Achieving Piano/Pianissimo and Piano Actoin

[benwampl]

Hi all,

       This is my first post whose intention is to hopefully find the answer to something that has been driving me crazy for a while! I'm currently in college and, although not a music major, spend a lot of time in my university music department practicing piano as I have played the majority of my life. The music department has a series of uprights available for students to practice on whose brand currently eludes me, and I have found after playing on all of them that I can only achieve, at least in my mind, a satisfactory pianissimo and clean tone on one of them. Furthermore I have noticed lately that I play almost exclusively with the soft pedal down, regardless of the piece, AND EVEN FURTHER, that I am totally dissatisfied with the sound of the piano if I don't have it down.
       Having recently noticed my excessive use of the pedal I have been trying to limit my use of it; however I've found that not only is it literally impossible to achieve what I feel like is even a good piano but that the sound seems muddled, harsh, and overly sustained despite my cautious use of the damper pedal. As I said this is something that has bothered me for a while and I have done a lot of searching to try to diagnose the problem -- be it my technique or the piano itself. The most relative information that I have found is that on an upright piano the soft pedal works by shortening the distance the hammer must travel before striking the strings, thus reducing the sound and thus potentially giving the impression that the action is more responsive. My concern then is that I have exploited this feature to essentially make it easier for myself to play and consequently, having become accustomed to the feel of the with the soft pedal down, struggle to play without it. Nevertheless though I feel like when the soft pedal is not down, and even with it down only a slight difference is noticeable, that the piano action seems sluggish and playing quick runs or anything requiring a delicate touch is not possible; it's as though there is no in between. Slight increases in touch result in, by my perception, a transition from no sound at all, to mezzo-forte, and so on.
 
    So my questions are as follow:
1) Do you think that my aforementioned issue is the result of deficiencies in my technique or the piano itself?
2) In the meantime should I simply compensate by making my fortes extra loud, thereby giving the impression that my pianos are soft -- as sound amplitude is relative?
3) Can someone subjectively describe what a "soft-touch" vs "heavy-touch" piano is like? Would one transitioning from a soft-touch actioned piano to a heavy-touch perceive the latter as having a sluggish action and as unresponsive and if so is it possible that these uprights have heavier actions, resulting in my difficulty in producing soft sounds?

Thanks in advance for your input!

[awesom_o]

It sounds to me like you have major deficiencies in your technique.

Get OUT of the habit of using the left-pedal as a crutch, immediately.

I have never heard piano technicians or pianists refer to a piano as being either a "soft-touch" or a "heavy-touch" instrument. You can measure the down-weight on any piano using lead weights or small coins such as nickels. Not all pianos will have the exact same down-weight, but most will measure around 50 grams, as this is the number that manufactures aim for with all of their instruments.

If you have difficulty playing quickly and quietly, it's probably not the piano's fault.