CAUT

Growing interest in narrower keyboards.

https://thepublicsradio.org/npr/pianist-hannah-reimann-advocates-for-narrower-pianos-to-help-those-with-small-hands

Fred, this is true with what we euphemistically call 'modern' piano design. It doesn't have to be this way. I wrote about this in the Journal back in late 2016 and early 2017. Pianos, even cross-strung pianos can be designed and built to easily accommodate the 6.0 key headscale. And modern flat-strung pianos can be designed and built to accommodate the 5.5 key headscale. Not quite so easily, but certainly doable. 

ddf

Original Message:
Sent: 05-26-2024 20:59
From: Fred Sturm
Subject: Stretto pianos

David Steinbuhler makes retrofit keyboards of narrower widths. I have installed one, and can attest to the high quality workmanship.

Home dsstandardfoundation.org

There is a Facebook group devoted to the topic

Pianists for Alternatively Sized Keyboards facebook.com

There are several misconceptions out there, one being that keyboards were generally narrower in previous centuries. This is simply not true. A small portion of keyboards were narrower, but for the most part harpsichords and early pianos have had pretty much the same octave span for the past four centuries, as data will show clearly (I did quite a bit of research to come up with that opinion). 

There are clear physical limitations involved: for harpsichords, you need to be able to fit two jacks, plucking in opposite directions, between the strings, which must be spaced widely enough apart to allow for a reasonable length of plectrum, and so that dampers will not overhang the neighboring string. It is difficult to make this work with less than 1/2" wide key ends, which end up producing the same width keys we are familiar with today.

There are similar constraints with pianos. It is common that piano keys already need to splay outward to meet scaling needs. Hence, the retrofit, narrow keyboards must splay outward to extreme degrees.

This is not to say that it is impossible to have somewhat narrower keys on production pianos, and I, for one, am very much in favor of that. 

Regards,

Fred Sturm
fssturm@comcast.net

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Original Message:
Sent: 5/26/2024 7:13:00 PM
From: Steven Rosenthal
Subject: Stretto pianos

Growing interest in narrower keyboards.

https://thepublicsradio.org/npr/pianist-hannah-reimann-advocates-for-narrower-pianos-to-help-those-with-small-hands

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Steven Rosenthal RPT
Honolulu HI
(808) 521-7129
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Yes, Hannah makes quite the case for narrow "Stretto" (Italian for narrow) keyboards.  There are many skilled pianists around the world who simply cannot play some pieces on a standard width keyboard.

Our company, Reyburn Pianoworks, Inc. builds custom keysets as small a 7/8 of normal, which is 5.5 inches per octave. Normal keyboards have 6.5" per octave. Here's a link to a pic of our CNC laser layout for a 7/8 Steinway M bass section. We can build almost any size for almost any piano.

https://www.reyburnpianoworks.com/keyboards

We use our premium "Ivocor" mineral plastic which feels very much like Ivory, and ebony sharps, and beech key buttons help with with strength on the angled key buttons.

We use as custom spruce blank, with a sugar maple sandwich (maple is the bread on top and bottom). The sandwich area is from the back of the headscale to just in front of the capstan. This provides extra needed strength since the angle of the doglegs approaches 45 degrees in some cases. In the bass we use extra sugar maple below the key, between balance rail and middle of the black key, all to stiffen the keys.

-Dean