Piano voicing, make piano sound much better

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   Voicing is the process of changing the quality of the tone that the piano produces. Voicing is an important step in piano care and maintenance, and one that is often overlooked. Many piano players incorrectly assume how a piano sounds now is just the way it is. This couldn't be farther from the truth. It is not the same thing as tuning, which is adjusting the pitch. Pitch refers only to the frequency with which a string vibrates and is completely empirical. It's essentially a math issue. A note is either in tune or it's not. A440 is a pitch which means that the string is vibrating at 440 Hz or cycles per second. On a piano, A440 is the A directly above middle C. If that note is not vibrating at 440Hz, it is out of tune. A lower number means it is flat, while a higher number means it is sharp.

The basic techniques of voicing a piano are simple. You can't realistically change many things about your piano such as the soundboard or the strings. But you can change the tone that is produced when the hammer hits the string. That's where it all happens. Technicians alter the tone by changing the firmness of the hammer. If a piano is too bright or harsh or loud or abrasive in its tonal characteristics, a technician can "soften" the hammer by taking a tool that holds needles and sticking it into the hammer felt at specific locations to loosen up the felt fibers. This will soften the tone. If a piano is too dull or muffled or lifeless or soft, a technician can use various techniques to build more tone. Among these would be filing or reshaping the hammers with sandpaper or lacquering the hammers. Filing will generally provide more subtle changes when that is the goal, while lacquering can show much larger changes. Clear, water white lacquer is mixed with thinner and applied to the felt of the hammers. When the thinner evaporates away, the solid components of the lacquer remain, increasing the density of the felt and stiffening the fibers. This will produce a stronger, brighter tone.

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lovepiano23 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Groupie Joined: 12 Oct 2018 Points: 97	Post Options Post Reply Quote lovepiano23 Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: Piano voicing, make piano sound much better Posted: 05 Nov 2018 at 11:50pm
	Voicing is the process of changing the quality of the tone that the piano produces. Voicing is an important step in piano care and maintenance, and one that is often overlooked. Many piano players incorrectly assume how a piano sounds now is just the way it is. This couldn't be farther from the truth. It is not the same thing as tuning, which is adjusting the pitch. Pitch refers only to the frequency with which a string vibrates and is completely empirical. It's essentially a math issue. A note is either in tune or it's not. A440 is a pitch which means that the string is vibrating at 440 Hz or cycles per second. On a piano, A440 is the A directly above middle C. If that note is not vibrating at 440Hz, it is out of tune. A lower number means it is flat, while a higher number means it is sharp. The basic techniques of voicing a piano are simple. You can't realistically change many things about your piano such as the soundboard or the strings. But you can change the tone that is produced when the hammer hits the string. That's where it all happens. Technicians alter the tone by changing the firmness of the hammer. If a piano is too bright or harsh or loud or abrasive in its tonal characteristics, a technician can "soften" the hammer by taking a tool that holds needles and sticking it into the hammer felt at specific locations to loosen up the felt fibers. This will soften the tone. If a piano is too dull or muffled or lifeless or soft, a technician can use various techniques to build more tone. Among these would be filing or reshaping the hammers with sandpaper or lacquering the hammers. Filing will generally provide more subtle changes when that is the goal, while lacquering can show much larger changes. Clear, water white lacquer is mixed with thinner and applied to the felt of the hammers. When the thinner evaporates away, the solid components of the lacquer remain, increasing the density of the felt and stiffening the fibers. This will produce a stronger, brighter tone.

Alice Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Groupie Joined: 09 Oct 2018 Points: 44	Post Options Post Reply Quote Alice Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 08 Dec 2018 at 5:25pm
	Every piano has its own tone quality or �voice� which can either be sweet, mellow, sharp or bright. Regular playing affects this voice. Frequent playing will compact and dent the hammer felt. Subsequently this leads to hardened and grooved hammerheads resulting in a loss of resilience, thereby producing poor tonal quality. Voicing is the treatment of the hammerheads to improve or adjust the piano tone. It is an intricate and highly specialised procedure of controlling the way the string vibrates by adjusting the density of the felt in each hammer, and to some degree, the shape of each hammer. This type of service requires care and expertise from the piano technician as one wrong application can damage the tonal quality of your piano. Edited by Alice - 08 Dec 2018 at 5:31pm