Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Damning with faint praise--DP action is only "good enough"??

Am I very abnormal if I grew up playing uprights and grands and never noticed the notch's utility?
My pianissimo is as impressive as horowitz's was :P

It's a consistent pattern that the people who discount the possibility of the notch being useful are always the DP guys. They just can't stretch themselves to imagine it being useful, or even how it can be incorporated into their technique and certain pieces. They dismiss it as an undesirable artefact of the action. Now it is an artefact, but those who play real grand pianos are aware of its value.

Hi Ando,

I learned on acoustic grand pianos. I practiced for years on acoustic grand pianos. And, until recently, I owned a Yamaha GA-1 baby grand (made in Japan model, not Indonesia) for 13 years. So, I consider myself both an acoustic GP guy as well as a digital piano guy.

We are just going to have to respectfully agree to disagree on this issue.

My humble opinion is that the so-called "playing off the jack" ( i.e using the "Let-off" notch feedback to actively modulate one's playing of an intricate piece)...is simply not done in practice, in the real world. Pianists may be convinced that this is what is occurring, but I feel that they are mistaken.

I humbly submit that what actually is occurring, subconsciously, is you are using your mind's mental map, experience and familiarity of your piano's keyboard (in your case, the V-Piano) to allow the keys to rise to just the right height in order to still allow for quick repetition and/or soft, pianissimo texture.

Notice that I am not saying that tactile feeling of the Let-Off "notch" doesn't exist. What I am saying, is it is so subtle, that IMHO it is not something that can be actively exploited in real-time, during the execution of a medium to difficult (and especially fast) composition. Everything is simply happening too fast for the human brain to discriminate these subtle neural input signals coming through the fingers, followed by processing of this information, and then returning the correct nerve signals to the associative finger muscles.

It can be done when you are striking one or two notes, with no other distractions, and actively feeling for the subtle notch effect. But when you are involved in an actual performance and the playing of a complex phrase (involving multiple key strokes, all requiring precise timing)...I submit that you are actually relying on your memory/experience and familiarity with the piano's action, in order to play pianissimo / sotte voce passages.

It is similar to the phenomena of a composition that has been learned and committed to long-term memory. You can play through the piece, and your active consciousness is on auto-pilot. You aren't stopping to think about what is the next note I have to hit. It is just automatic. In fact, if you are in the middle of a piece, and all of a sudden actively concentrate your thoughts towards what you are playing, and what comes next...often, you will come to a screeching halt.

P.S. -- A hypothetical thought experiment...
I am pretty confident that if any and all physical sensation and feedback, caused by the Let-Off/repetition mechanism, were completely eliminated from a professional pianist's grand piano...they would still be able to execute their repertoire with the same precision and subtlety as before.

Very well put, Tritium. Although I'm still far from learning/performing the complex pieces you have in mind, I too have already experienced the "phenomenon" where I botch even the simplest phrases when I start thinking too much about what note to play next.

I don't really care about what you think I am or am not qualified to judge. I was actually refering to Tritium's point about playing by heart instead of thinking about it but that's a moot point. At any rate, I will keep your attitude in mind next time.

I should have been more specific. That much I'm guilty of. That does not change how I feel about your response, though.

Now if you have managed to make the let-off work for you and help you with certain elements of your playing style, that's all good. But I think it's you who needs to take the chill pill right now. Nobody accused you of dreaming things up. All of us just chimed in with their two cents. Only you started taking things personally.

I should have been more specific. That much I'm guilty of. That does not change how I feel about your response, though.

Hey, Clayman, no need to take ando's response personal, he does that to everyone, myself included.

Just keep enjoying the discussion on keyboards for prodigies with lighted keys and logos, and all