Physics of the Piano

Рет қаралды 3,442

Күн бұрын

Why does a piano sound like a piano? A similar question can be asked of virtually all musical instruments. A particular note, such as middle C, can be produced by a piano, a violin, and a clarinet. Yet, it is easy for even a musically untrained listener to distinguish between these instruments. One would like to understand why the sound of the “same” note depends greatly on the instrument. In particular, we would like to understand what aspects of the piano are most critical in producing its musical tones. The questions we will address in the talk include: Who invented the piano and why? Why does the piano have 88 keys and not more or fewer? How and why is the tone color of a loud note different from that of a soft note, and why is this important? Why are the bass strings on a piano made by wrapping a coil of wire around a central wire core? A piano tone is the sum of components that can be described by sine waves. The frequencies of these sine waves deviate a small amount from a simple harmonic series. What is the source of these deviations and why are they important? After we have addressed all of these questions, we’ll be able to understand why a piano sounds like a piano.

Пікірлер: 6

@southpark4151 Жыл бұрын

Nice vid. One very important take-home note is --- a 'piano' is actually any instrument that has a harpsichord-like keyboard - and it simply has independent and adequate soft-loud control of the lingering musical sound. That is the essence of piano forte (ie. soft loud control) - independent soft-loud control for each key (note). Struck steel string lingering sound is preferred, but not strictly a requirement. It can be any workable and musical lingering sound. Piano forte -- soft loud control is the essence. This is why we have various kinds of piano in the piano family -- this includes digital pianos and acoustic pianos. Even synth keyboards or any other keyboard that has independent soft-loud control for each note falls under the piano umbrella. That is also why we call digital pianos by that name. It is because digital pianos are pianos. It doesn't matter what approach or method is used (digital or analog etc). The essence of piano is the keyboard instrument having adequate independent soft-loud control. Piano forte. This also means that the word 'piano' is not reserved for 'acoustic piano'. Also noting that digital piano samples can also be achieved by having 50 percent of an acoustic piano (with no keyboard and no pedals etc), and using electromechanical strikers to strike the strings in order for mics to record the samples. This means that digital pianos do not require an 'acoustic piano' to be realised. Also - other behaviour and features of the various kinds of pianos (eg. nuances, string resonance, timbre etc etc) are just 'extra'. That's because there are different kinds of pianos, and each will have their own configuration(s). The vid is really about 'what makes an acoustic piano sound like an acoustic piano?'. Physics of the acoustic piano.