Piano Basics: How to produce different tone colors

Singers use computer software to analyse the overtone spectrum (which determines sound quality) produced by their voices. It is about time pianists start to use this as well when discussing tone color.

Too much waffle

I love the way you teach and your demo, thank you so so much 😊

Great video Dr Wang, any exercise or drill you’d recommend for quick/light touch practice? Thanks!

Thank you! You are an excellent musician and teacher. For some reason, I work on arm weight and everything, but my tone is always dull. Every once in a while, it clicks and I get a deep tone, but most of the time, it leaves the music lifeless. Would you have any advice on what this could be? I've tried many things; firming knuckles usually hurts, while relaxing lacks precision as well.

This is complete horseshit. Tone on the piano literally does not exist in physical reality. When it comes to a single note, the only variables that determine the color of the note is speed, duration, and pedaling. Weight and how “deep” you press the key has nothing to do with the sound aside from volume. The reason for this is that the hammer decouples from the key before striking the string, and so the only possible variable that the hammer can encode is speed.

The only reason playing “deep” makes the playing sound deeper is that committing to pressing the key all the way down increases the likelihood of each note being of a medium or higher volume and duration, thus giving the ILLUSION of depth. On the other hand playing shallowly creates a light sound because it allows you to consistently play soft, and more detatched (each note has shorter duration), giving the illusion of lightness. But this is only true in combination with multiple notes. You cannot change the tone of a single note other than the volume and duration and pedaling.

very useful video. Can't believe I got this knowledge for free! thank you!

Eu gostei muito do vídeo

You raise great points here. A lot of people have reduced volume to key speed alone, thinking they are being extremely scientific and objective. However they have grossly simplified.

A sharp strike at the surface can release the hammer before the key gets to escapement. The key can be accelerated over less distance, without creating so much hammer speed. Most likely the key still coasts after the finger slows and still bounces off the keybed. However, what matters is that it can decouple from the hammer and finger if you decelerate sharply, without continuing to accelerate the hammer. A longer acceleration actively accelerates the hammer all the way through to escapement level, so a smaller absolute key speed can generate more hammer speed than a sharp and faster surface blow.

Whether these could generate any kind of absolute tone or merely a hammer speed, they are incredibly important distinctions for use in different contexts. So many people who think they are being the most scientific reduce volume to key speed alone (with no consideration of whether the hammer is accelerated all the way to the escapement level). They end up neither being practical nor scientifically accurate about the true possibility.

王老师什么时候来达拉斯希望联系我一下、我想请你吃个中国饭，看你的视频很久了、

great video!! , you gave loads a of gems and valuable information that will surely improve anyone instantly.

Thank you so much Dr Wang

This was a very unclear lesson

There are people who do produce ugly sound, and they totally do not aware that their sound is ugly. It make people's ears bleed.

终于明白了其原理。讲解很科学而不玄幻。赞👍！

I was thinking back to my childhood piano lessons and remembered being told to make a beautiful sound or a sound that “comes out of the piano”. As a child I had no idea what that meant. It wasn’t until I learned from a concert pianist later that I learned how to execute it physically. (I learned from someone trained in Russia and was told to play everything by “travelling along the keys” like your described, basically like a grabbing motion). Not that I am a professional or any good, but what I realized as an adult is that you can’t press the keys harshly straight down and kept applying force but there needs to be a bit of a “give” right after the attack to relieve some force in order to make a beautiful sound.

Great lesson👍

Thank you for another fantastic lesson Dr. Wang!

王老师讲的太好了。一直支持！

Thank you so much, your video was very interesting and helpful also :D

Thank you so much for this lesson Dr. Wang! It's very helpful.

Many have said these ideas before but few as concisely said these ideas before.

Can you illustrate how to use different parts of body weight, speed and depth of touch to achieve different tone color?

Wow！！！！I really appreciate it！！！！That is so much useful！！！