I chopped out the waste with a narrow chisel and finished the sides and bottom with something like a plane-makers float which is a kind of thick hand saw with no set. I made a new blade guide to work with a broken pullsaw blade I ground to fit. OK, since you're about to frost this baby, you'll want to have it placed on the … You have to make sure the keys are all the way down on the pins, and for a final regulation the paper punchings are supposed to be placed underneath the cloth ones. Since the rails aren't parallel I drilled it in two settings, starting with the balance rail first so I could bevel it up to the centers of the pin holes before driving in a pin in the top and bottom holes to re-index the keyplank on the keyframe for drilling the front pins. In uprights and squares it is usually screwed down in a bunch of places so it follows the contour of the keybed. I ended up with just enough usable ones for 29 keys. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. Piano manufacturers aren't usually so restrained though usually the player only has to see the name in a couple predictable places. Their actions are attached to the keyframe instead of the piano case and are much more difficult to adjust for the best mechanical combination when they're assembled than uprights, though the individual side to side positions of the hammers are easier to adjust, at least in smaller instruments, by turning the hammer flanges using a long handled tool that has a socket that fits the sides of the flanges. The keywell is also deeper than the keyboard, and the extra space in the front is filled with a long and narrow wood strip that matches the case. An old piano can also make a wonderful wall shelf. there is no way im gonna be able to do that!!!! ; Keep your sound and tempo under control with the dedicated Sustain, Metronome, and Tempo buttons. Modern pianos typically have 88 keys! They are A B C D E F G. Click here for a large printable piano keyboard layout. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. Piano tuning teacher Oliver Faust gave instructions for regulating the "old English square" action and illustrated one made in Boston in the 1830s, but I didn't end up following them very closely. When the hammers reach this height my keys go down a little over 8mm.I removed the rails, and relieved and clothed the ends of the keys for the damper levers which meet them at angles. I bleached them and jointed all four edges square and to the right size, which also removed the chips and marks from fitting, but I wanted to keep the existing surfaces so I had to sort them by color and thickness so the matches aren't perfect and it looks like an old keyboard instead of a new one. This important stage is called regulating and happens to be missing from the online copy of Davies' instructions. Click here for a larger printable piano keyboard template. It has a wooden frame and hitchpin plank, and the speaking length of the top note is 56mm. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. The boards had some flaws which I had to arrange so they ended in places where they would be removed.My octaves are 144.7mm wide, which is very small and almost the same size as 7/8 Donison-Steinbuhler standard keyboards you can buy for modern pianos. You can easily find an image of piano keys on the Internet. To remove surface layer dirt and marks, use a clean soft cloth. This also helps regulating when it's finished. Architect and writer on organs George Audsley suggested to subtract the width required for equal sized sharps before dividing into three and four spaces respectively, which results in an even greater difference between the neighboring tails, and Wolfenden suggested alternatively that the Cs, Ds, and Es be made slightly wider than the Fs, Gs, As and Bs, with uniformly narrow sharps. It had to be really thin so the tops of the front pins don't hit it when the keys are pressed down. I sawed them out for each key a little oversize, and first glued on the buttons for the naturals, and then the sharps, using an aluminum straight edge clamped to the assembled keyboard and keyframe. However, a black key is missing, Is it possible to build one. I checked the resulting weights at the front with a couple uniformly spaced sample weights for four different pairs of neighboring natural and sharp keys and just drew lines connecting the positions I had marked out. These cookies do not store any personal information. another diagram illustrating piano keyboard keys. The front rail is 7.5cm wide and 14.5mm thick. I glued them using individual cauls as well, and I used a gang of cams strung on a rod to clamp them because I only have a few clamps with a very long reach. 3 /10. Jenny shows what a piano key border will look like on a small quilt, then demonstrates piecing fabric strips together. 12 years ago As indicated, the notes on a piano are named after the first seven letters of the alphabet. Afterwards I cut the sections into individual keys with the bandsaw. ... Elevate and secure the top of an upright piano to make way for a flat screen computer monitor and peripherals. A special step drill bit like Audsley described would be more efficient. Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. Make sure that your fingers are not sweating before they touch the keys. Skillful voicing can give a piano maker a lasting reputation, but Wolfenden warned that it can be more disappointing than any other part of the trade. The two different spacings make the rear portions of the C and F keys wider than the neighboring B and E keys, though this can be remedied by sawing to the side of the line instead of in the middle, and requires two sizes of sharps, which can be adressed in the same way. In grands these are what positions and guides the keyboard, and sometimes the fallboard hinges to them. The gaps between the straight edge and tops of the keys are bigger than the thicknesses of the paper punchings used to close them, so it's easy to check if they're much too thick. If your movements are tensed, brutal, harsh – the sound will mimic them! The nameboard or part of the fallboard usually is padded on the bottom edge and works like the organ keyboard thumper shown by Audsley and M. B., and grands have an additional rail screwed down in a few places so the keys don't get jumbled when the piano is put on its side for moving. to £3, according to quality". In case you are unsure if your piano’s keys are ivory or plastic you can do a quick check. The keys of old pianos are made of sugar pine wood. In most pianos the keywell is noticeably wider than the keyboard, and the extra space is filled with decorative blocks a little taller than the keys held in place with concealed screws. I adjusted the hoppers so they flipped out from the underhammers when the hammers were a little short of the height of the strings above the key bed. In uprights and grands the fallboard usually rests on it when it's closed to cover the keys, and the slip is thick enough for mounting a small lock and is held in place with several large screws through the keybed. imagine a keyboard for a computer, that is a normal keyboard just stretched out! The hammer rail is also supported in the middle by a stud that passes between two keys and is fixed to the middle stretcher, I used transfer punches to locate the necessary holes as well. Otherwise, simply download to your computer and print. Sometimes the rail is made in two thicknesses and thinner around the back row of pins so the adjustments for the raised keys don't interfere with the natural keys.The back rail usually only touches the key when it's not moving and is usually covered with a piece of uniformly thick, relatively soft cloth to reduce noise and to make the working parts close to the right height. So, as a source of raw ivory, you are not working with much material when it comes to a single key top. I put a shim under the front so the holes through the keyplank would be straight and clean. Sorry, I don't have a way to make a video and it's kind of mute right now, without strings and stuff. William Braid White pointed out that it's more rational to make large increases in height to groups of keys by shimming under the balance rail. Share it with us! In modern pianos the front rail also has pins in it, and both it and the balance rail are made of clear and dry hard wood that resists splitting. Braid White described that ever since felt was used for hammer coverings voicing has been done using needles to manipulate its compression and tension, but my hammers are made with different layers and will have an outside layer of new leather, so I might not use all the needling techniques Nalder described. When the outside stretchers fit I marked for the middle stretcher, disassembled the frame and cut shallow mortises in each of the rails, and then cut tenons on the stretcher.After fitting the middle stretcher I glued the keyframe together, making sure it was square and flat, and clamped each of the corner joints together to prevent the moisture from the glue from pulling the pieces apart. I don't have the right combination of these so I used different saws to cut the straight parts in the front and the angled parts in the back.I cut the fronts with an old Craftsman scroll saw, the kind with a spring and with about 2.5cm blade travel. You’ll have to hollow it out and make room for the shelves. In uprights where the keyboard isn't shifted left and right, or pulled out like a drawer a lot it can be made of softer wood, like yellow poplar, or even left out entirely - otherwise it's the same as the other two. Now, we need to bring in our audio files. I know they're not computers, but the first one is House's printing telegraph, from before 1860, the second was reportedly invented by Henry Bessemer about 1840 and called the pianotype, and the third one is Mergenthaler's linotype. I glued on the molding for the front of the keys, a uniformly thin piece of maple wider than the thickness and longer than the final width of the keyplank. 7 years ago They are usually between 16 and 16.5 cm - Blüthner wrote that German keyboards had octaves about 161mm, and that English and French keyboards had octaves about 164mm, and as much as 166cm. on Introduction. The keys shouldn't bend so they should be relatively thick, depending on the amount of space there is, but usually they aren't much more than 2.5cm or less than 1.5cm.