I'm glad there are people who are experts in this detail.

I finally know how the sostenuto pedal works. I didn't know I needed to know that. But I very much am glad that I did. Amazing video!

Not only a fascinating video but a great soundtrack as well!

Hello Nahre, I'm Rick, a third (and last) year student at the HMC in Amsterdam, studying to be a pianotechnician just like Damon. Seeing this video pop up in my recommended instead of the usual videogame related stuff was a beautiful surprise and I love how in-depth the information went! It's like my whole school career condensed into 30 minutes instead of three years. Often when I open up a piano to tune or regulate, people respond with awe and a "I've never seen the inside of my piano!", which both gives me the happy opportunity to introduce them to the inner workings but also saddens me a little that such a popular instrument still harbours so many secrets from its most loyal fans. So I'd like to extend an honest and heartfelt *thanks* for this video. It has earned you a new subscriber :) All the best!

Timestamps for smartphone viewers -- 00:53 All of the different parts of a piano action 01:43 Basic key mechanism 02:21 The art of voicing 06:33 The bump at the bottom of the keys (single escapement) 07:46 How dampers work 08:46 Parts that wear out faster 10:04 Ideal conditions for pianos (temperature and humidity) 11:13 Ideal locations for pianos (what not to do) 12:44 How to make the touch lighter or heavier 16:20 How to clean your piano 17:37 New pianos 18:38 Adjusting pianos vs. adjusting TO pianos 19:35 How often you should tune pianos 20:10 Smaller vs. larger pianos 21:17 Advantages of playing on a grand piano 22:59 Tips when looking for a used piano 25:07 Pedals 25:59 The sostenuto “middle” pedal 29:28 Final thoughts

This makes my guitar rig look like a child's toy.

I am a piano technician, and expected to catch the tuner saying something wrong, and gleefully shouting "Ah-HA!", but instead found that I agreed with everything he said. Very well done!

I'm also a concert piano technician. Great video! This guy sounds like me talking Haha. Piano technicians revel in anonymity. If I go to tune for a concert no news is good news. A call from the concert hall is never the artist complementing you on what an amazing job you did. 😁 but with experience you get very good at eliminating issues that will often be noticed by the artist. I find satisfaction in being the unsung part of a concert. A well prepared piano can make or break a performance both for the artist and audience. I love my job and I hope that us aural tuners don't become a thing if the past!

My family has a really big grand piano that exposed its insides when open. I remember when I was a kid spending hours when not playing staring at the inside and watching the hammers bounce, counting the strings. I completely forgot until I saw your video and I got thrown back. I was a quiet kid with not many friends, but I vividly remember this. I remember it.

The best ever video about piano mechanism!

A very informative and for me, a nostalgic video. As a youngster in the late 70's, my mother was a music teacher at a high school, taught piano and violin at a local piano store, and was responsible for the home schooling of piano lessons for my siblings and myself. We had an old rustic baby grand Wurlitzer in our home studio. From time to time she would tune the piano and pull the keyboard out. I remember being completely mesmerized by all the moving parts. The topic of temperature and humidity regulation is really applicable to all stringed instruments. I grew up in a large Victorian house in Washington and our home studio had two walls that were all windows. I remember the piano, an orchestral pedal harp, and various other stringed instruments in there. It was the only room in the house in which the hardwood floors were completely covered in carpet. During the colder months and in winter, those two windowed walls were covered with blankets to help regulate the temperature and offset condensation. We, my siblings and I, were often scolded for leaving the doors open in the studio. Gahhh!!! Too much nostalgia! Time to call mom and dad and check in. :D

This video may just be the best video on KZfaq at this moment with regards to the intricate insides of pianos...great job putting this together!

This video is gold for piano community. Thank You Nahre Sol for such a wise use of a platform, and Damon Groves for a very down-to-earth overview on piano and maintenance. P. S. It's hygrometer :)

0:53 one of the few times I had to slow down a video lol

This was so informative! I've been playing the piano for more than 1/2 a century and never knew most of this. Thanks for posting.

I'm not a pianist (guitarist), but this is fascinating anyway! Thanks for this, Nahre. -Tom

I am a pianist who became a Piano Tuner / Technician worked for over 40 years in the trade- Every pianist should have knowledge of the instrument they play.

Now THIS is interesting!

