. All those hours memorizing all the scales, chord cadences, and arpeggios. Changing to such a new piano completely undermines all my training and practicing. Plus the only music I could play is in Ionian mode. It reminds me of a broken computer keyboard that only has the middle row of letters working with no double tap options. If you weren’t around for cellphone texting you won’t understand my last statement.

I’m just old. I hate to think I just have to flush all that struggle to learn key positions away.

It's MUCH worse than what you said for the reasons stated in the first post. It's not just that everyone is used to the standard keyboard.

No, I'm not grumpy. My problem with the keyboard is not that it's "inconvenient" or requires learning something new. It's that you cannot play C#, D#, F#, G#, or A# (well, and you also can't play Db, Eb, Gb, Ab, or Bb).

Innovations to instruments should add, not detract, to the music.

That's my take anyway.

pianoloverus- true. Since the vast collection of piano music was composed with a full chromatic scale, in fact most all popular modern music uses a chromatic scale, I just don’t think, as much as I love the C major scale, that it would be pretty much useless as an acoustic piano.

I'm pretty sure that the creators of the all-naturals keyboard didn't think that they were creating a replacement for the traditional keyboard. Just an interesting variation. Slide it out, slide in the traditional keyboard, and your Well Tempered Clavier is good to go.

Larry.

Me too, j&j.

Plus, just when I was getting pretty good at sliding off the black keys on to the white keys, really fast, on my boogie and blues tunes, the thought of not having any sharps/flats/black keys is disheartening.

Rick