ANATOMY OF A PIANO
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KEYS AND ACTION
The term ‘action’ is used to describe the mechanism of a hammer striking a string and sounding a note after piano keys have been depressed.
With over one thousand parts, the action is the most intricate part of a piano. It has to translate every nuance of the performer from the fingertips to the keys, to the hammers and to the strings - giving pianists the power of expression to play as loudly, softly, quickly or slowly as they wish. In other words, the action directly affects a pianist’s ability to perform expressively.
It is a complicated mechanical process that not only produces the note, but also enables damping of the strings when the note is released. It must have the right feel, be quiet, efficient and able to withstand years of sustained repeated playing. The best actions allow for notes to be played over the widest range of volumes (pianissimo to forte) and also bring the hammer back into position extremely quickly, so a pianist can repeat the process over and over at a very rapid rate, with each note being sounded. Due to design differences, upright and grand pianos contain different mechanical actions. An upright piano has the hammer moving horizontally, whereas a grand piano has the hammer moving in an upward direction.
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The end result is that a grand piano is a more responsive, more expressive instrument.
In addition, all grand pianos have a repetition lever that enables a pianist to play repeated notes, staccato and fast trills (many notes per second) with greater speed, control and accuracy.
The feel of an action is crucial to the player. The familiar phrase ‘Tinkling the Ivories’ was an expression derived from the fact that most pianos contained ivory key tops, which gave them a distinctive feel. Ivory hasn’t been used for many decades and a modern synthetic material now replicates the appearance and feel of an ivory key top. These modern materials also increase durability, do not turn yellow and are more resistant to chips.
In addition to the feel of the keys, a performer needs control across the entire keyboard, with each key responding uniformly in relation to all the other keys. A fine grand piano has individually weighted and balanced keys that take into account the differences in hammer sizes, enabling evenness of touch.
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