k c Paul Li wrote:Different touching produces different color/timbre/sound quality
This is one of those fascinating topics that is highly controversial in the classical piano world (especially in the piano pedagogy world).
People tend to fall into one of two camps:
1) The way you press a note directly effects it's tone (brittle/harsh vs. round/warm/clear/singing/etc./etc.).
2) Velocity is the only thing that can be controlled by the finger on a piano key, anything about "touch," "arm weight," "dropping into keys," "playing to the keybed," and so on, is all a figment of the pianist's imagination when it comes to actual tone.
I think it's unfortunate that people are so unnecessarily divided on this, but it seems to come down to whether the person is more analytically minded, or more emotionally minded. In my opinion, it's better to approach this first with basic facts about how a piano works, but then to look more deeply, with a scientific inquisitiveness, at what the actual mechanics are of "touch" related to "tone."
For example, there are a great many pianists and teachers who will insist that if you hold down the damper pedal and play a note, but then let go of the key with your finger, that the tone of the sustained note changes (in a negative way). They're not talking about any subtle sound of the key's mechanical action as you let go of the key, they're really talking about the overall richness of the sustained tone resonating through the piano. Empirically that's just ridiculous, but to dismiss it entirely would be to overlook something very important...
There's a psychology to playing piano (and teaching it), to being able to hear musical lines, to shape them, to play phrases intuitively and fluidly--also for playing rich, well voiced chords, etc. A lot of these piano myths actually serve to improve a pianists phrasing and their control over the instrument. If you're focused on playing with a certain touch, it's because that touch gives you more control over what you're trying to play, whether it's a very gentle crescendo at the beginning of a phrase, a series of powerful repeated and sustained chords, a very gradual diminuendo at the end of a phrase, a strong pronounced legato (finger pedaling), etc., etc. So talking in what might seem vague, pseudo-scientific terms, can actually be a powerful way of teaching technique that can yield significant and positive results. I even had a teacher who constantly told me to focus on my intonation while playing. Even as a teenager I knew that was crazy, but at the same time I intuitively knew what she meant, and it helped me listen more deeply to what I played. If you tell a student to play a cresc. by increasing the velocity of each note by about 5%, but to start the first few notes more at 2% differentiated, as well as the last few notes, creating a bit of an S curve...then you can guarantee poor results (for 99% of students anyway...there are a few that this can actually help).
So how does this relate to Pianoteq? In my opinion, the actual issues are a little difficult to parse. Pianoteq is always improving, so I'm sure things will continue to be refined with more realism added. But in my opinion, one of the biggest issues is with the action of MIDI keyboards. The average action, when compared to a good grand piano, is absolutely terrible. The very best MIDI keyboard actions (aside from the "hybrid" instruments and custom instruments that use actual grand piano action) are okay, but still leave a lot to be desired. I've been waiting years to upgrade my Kawai MIDI controller, but even though there have been some significant improvements made, in my opinion they still have a long way to go. If Pianoteq is about 90 to 95% there, the best widely available MIDI controllers are more like 55-65% there. Recordings made on poor MIDI keyboards (where you're having to fight the instrument as you play) are certainly a factor when played back through Pianoteq.
Then there's the question of speakers, and the way sound radiates from a piano. It's very difficult to even come close to getting that direct connection to the sound that an acoustic piano gives. Although, there are some very good threads in this forum about ways to get closer to that experience.
A big part of that "connection to the sound" is from the actual vibrations you feel through the keyboard of an acoustic piano. It's easy to overlook the importance of this. Yamaha's Avant-Grand has a vibration generator built into the instrument, which you can adjust up or down. And I have to give it to them, it feels quite organic and puts you a big step closer to really feeling like you're playing a physical instrument. The more connected to the instrument you are, the better you play, and the better your recordings are going to be.
Last edited by NathanShirley (23-04-2022 05:53)