Nahre! This is such an amazing video! Loved the way this was edited and the calming background music. Learned so much in just half an hour. Time literally flew by watching this! Thank you so much for this. 🙏🏾 Damon is also such a lovely and likeable man explaining everything with care. 😊

Finally! I was waiting for that moment! New upload from you! Thanks Nahre!!! It’s an incredible insight into the piano, thanks for providing this video! Greetings from Turkey and big love and respect! The new subtitles are amazing and footnotes are very useful as well, as always you provide top-notch quality content! 😊 PS. The background music is fantastic, absurd and video-game like :)

Fantastic Nahre Sol. Brilliantly explained Damon Groves. I've never seen the inner workings of a piano before. Thanks for the colored circles. Love these documentaries Nahre Sol. Learned a lot. Piano knowledge is musical power. Can't what to hear what you'll create now that you've seen the middle pedals mysteries. Happy days Nahre Sol, as you enjoy your adventures. 🙏

First So often we take piano for granted and don’t even think about how much genius engineering goes into this instrument. Awesome video!!!

This is a magnificent video. Like you, I've been playing piano for 20+ years and have never taken much time to think about EXACTLY how the mechanisms work and what parts affect tone. Thank you so much!

Such complex links and mechanisms. As an engineering student who plays the piano(well, keyboard) this was such an eye opener for me. I am a mechanical engineering student and learn all sorts of links and mechanisms about various machine equipments and i think there should atleast be an elective for musical instruments haha

I've watched a few videos on this topic over the years but none where the explanation is done so well. Also, you asked great questions that I have asked in regards to my own piano and its sound. Maybe there is hope for it yet.

Can't stop admiring how physics and music blend together to form something so beautiful. I am also always amazed by your great work and the effort you put into it. Happy new year! Thanks for such a nice video :)

Thanks Nahre - excellent video. Great to understand how everything works in a grand piano in detail, absolutely fascinating and I like the calm and knowledgeable way that Damon explained everything.

Two persons both are extremely knowledgeable and humble at the same time. Thanks for the educational video

Only 12 minutes in I realised, that it feels SO NICE to watch these two talk. Very interesting, but I mean the whole energy, for the lack of a better term of the two is so good

Wow, I was mindblown throughout the whole thing. I had seen inside of piano before and was happy to know how the sound is made when I press the key, but for some reason I was treating the rest of the mechanism as "fancy stuff" that I can really skip on. Thanks for sharing this, I am humbled by my lack of knowledge!

I find your videos calming. Thank you.

This is a first-class video - beautifully made, intelligent and comprehensive. I found it both interesting and enlightening, and now understand how that middle pedal works. You've even given us timestamps and info on the recording equipment. Thanks, Nahre!

This is so great! Thank you so much for this, it's incredible to think about how much genius engineering and thought went into the development of this instrument. So glad i found this channel!

Oh my goodness a whole 30 minutes Fascinating stuff! Behind-the-tech stuff is always cool, but I didn't think I'd ever need on on an instrument til now

Thank you for taking the time to make this video. I'm with others, I finally know how the sostenuto pedal works!

Love this video!!!!! This is so educational and eye-opening. Probably the best piano anatomy and mechanics video I have seen. Your interaction with Damon makes the video very enjoyable to watch, in addition to great, amazing and useful content. THANK YOU!! Good luck in your music career.

Damon is so knowledgable and presented all the information thoughtfully and eloquently! And with such a silky, pleasant voice!!! I want to watch this video all over again just to keep listening to him talk!

Simply the best video about how piano works in detail. Thank you!

I am not a pianist, but I found this video really amazing. Thank you for showing all those details and giving us an insight to the "hidden side" of a piano. Greetings from a french fan.

Thank you Nahre and Damon! I've been playing for decades and I only "sort of" knew how piano mechanism worked before watching. Great questions asked and answered with great clarity. It is weird, but perhaps understandable, that so many of us pianists don't really know how our instruments really work beyond a superficial level----It's definitely complex, but important and useful knowledge to have.

real huge thank you to you and Damon for this video. At first, i thought it would be just on surface, but quickly it went deeper. This knowledge is usualy a secret from piano technician. I learnt a lot I must say it as well for the other video you did, like "how to compose like...Satie" I suscribed directly to your channel and i m so happy i did.

This video was quite amazing, I'm impressed at the techincian's total command of the instrument, the graphics are always helpful and spot-on and I found the soundtrack quite immersive and stimulating. This is Nahre firing on all cylinders ;) Great job!!

Incredible video. I have been playing for a while, but I never put much thought into how it actually works. Only what I could see from opening the cover. I will keep coming back to this, there's so much to learn from Mr. Groves. And thank you Nahre for making all of this possible!

