How to Check for a Real Piano Touch on a Digital Piano
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If you have a digital piano, try a very simple experiment.
Turn the instrument on, set the volume to zero, or plug in headphones without putting them on. It is better to leave the instrument switched on.
Now play a few familiar passages.
Listen not to the piano sound, but to what physically happens when you press the keys.
If your touch is full and complete, you should hear a fairly clear mechanical sound from the keys.
Of course, the point is not to bang on the keyboard.
Quite the opposite.
The goal is to press the key fully and feel a real, complete contact with the instrument.
Very often, when playing softly, a pianist begins almost to “fear” the key. The fingers become overly cautious, the movement becomes superficial, and on an acoustic piano in a large room there may simply not be enough sound.
Even piano should remain a real sound.
One experience made a very strong impression on me many years ago.
I was at a rehearsal of Vadim Rudenko with an orchestra. In the rehearsal hall, one key on the grand piano was not working.
They were playing Chopin. Vadim played, as always, with great musicality and refinement. But every time he pressed that faulty key, a very clear mechanical click sounded through the hall.
And it was audible even over the orchestra.
For me, this became a very vivid demonstration of how fully a professional pianist works with the key.
Even in a soft dynamic.
Even in delicate musical textures.
Even when it seems that the sound should appear almost weightlessly.
Real piano does not mean a weak or superficial key press.
It means a complete movement controlled by the ear, the hand, and the whole body.
That is why this experiment with the sound turned off on a digital piano can be very useful.
Try playing:
— a slow cantilena;
— chords;
— a scale;
— a quiet passage from a piece;
— repeated notes.
Listen to how confidently and fully each key is actually being pressed.
If the mechanical contact almost disappears, perhaps you are being too cautious and not completing the movement.
If, on the other hand, a harsh impact appears, then the movement has become too rigid.
What we need is not a hit, but a natural, confident, and complete key press.
This is a useful way to check not only your fingers, but your whole sensation of playing.
Are you really playing the key?
Or are you only trying not to disturb it?
We discuss questions of piano technique, sound, touch, freedom of movement, and musical thinking in much greater depth in Slakva Piano Circle, my community for pianists on Skool:
Coming soon