piano touch problem

[bmajor]

Hi, i kinda need help with something that troubles me ..
I have a Yamaha U3 with a normal kinda light touch, lighter touch then other pianos i tried out, my problem is, i take piano lessons, when i study at home on my own yamaha u3 piano i have no problem playing the songs, but when i go to piano lessons and play on the piano's over there,
who have heavier touch i cant seem to adjust to it and make errors.
Now i told this to the teacher but he kinda laughs about it, doesnt take it seriously, he kinda gave me a "hmm right"  ... face.
Is there a way or a trick to get used to pianos with heavier touch, causse when i bought the yamaha u3 it just felt great to play and it realy is, i mostly play beethoven or mozart sonatas, now should i bring back the piano and get one with a heavier touch?? or get a yamaha p250 or something wich you can adjust the touch settings ...
kinda confused here ...
i play great at home but i suck when playing on older pianos or pianos with heavier touch, this way i cant even prove my self to the piano teacher ..
and its not like i can force the teacher to bring in a yamaha u3 or something ...
thanks for the help.

[lostinidlewonder]

Try not to increase the pressure that your fingers excert to deal with pianos with a heavy touch.  Pressing with individual fingers any harder than you would at on your own instrument at home changes the way you would normally play and probably is why you might be annoyed you cannot play for your teacher how your would normally do. One thing first, I would open up the piano so you don't have to play as loud and stress out your hands.

On pianos with a heavy touch I usually use a little more weight in the hand/arm rather than try to make my fingers press into the keyboard harder. A piano with a heavy touch requires a particular action that compensates for increased energy transferred into the keys to press it down. Finding out how to use the weight of your entire arm to give strength to particular fingers is the challenge, not strengthening the individual fingers pressing harder into the keyboard. That is a pretty detailed idea explained in a few sentences, but its inefficient to describe technique in words really.

Sometimes a group of notes which are not totally mastered by us will be highlighted when trying to produce it on a piano that demands more from us physically to produce the sound. I remember when I was younger I performed on a 9 ft Stienway concert grand, I had a few big parts that the instrument was trying to draw but which I just couldn't create because of my physical weakness (I was a kid after all).

Instruments which demand more strength (in the downward force to strike the note or to balance the hand to control a string of notes)  require technique to over come it. Now I don't care how tough the piano keys are, I just deal with it. I think in time you learn to ignore it, but I think we all have an ideal key weight we prefer for a piano, but we can't have that luxury all the time, I guess it is part of growing as a musician, being able to sense how you should play each different instrument. I also think it is really tough and I spend hours playing a "strange" piano in a strange hall that I never played in to try to calibrate how I will go about making the sound when I play. But it is interesting sometimes, because I don't really forget one piano of the hundereds I've worked on, they all have a particular.... thing about them. Makes the almost alive... ooo spooky.

[rc]

Hmmmm... I've never had much trouble adapting to different instruments. Usually after a minute or so of playing I'll have the feel of the piano and it's not really an issue.

Every week the piano at my lesson will feel odd to me at first, a good way to adjust is to play through some scales or arpeggios to begin with, varying the dynamics as much as possible. That'll usually get me comfortable with the keys before a piece.

[jasons]

There is such a thing as a bad piano though, isn't there? My teacher's piano is a beat up old school piano. It has a few major problems - one of the F#'s sometimes sticks when the sus pedal is down for example.

I have a P120 at home with a very light touch. Playing the teachers piano 1/2 feels like a wrestling match with some pieces. I went to a piano shop the other day just to try out some different accoustic pianos - the difference in the 'ease of use' and overall sound I could get was amazing.

Guess I should pressure my teacher about this new piano he keeps saying he's getting...

Jason

[atticus]

Hi Bmajor,

I can relate to your problem!  I have a Yamaha P250 and I have the same problem you describe when playing on my teachers acoustic grand piano.  My hands slip off the keys and I don't have the opportunity to practice on an acoustic piano...

atticus