How lovely to listen to you two interacting and to watch Damon consider each of your questions with such care before beginning to answer. And the wealth of information he provides . . . . thank you!

Thank you sooooooooooooooo much. I learned a lot and enjoyed the video. After watching it once, I am ready to watch it again. What a team! Please keep going.

One of those videos that quietly and gently makes me feel smarter, better, wealthier, happier. Amazing. Thank you!

Absolute brilliant video. Thanks for taking the time to show us!

22:41 physics. What he said in the first half about the power coming from pushing the energy into the strings, (physics)... it’s easy to break something solid against something solid. But it’s much more difficult to break a solid object (a bad hammer) against something elastic. This is because elastic things (in this case the strings) absorb and channel the energy and redirects it in the direction from which it came. And in some cases it’s actually easier to break a solid object with something elastic like a whip. (Assuming the elastic object can withstand the amount of energy). Rebounds/elastic things (rubber bands; etc) actually have a stronger impulse than when hitting a solid object. This is because when the elastic object absorbs the energy it usually sends it back with even more energy in the same direction the energy originally came from. This is because of Newton’s third law. A good example of this is breaking/bending a stick. When the stick breaks (from being dried out) the energy is released. But if the stick is still wet and ripe, it will bend. When someone walks past a branch and then it whips you in the face, they have put energy into the branch on top of the energy already stored by pushing it aside (usually forward). As it whips back, it gains momentum and speed. Because the tip of the branch is further out from the trunk/base, it has to move faster to keep up with the base of the branch near the trunk causing it to gain momentum. Sense the base of the branch is connect to the trunk of the tree, it doesn’t have to move as much. As a result, the branch backlashed with more energy. (I’m not sure how well I explained that but hopefully it made sense). Basically, elastic things have more backlash than solid things because elastic things can absorb more energy. That’s why worn hard hammers bounce back rather than putting emergent into the strings. Or something like that. There’s an old saying “if you don’t bend you break”. Now a days people don’t usually say stuff like this often or don’t pay mention attention to old sayings like this but this saying obviously came from physics. It’s a concept of physics that can and is at times applied to life. Newton’s third law of motion is another concept not isolated to physics as well as the idea of perfect elasticity in terms of transferring of energy. What I mean, by perfect elasticity is that energy can be transferred through a change of events. It doesn’t matter if it’s positive (happy, joyful, etc) emotions/energy or negative (depression, bitterness, etc) emotions/energy. Basically, if you have a bad day and yell at someone, later that day the person you yell at has potential to yell at someone else, and the chain keeps going. As adults, we know better but honestly it’s more about how much negative energy can we withstand/absorb before we feel the need to release it. (Sorry this last part is a little off topic but it was a good chance to make a few points).

This is what competence and excellence look like. Fascinating video. Humbling in the sense that most of the mechanics were worked out hundreds of years ago. No wonder pianos are so expesive.

Loved this video, especially the middle pedal description and close up. Very easy fellow to listen to. Great

You bring us to places few venture. This is a beautiful and unique gift to your listeners. Thank you Nahre Sol 🎹

I love mechanics of all kinds and this was a fascinating and instructive and inspiring video compounding my amazement of what a piano IS ... I will never again question why a piano costs whatever it costs. Just thanks, Narhe. I will watch this again and tell my friends about it, too.

You bring us to places few venture. This is a beautiful and unique gift of yours. Thank you Nahre Sol 🎹

Thank u. i dont play piano. i just know how they work now. And thank you Damon Groves for the great explanations.

So psyched that you are getting into this -- I took a piano tech class at university and it really changed me as a composer. Can we look forward to some videos on tuning systems next?

Awesome... Now I can talk to my daughter and help her appreciate the work put into building one of these. Thank you both!

I'm so glad I found your channel! There is so much put into this videos ... I love it!

I think your video making style is excellent! The questions come up right as you naturally ask them, and the dynamic captioning as the information comes along is so easy to follow along with. I have a learning disability so I can't explain how much I appreciate that.

This is so good！I mean so many people now play piano without knowing the fact that a piano itself is an amazing and complex machine. It is also important for a piano player to understand their instrument. And I can feel a kind of respect in his taking~这真是太可爱啦

Nahre and Damon, you made an excellent video presentation! There is a lot of very clear, detailed and well-explained technical information in this video.

This is really inspiring, and self-reflecting that being an amateur player for over 25 years I have never questioned or wondered how this device works. Some of the levering and sound amplitude relations really help you to think more about your playing in term of dynamics.

