What Is Your Ideal Piano Sound?

Buying a piano involves a great deal of research to ensure you find the instrument that speaks to you. Of course, finding a piano with the sound you love will enhance your playing experience, but how do you describe the ideal sound quality with words? That's easy once you know the appropriate vocabulary to use.

Voicing Is Not Tuning

Understanding the difference between voicing and tuning is the first step toward describing your ideal piano sound. Tuning is the process of adjusting the frequency at which a string vibrates to create the sound for a particular note. For example, piano tuners start by tuning the note, "A" above middle "C" to a pitch of A440. Doing this allows the string associated with that note to vibrate at 440 cycles per second. If the number of vibrations is higher, the note is sharp; if the number is lower, the note is flat.

Voicing involves an entirely different process. Whereas tuning deals with pitch, voicing references a piano's timbre or the blend of harmonics. In other words, it refers to the "softness" or "hardness" of the piano's sound, though this is not the same as loudness. Thus, just as we might discern different qualities in human voices singing the same notes, we can also tell the difference between the sound of two pianos that are both in tune.

The Vocabulary of Voicing

Pianists who want to describe a piano's unique tone or timbre use specific words to convey its personality traits. Knowing these descriptive terms can facilitate your piano selection process.

Mellow

A piano's tone would be "mellow" when it has fewer upper harmonics and focuses on the fundamental frequency. The lowest frequency produced by a vibrating string determines ta piano's mellowness. Other words that describe mellow pianos are:

• Warm

• Sweet

• Lush

• Round

• Dark

It is not enough for a piano's tone to focus on the fundamental frequency to achieve a beautifully mellow quality. It must also have a wide range of harmonics or the waves the strings produce when the hammers strike them. These waves produce harmonics or frequencies that are whole number multiples of the fundamental. The combination of harmonics or colors and the fundamental frequency contributes to a mellow piano's beauty.

Bright

A piano is bright if its tone focuses on higher harmonics and less on fundamentals. A wide range of harmonics is necessary to produce a beautifully rich and layered or colorful sound. Descriptive words for bright pianos include:

• Brilliant

• Crisp

• Clean

• Clear

Evenness

Sometimes there can be differences in the timbre of notes on the same piano due to various factors such as humidity changes or playing some notes more than others. For example, hammer felts that absorb moisture become softer and create a more mellow sound upon striking a string. Other the other hand, repeatedly playing the same notes can flatten the hammer felts, making them denser and less porous. These harder felts can produce a brightness of tone.

The Importance of Voicing

A piano technician will use different techniques to even out a piano's voice or adjust it to a room's acoustics. For example, strategically inserting needles into the felt of the hammer head can open the space between the fibers to produce a more mellow sound. Alternatively, adding a thin coat of lacquer to the hammer felts can create additional weight or density, resulting in a brighter sound.

Final Thoughts

When shopping for a piano, it is best to compare similar models in a similar environment to discern their unique tonal characteristics. We recommend that you listen to find the sound that you like the best. Preference is very subjective and there is no right or wrong sound. And don't worry, you will know if a piano has a poor tone even if you can't describe it. A piano will sound either dead or tinny and brash without the proper voicing.

If you like a brighter sound and expect to play your piano frequently, you might consider choosing an instrument with a voice just slightly mellow than what you prefer because frequent playing will naturally brighten it up in time.

Remember, a skilled technician can adjust some aspects of a piano, but you should consider a different instrument if you don't like a piano's general personality.

Contact us at info@cantabileharrisonpianos.com when you are ready to choose your perfect piano from our extensive collection of investment-quality instruments.