Touchweight on my digital your digital?

[_achilles_]

Using this as a guide https://www.pianofinders.com/educational/touchweight.htm
I found that my touchweight for my casio ps 20 is 80 at the lowest..

This just makes me want a new piano more  It would make playing so much easier, and better, and healthier..

Post your own piano's touchweight if you're bored or interested enough to find out.

Edit: Short version of how to get find it: Add nickels until the key starts to go down, each nickel is 5g

[pianoplayjl]

How do you find the touch weight? The information is so numerous and confusing...

[pianoplayjl]

Mine was 75 I think.....I wish my piano had a lighter touch when I want it and a heavy touch when I want it.

JL

[_achilles_]

I edited my post with a short version of how to get it. I found the article very informative so I figured I'd share it.

I don't know why you would want heavier than 75 ever... I'm almost avoiding practicing on my piano now after finding out how heavy it is compared the grand I have lots of time to play on (and a 20 minute drive away). I knew my piano's touch was heavier but adding a number to it just made it worse, mostly just because it made me aware of how much work my fingers were doing, not because I suddenly think my piano is impossible to play.

[nyiregyhazi]

I edited my post with a short version of how to get it. I found the article very informative so I figured I'd share it.

I don't know why you would want heavier than 75 ever... I'm almost avoiding practicing on my piano now after finding out how heavy it is compared the grand I have lots of time to play on (and a 20 minute drive away). I knew my piano's touch was heavier but adding a number to it just made it worse, mostly just because it made me aware of how much work my fingers were doing, not because I suddenly think my piano is impossible to play.

Consider that it doesn't necessarily mean anything. It's possible that a piano with a lighter touch-weight could require more exertion to produce loud sounds. Considering that touch-weight doesn't actually involve moving the hammer to produce sound, it really doesn't mean all that much. The meaningful values (when producing sound) are basically impossible to determine.

[jimbo320]

Not to be confrontational Nyir but it's the opposite. The lighter the touch the easier to produce loud sounds.
All my Yammies just have 1,2 or 3 as adjustments. I'll have to use the nickel idea to determine the touch-weight. All I know is I play with more agility at their lightest adjustments...

[nyiregyhazi]

Not to be confrontational Nyir but it's the opposite. The lighter the touch the easier to produce loud sounds.
All my Yammies just have 1,2 or 3 as adjustments. I'll have to use the nickel idea to determine the touch-weight. All I know is I play with more agility at their lightest adjustments...

Many "light" actions actually feel heavy to me, as even the largest of forces cannot always go into sending serious momentum into the hammer. It sometimes becomes vastly harder work, because the effort doesn't always go into producing a notably loud sound but hits the keybed harder instead. When you want a serious FFFF it can sometimes be harder to achieve on action with low touch-weight than on those with larger ones.  Similarly, on some actions with a high touch-weight, it can actually feel easier to achieve loud sounds. If the movement goes into something productive, it can seem like far less effort than a lighter one. Also, I believe my Clavinova has a high touch-weight, but it feels like a toy piano as soon as I play loud. The resistance just evaporates as if there's none at all. It's too complex for the touch-weight alone to sum everything up.

[_achilles_]

Also, I believe my Clavinova has a high touch-weight, but it feels like a toy piano as soon as I play loud. The resistance just evaporates as if there's none at all. It's too complex for the touch-weight alone to sum everything up.

I feel like this is very similar to my experience with my piano (except maybe not so much the toy part, I'm not used to much better). This is exactly why I don't feel like playing on a digital with such a high touchweight is a good idea, it's just seems like a very blunt (lacking the finer touch differences) instrument.

Also, I could be wrong, but for a digital piano touchweight might be a more essential factor simply because digital pianos are a lot closer to simple buttons with on/off (pressed/not pressed) positions as compared to acoustics, where the action plays a lot more in the overall feel.

[jimbo320]

Maybe I'm so used to my Yamaha CP5 that I hardly can feel much difference on my friend's C7 acoustic grand...

[nyiregyhazi]

Also, I could be wrong, but for a digital piano touchweight might be a more essential factor simply because digital pianos are a lot closer to simple buttons with on/off (pressed/not pressed) positions as compared to acoustics, where the action plays a lot more in the overall feel.

Absolutely. Sometimes the action feels rather firm in quieter playing. But start playing seriously loud and its like there's nothing there. A good grand responds with more resistance and allows the energy to feel like to has somewhere to go. Real pianos have much more response, based on how you act upon them.

[Bob]

I used pennies to compare once a long time ago. 

I talked to a piano tech though and he said there's a lot more to it than that. Down weight, up weight, and friction.  He measured a keyboard I had and even though the down weight was the same as an acoustic, the keyboard had almost zero friction.

[justharmony]

Touchweight is really a catch-all sort of term, as far as what all goes into it (from what I understand, not being a tech).  How loud a piano can play has to do with a lot of things - not all of which can be described just with "touchweight".  A lighter touch piano might be more likely to be able to play loud, or less, depending on a lot of things.  For instance (and forgive me here - this is all based on common sense, not any terribly specific technical knowledge, so please correct me where I might be wrong) a lighter "touch" can be due to lighter parts all around, say, and this could either make it easier to move them with enough speed and force to create great volume, or it could go too far and make them "wimpy" enough to not be able to transfer the power you're trying to put into them.  Or, a lighter touch could mean all the same parts are there, but maybe there's less friction and less resistance - this would seem to suggest that this instrumnet could produce just as great a volume with less effort. 

Many different scenarios I could see with many moving parts.  And things that have nothing to do with touchweight could have a lot to do with volume, too - like tension.  Soundboard health. 

Pianos are complex animals and it seems nearly impossible try to pin down a piano's capabilities based on touch weight.

That being said, though.... I will say that I personally prefer pianos with light touch as they seem to offer much more capabilities in terms of the quieter end of things (when regulated well- greater nuance, greater subtlety which can be oh so beautiful.  I'e played historic instruments which offer truly AMAZING capabilities in terms of this and opened up certain music in ways I never even dreamed possible before. Impossible to describe, really, but truly amazing and VERY informative.  I'd recommend to anyone the experience of being in the presence of such an instrument played well (not just listening to the plinky recordings often found on youtube or such)- or better yet - securing the priviledge of playing one yourself.   

I could go on for ages.  I'll refrain.    INteresting topic, though!

JH

[Bob]

I'd like to see a digital with the wooden guts of a grand.