Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Thick Black Keys vs. Thin

Does anyone else have trouble, after playing a piano with those thick black keys, with going back to the thin (the ones I'm thinking of are both Steinways). I could scarcely play a thing when I did this!

I have 2 grand pianos. One has the thick black keys and one has the sculpted thinner black keys.
I think for my finger pads I prefer the thicker but then I have had that particular piano many years compared to the one with thinner black keys and that is the piano on which I practice.

just some thoughts...


rada
www.pianopassions.com

Weird - I didn't know there were differences... I mostly just use my digital at home though, and one piano for lessons...

Next time I'm around other pianos, I'll have to look...

After I play the thick-black key ones, probably because I'm not used to it, my technique feels much worse.

I have also found this problem.

There is a piano at my kids school where the black keys are very thin, and they are also higher.
This is a nightmare to play.

i have a digital kawai and if i have to play a white key in between two blacks, my 3 and 4 finger just wont fit, i keep pressing the blacks too. it s a nightmare.

I think among modern, real, acoustic pianos, the key sizes and spacings are relatively standard, but if you play on vintage instruments (or perhaps digital, although I can't speak to this because I do not play on digital pianos), then on modern ones, there will be some unsettling differences (this might be a good thread for feedback from the technicians on their forum) that require a quick re-calibration, especially for fast, technical passages. I once performed the Mendelssohn Rondo Cappricioso on an antique (1880's) piano at an old gold mining camp lodge north of Fairbanks - whoah, the keys I missed because they weren't in the 'right' place for some of those leap-of-faith reaches! I was so used to the Steinways onstage in our concert hall - different ages but both modern and same manufacturer (one 1980's and one maybe 1970's).

FWIW it's good to sieze as many opportunities as you can to play on instruments that are slightly different. It will make you more adaptable and flexible, even if it messes you up at first. Always try to practice, if possible, on the instrument that you will be performing on, if you have a recital coming up. You don't want this kind of surprise. You have enough to worry about. For that matter, you should practice a couple of times wearing the clothes you will play the recital in, too. Little differences in shoulder width, sleeve tightness, tugging, even a collar that is higher or lower than you are used to, can mess you up if you haven't become accustomed to it in advance.

Izaldu, you need to plan into your practice where your hands move forward and back on the keys so you don't have to try to press a white key so far towards the stop that it is between black ones. sometimes it is appropriate to be farther out, sometimes farther in. It should be part of the same process as learning your fingerings. You can even write it onto the music so you remember ("in", "out"). Note that the in or out position may be independent between your hands. I am working on a Bach right now that has some fairly asymmetrical "in" and "out" for the two hands; I had to plan this right into the whole learning process as I was learning the notes and fingerings. It makes a huge difference in how easy it is to play as well as how easy it is to not accidentally hit a key you don't intend just because there's no room (i.e., fat fingers). And no, I didn't think of this myself. My teacher pointed it out to me

Although I do not "Perform", I try to do this as often as possible. You never know what "Instrument" will be available.

There are subtle differences between piano keyboards depending upon the brand, and which keyboard and action manufacturer they used. My Vogel, and other Schimmels for instance, have slightly narrower keys overall. It's not much, but it's enough to confuse you at first.

My clavichords and virginal, on the otherhand have quite narrow keyboards with the larger unfretted clavichord having just slightly narrower keys than those on the Vogel.

I have to admit that it takes a little time to become acustomed to the differences in key width. I find it very difficult to play all-sharp keys like F-sharp major on the virginal, but have little trouble on the clavichord or my piano. On the virginal, my fingers fall of the sharps, and it feels as though they need to hold on to something all the time like they've been placed on the edge of a cliff.

John

Hey Santa Fe thanks, i am actually improving just the way you re describing. I ve played guitar before and that really doesnt help. Piano is a different story and already im certain that transition from guitar to piano must be much harder than the other way around.

Hi,

Not only is the style and relationship between black and white key shapes keys not standard, but the width of an octave isn't either. This was quite a surprise when I first started to play, and was wondering why my fingers seemed to hit the edge of the keys more often on one keyboard than another.

Coming from guitar, I was used to the idea that necks can be different widths and lengths, but I'd blithely assumed that piano style keyboards had been standardised decades if not centuries ago. But it seems that's still not the case, although the variation is apparently much less than it has been in the past. But, unless you play one instrument exclusively and hardly if ever swap then it's not a big deal. Like picking up a different guitar, or driving an unfamiliar car, you soon adapt. My two keyboards have different octave widths, and complely different touch and feel. About the only thing they have in common is the order of the notes and the colour of the keys. But I have little trouble sounding equally medicocre on either of them....

This is an issue for me as well as my teacher's piano has thinner black keys than my piano has. I must say I prefer the thinner but I am sure I could adapt to just about anything if given time.

I experienced this issue with my 1924 Mason CC2 Concert Grand. My fingers would inevitably get stuck between the sharps when playing chords. This did not happen on other pianos. When I measured the width of the sharps with a micrometer, they were actually 1mm wider than my Steinway or my Estonia!! This was unacceptable to me, so I sent the keyset off to a company that creates brand new keysets to your specs. It was well worth the investment.

So, is it the modern Steinways that have these thick black keys, and the older ones that, generally speaking, have thinner black keys? That's how it is with the two that I'm playing on -- the thick-key one also has that thing where the keys bounce back super-fast so you can hit the same note again and again.

I really prefer the older, thin-black-key one (which also seems like to requires alot more strength).