I have a very nice grand piano, and I love to play the Classical repertoire, especially Mozart and Haydn. I think, though, that it’s the kind of piano that works well for the more meaty, Romantic repertoire. If I were to ask a technician to come in and do some work on it, in order to give it a more lighter ‘Classical’ touch/sound, is that possible? 

 

Yes. An experienced technician can fit lighter hammers, enabling the touch to be made lighter (and shallower) too. Keep the old hammers in case you change your mind and wish to return to the previous state. An extreme, but expensive, solution would be to have a completely new, much lighter, action made which you could exchange with the original whenever your mood changes. You would need a secure place to keep the spare action, and organise someone responsible to do the changeovers without breaking something. 

Bill Kreis MPTA

 

 

The situation will depend on the age and condition of the grand piano and it should be possible!

 If it is a relatively new model it would be difficult to noticeably alter the makers specifications of regulation and touch weight, but the tone could be voiced for a mellower sound more suited to earlier keyboard repertoire as far as possible. 

Otherwise if the piano is older, in good maintained condition, the mere operation of 'service work' to address the important parameters of frictional points of contact within the action and keyboard parts, regulation, tuning and voicing (as above) should lead to a sense of lighter and responsive touch. 

Some critical examples of service work procedure are: 

 

1. Correct jack position to ‘roller’ wood core to allow efficient, un-hindered escapement when the key is fully depressed

2. Key bushing cloths should not be loose or tight and the metal pins housing them should be thoroughly polished and friction free. 

3. The dampers should not lift early or as soon as the key starts to be depressed which causes an unnecessary addition of weight. 

 

It is also possible to do more in depth work to assess the current action ‘down’ and ‘up’ weight, with a view to re-weighting the action. This is where additional lead is added to the front portion of the wooden keys. There are technical restrictions to the scope of this work and how far it could go. Each piano requires evaluation of condition and subsequent budget advice to what may or may not be possible.

Andrew Giller MPTA