Guide to the piano: Day Four
Most parts of a piano are inside. If you count every spring, pin and piece of felt, there are at least ten thousand parts.
Most of the parts belong to the action; the ingenious mechanism which makes the hammers strike the strings. The keys pivot in the middle, so as the front of a key is pressed down, its back goes up. This flicks the jack upwards, sending the hammer moving towards the string. As the hammer travels towards the string, the damper is removed from it. The moment the pianist releases the key, the damper returns to the string and stops it sounding. The jack springs back immediately after it has passed on its motion to the hammer. If it didn’t, the hammer would remain pressed against the string, instead of just striking it briefly. As soon as you let go of the key, the jack returns to its place, read for the next note.
Tomorrow… Strings.