I grew up as a classically-trained pianist but never really learned the intricacies of a piano like this. Thank you so much for taking your time to make this video, super useful, I don't know where else I'd learn this knowledge!

Good overview of the piano mechanics. Helps a lot with that cross-section model.

adding headlines on every single content on your video makes this more understandable! thanks

Thank you for a great interview! This is exactly what I was recently thinking about to learn! KZfaq surprised me once again as I didn't search for it and it just appeared in my recommendations. Sostenuto mechanism certainly blows my mind!

I rarely leave comments on any social media. But this was instructive and fascinating. Damon clearly knows and loves his craft. Bravo!

Never expected to watch a 30 minute how piano works video. But I did and it was amazing 🤩

Holy moly! That’s how the sostenuto pedal works! 🤯 Wow. Pianos are so cool. I’ve been playing for almost 30 years and it is amazing how much I don’t know about this instrument. Thank you Nahre. ❤️❤️❤️

Absolutely amazing. Thank you both for this. Cheers from Toronto.

I want to thank you for this channel. I am a professional pianist and unfortunately my job keeps me from using acoustic pianos due to my constant traveling. I think that becoming a truly great musician is not about playing notes, understanding chords, theory or simply any one thing. Your channel has been a source of motivation to broaden my understanding of all aspects of being a musician. You are truly inspirational. Thank you for doing taking us on this trip with you. You are making musicians better by guiding us to the small details that we may never have seen otherwise. HUGE FAN!

I like how gently he touches the mechanical parts of the piano. Just like the way he talks :)

Hooray! New Nahre Sol video! Welcome back :)

this was so far the most vigorous and detailed description I´ve ever been given.. Masterful work Sir..

i know nothing of pianos, but you've taught me a lot. Thanks!

i wouldn´t mind having Damon explain more things on the Regular, he has a really relaxing voice. Thank s for the Cool vid Nahre!

Wow thank you so much! This is such a great, informative video. I learned tons, it's more comprehensive than any video I've seen about the piano. They should ship this with new pianos as a guide book :)

I always knew pianos were super simple. Thanks for confirming that... Sheesh! Amazing video!

This is a great piano maintenance overview. Informative, not too serious, and most importantly concise.

To avoid extremes is a general rule of life. Thanks for the upload.

Fantastic informative video! Thank you. Damon clearly knows his stuff. I have a Yamaha G1 that I bought around 1978 and have done only a few tunings and zero other maintenance. I'm just about to have a technician do a restoration on it.

This is simply fantastic. Thank you so much for all your effort and making this (I dare say) 'micro documentary' on voicing available to us.

I would dub this the best video about pianos on KZfaq! Now I only miss a comprehensive history of the upright piano. All history videos I've ever found on KZfaq is focused on grand pianos and the development of those. Thank you for putting this out here.

This is the best video about the anatomy & physiology of upright and grand piano. Thanks for the part that differentiates heavy versus light actions. Good explanation.

Music Instrument appreciation at its finest.

This is a very informative post, Nahre. Thanks for posting & thanks for sharing your expertise in a very clear understandable language, Damon

That was a great video. I really loved that relaxing style!

I could listen to this chap for hours on end

What a GREAT educational video for pianists!! This is by far THE ABSOLUTE BEST video on how a piano works!! I only watched 8 minutes so far and I'm amazed!! Thank you. great Idea for a KZfaq video as well.

Treat pianos with respect!! ❤ Very interesting video! Thank you! 🙏

Good to see you again !! I will now watch this video for the second time in a row -

Why would anyone thumbs down this video? It is so helpful and I love the way you made it!

My piano tuner died in 1967 the last year I had it tuned. It is still surprisingly in playable tune. The piano (Krakauer) was built in 1935.

By far the coolest the episode yet. Thorough and well put together!

Excellent! Fascinating describes this perfectly, thanks so much for sharing!

Excellent demo of the inside of the Piano.

15:00 another effect of adding weight to a key is the added inertia of the key. When you strike a key hard, you have more mass to accelerate. The key hits you back harder.

This video is fantastic! Very informative!

Amazing amazing video. So interesting and in such nice chill atmosphere. Great job Damon!

Nothing beats the real deal like this. Acoustic is it. I have a 109 year old C Bechstein and she is perfect in her little imperfections. It's a daily communion, and since I do my own maintenance and tuning, it's an intimate relationship :)

Great video, helped me troubleshoot and fix some issues on an old beat up piano. Damon is really clear with all his explanations!