First, I'm a beginner, as in "the piano is comprised of 52 white keys and 36 black keys". I just bought a Yamaha p95 floor sample which seems fine, except I noticed that if I repeatedly tap any key without letting it fully return to its normal position, it stops making sound after a handful of taps. Is this normal? And as long as we're on this subject, how about for an acoustic piano?

Thanks.

First, I have to honestly admit that I've never counted the white and black keys separately.

Whether or not that action is normal, I can't say. Do you encounter that behavior in actual playing or are you playing one key repeatedly to see what happens?

And as long as we're on this subject, how about for an acoustic piano?

As long as we're on this topic, why don't you play a few acoustic pianos and see what happens. Try playing actual music and don't necessarily try to play one note and repeat it to see what happens unless of course that is the music you're wishing to play.

Anticipating a potential follow up question, it is normal for the top 17 or so notes to continue ringing after depressing; the piano or your sustain pedal is not defective.

I was just playing around with, as opposed to playing, my keyboard when I noticed it. It made me wonder if it indicated a problem with the keyboard. Nothing more. Thanks for the response. I'm going to file this keyboard "issue" away as unimportant.

This is the weakness of P95's GHS keyboard. YAMAHA improved repeat key recognition in their high end model: GH3. They use triple sensors in this model so that a key can be pressed down again without fully back to the normal position.

Thanks for clearing this up for me.

cosun is implying that the key is not sounding because you are not letting it up high enough before striking again. That doesn't sound to me exactly like what you described, but it could be possible just by random variation. Identical strikes should either always sound or never sound. If they sound several times and then don't (and you let the key up the same amount on each strike), it means you've unconvered a bug of some kind unrelated to the two sensor action.

The third sensor allows the key to sound when it has been lifted a very small amount less than is required on a two-sensor action. IIRC people were talking about this difference being about a millimeter or so in Yamaha pianos (a bit more in Roland). It can make a difference while playing certain things, but it's a bit subtle and not likely to be noticed by a beginner.