How to Play the Hammers of a Piano

Being a percussion instrument, a piano's hammers need to strike strings inside the lid to make music. If you peek inside, you find the wonderful way a piano was designed and how intricate the inner workings are. Here's how to play the hammers of a piano so you can understand what happens on the inside while you hit the piano keys on the outside.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

1. Understand what happens inside of the piano when it's played. Simple diagrams give you a general idea of how this percussion instrument works. Open up the piano lid. Take a peek inside at the strings and hammers, small pieces of wood covered with felt tips.
2. Hit a piano key. Notice the force in which you strike the key directly affects the dynamic of the sound produced.
3. Know that when a key is depressed, a type of sea-saw action ensues. A pivot point is located at the balance rail on the balance rail bearing.
4. Adjust the captain screw so that it pushes up the wippen assembly and the other components of the action properly. This is adjusted vertically in a grand piano.
5. Look at the wippen assembly at the jack. This portion of the wippen assembly slips out from underneath the knuckle of the piano's hammer. This in turn sets the hammer to strike the appropriate string. The force in which the piano key is pressed determines how the hammer is "released."

Tips & Warnings

• Hire a professional piano tuner to repair and tune your piano. A piano is a complicated instrument with many things that can go wrong. Hammers get stuck, felt comes loose, strings go out of tune and even the weather affects how your piano responds to how you play.
• All instrumentalists should get to know the details of how their instrument works. That way they can better interpret how their motions affect the resulting sounds.

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