Grand Piano How it Works

This is an animation of the working part of the grand piano. it shows how the string is hit by the hammer by pressing the key. Each component is shown separately.
The information I got from the mechanics is from 'Hoorn Pianos' in Eindhoven, Netherlands.
The background music is by Joseph Haydn Piano Sonata No. 30 in D major, played by Vadim Chaimovich.
The SketchUp model is not more available.

[victorvalenzuela]

who ever created the piano is a truly genius

[andrewshakespeare]

I never realised before what a complex machine a piano is! A great piece of animation.

[_Ikelos]

>Someone makes an entire 3D model of how a piano key works
>Animates it
>Breaks it into each individual piece

The audience: LOL THAT FINGER THO

Great video. No talk, just animation. Very easy to understand. Much thanks to you.
I hope you could make another video to explain how the piano pedal work.

[cryoshock]

really great animation of the concept.

i am studying ME (mechanical engineering) in germany and i plan to take part of the ani for my presentation in english class. of course first of all it sounds a little bit odd to mix music with ME, but after watching this clip you will know why the piano is one of the most beautiful masterpieces of maths and physics, i.e. ME. :)

thanks for posting this. your edit is also a masterpiece. :)

[SparkyMcBiff]

This was perfect and just what I needed. One of my keys on my Hailun 198 doesn't always reset properly. This video has helped me to believe that my problem is likely something to do with the jack not slipping off the "knuckle" on the hammer properly at all times. I guess as the piano ages some of the felt gets compressed and things need to be adjusted. I have humidity control in the piano so I think I'm going to do a bit more research then pull out the action and have some fun. (I've also got some Teflon powder that I obtained from my previous piano tech guy that I can make use of).

Thank you for this video and the great animation!

[ronmilo]

Thank you. I understood things much better thanks to your animation. The excellent book I am reading "The physics of musical instruments" still cannot rival what you shown here. 

[arpegepiano]

Truly great animation! Looking forward to part 2 with the distinctive repetition steps.:
The animation is short of the repetition motion, which is very specific to a grand piano action, and basically distinguishes it from an upright piano action. The animation does not show the effect of the contact of the wippen repetition lever with the drop screw. Nor does it show the upward motion of the hammer to the drop screw limit, after its release from the check. So, the jack is positioned again to repeat its propulsion motion even though the hammer is not back to it's rest position.

[JazzBrother]

In the resting position, the hammer shank must never touch the hammer rest as this animation shows. The only contact between the hammer and the wipen is the knuckle (or "roller") on the repetition lever. In the resting position, there should be a space of 1/8" between the hammer shank and the top of the hammer rest felt.

[patrickmoore]

Excellent video.  Thank you so much for doing this.

[alancduncan]

Excellent animation of the action of piano key and its mechanism.  It would be nice to have some narration explaining the importance of the Repeater Action and its importance to the modern piano, but this is a very useful illustration of the workings of a piano.

[EthanVillanueva]

I've never been classically trained on piano, I just play by ear... So it was never thoroughly explained how intricate a piano really can be! This is really cool actually

[xl]

At 3:11, the screw against which the jack should hit to roate, is too high.
This is what makes the jack rotates, and so that the other part can catch on on the cylinder on the arm of the hammer.

[Cheseabluesdrogba]

It's insane how someone created this so complex

[commercial]

Thank you so much, this was extremely helpful.

[christianwouters]

Good looking graphics. Only: it wouldn't work because the repetition/escapement spring is not shown or mentioned.

[carlos-btdt]

its really great to se how digitalpiano maker improve to simulate this real pianoaction. feature like escapement-let off, halfdamper function, string resonance, multi-sampling. real piano is best

[roddelfernando]

It's mechanism is complicated and well engineered . Idk why they did not invent automatic rifle early on.

[handavid]

Meanwhile a Clavichord: stick with a small piece of brass lol

[bellapplepen]

I thought that when you pressed the key it just banged a string. But this is much more intricate than the crude mechanism I was imagining