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If you are a performer, you generally gravitate to lighter actions. This gives you greater dynamic range and better control. More importantly, for pianists who have to play on a wide variety of different instruments, it is easier to move from a light action to a heavy one, rather than the converse.

Hmm... My teacher told me the other way around. She told me that many professional concert pianists prefer heavy action for their personal piano as it improves their finger strength and makes it easier to adapt to different actions of the pianos at the performance venues.

Osho

And you believed it?

Why wouldn't he? There is nothing inherently more plausible about your claim, it is just a preference and opinion masquerading as a fact.

I share the same opinion with Osho's teacher that heavier action helps us adapt easier to different actions.

It's always been harder for me to go from a light action to a heavier one. Definitely easier the other way around.

Think about baseball players. Do they warm up with a lighter bats or a heavier ones? They warm up with weights on their bats. It would be difficult to practice with a light bat and then have to switch to a heavy one for the game.

I think it's the same with piano (at least for me it is).

God Bless,
David

Well said, David. Heavy action is great for getting in shape. Going from heavy to lighter is easier for me.

Agree, it's easier to move from a heavy action to a light one.

I do agree that you get more nuance on a lighter action and the ability to make subtle shifts in dynamic matter and you aren't going to develop that working purely on a heavy action... but it's definitely easier to practice on a heavy action and fine tune on a light one than the other way around.

I’ve noticed I play more nuanced and with better dynamics control on heavy actions compared to light actions. Heavy actions are tiring but to me are better for expressivity. And of course, as anyone else confirmed, moving from a heavy action to a light action is easier, not the other way around. That seems to be an already established fact coming from the experience of almost anybody. Do we call it a myth?

As a relative beginner, yes I’ve found that setting the touch to a heavier setting on my DP does make it easier to control dynamics - I have no idea how that translates to acoustic pianos (which are all different to each other, even if they’re the same make/model).

By doing that, am I cheating? 😇

I'm on team heavy action for better expressivity.

And you believed it?

I think i prefer a lighter action, it gives me the feeling of more control. It feels like my timing is better on a light action.

But I do think a heavier action has it's benefits. For example, when you have thick fingers and you play a white key in-between 2 black keys, your finger will rub on the sides of both black keys. With a heavier action, these black keys don't go down with the friction of your finger as easily as with a light action, so with the heavier action it's easier to play that white key, without accidentally playing these black keys as well.

I disagree with the OP. I think heavier actions are easier to control, although it's easier to move from heavy to light.

I'm not able to move from a heavy action to a light action. Nor vice versa.
I can only afford one piano. So I don't move at all.

Anyway ... I've made no such moves for twelve years now. But next year will bring a new piano.
And it will have a lighter action. That's a requirement. Age does that to you.

I think my CN37 has a very heavy action (not the touch curve). When I tried a P125 action it was so light I thought my fingers could fly on those keys. On my DP I experience much more fatigue but I feel I can get a wider dynamic range.
So, which is better? Of course, a real grand piano action!

IMO, a heavy action on an acoustic piano and a sluggish electric piano action are not the same. This thread seems to be making no distinction.

(written before magicpiano comment, which directly speaks to my opinion.)

Gotta be an individual thing. Control over a super-light action, for instance, would be difficult. You need a certain level of resistance to push against. Everybody's optimal value would be different.
Too, does/should the action be similarly loaded all the way down or increase with the push of the fingers? Perhaps it ought to reduce as it descends, instead.
So what we (think we) need is . . .

A Configurable Action! Some, perhaps most acoustics are regulatable . . .

I don't believe. I know.