Force transducer piano keys as an innovative approach for piano pedagogy

Abstract

This study aims to reveal the necessity of new approaches in piano education and to present an innovative technology that can be applied in this direction. According to Newton's impulse-reaction principle, everything that the pianist feels in her/his fingertip while playing the piano is reflected on the piano key side in the same way. Although pianists and piano educators find it difficult to put these feelings into words, piano keys can transform these reflected feelings into data through the right sensor design. Measuring the forces applied to the piano keys can objectively examine many arguments for better piano playing. Within the scope of this thesis, piano keys are converted into force transducers. The method behind transforming a piano key into a force transducer is that attaching sensors called strain-gauges to the points of the piano key determined as a result of calculations, with specified angles. Strain-gauges are extremely sensitive to changes in length on the surface to which they are attached. They create circuits that produces voltage changes. Via these voltage change values, the amount of straining (mainly due to bending) at certain points of the piano key can be observed and recorded. This way, the forces applied to piano key can be evaluated. Due to the data gathered from the tests with the force transducer piano key, temporal variations of keys's displacements and strain values on keys with various types of playings such as forte staccato, forte legato and piano legato are obtained. It is observed that the force is applied for a shorter time in staccato and longer in legato. In piano and forte playing, the difference in the slope of the time-displacement curve is detected. In piano playing, less strain on the tip of the key is detected. With the data collected from a trill (a musical ornament consisting of a rapid alternation between two adjacent notes) played with different techniques, the change in technique is reflected in the recorded data. Successive transients in the piano key and the mechanism when the key is pressed and the different stages of the mechanism's operation can be observed in the graphics. This system, which is created within the scope of this thesis, can be applied to adjacent keys, succeeds in providing an process that is not different from an ordinary piano experience visually or tactilely to the pianist and is able to produce sensitive and reliable data. With further improvements to be implemented on this new, patent-pending system, the proposed methodology can play an important role in re-defining piano pedagogy.