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Home » Hobbies Articles » The Piano Key Hammer And String Part 1

The Piano - Key, Hammer And String - Part 1

The piano, while similar in some of its features too many other kinds of musical instruments, differs materially in several important points from all other kinds. It resembles the Violin, Harp, Guitar, Zither, Dulcimer, in its being stringed. It resembles the Drum, Triangle, Cymbals, Tambourine, Dulcimer, in its being dependent on percussion for the production of its tone; and it resembles the Organ, Clarinet, Concertina, in its being keyed.

But it differs from all of these instruments in the following important points. Firstly, in its being dependent on the player's method of finger push on the key for its quality of tone. Secondly, in its being dependent on rapidity of finger push for its quantity of tone and thirdly, in its being dependent on keys for the means of producing percussion. The actual mechanism of percussion, namely, the hammers, being reachable only through the pressing of the keys.

It is probably from a want of appreciation of this last fact, that the piano has come to be considered rather as a keyed instrument than as a stringed one.

The distinctive feature of the piano is, then, the system of its key mechanism.

As the seat of tone, the wire, is made to sound only by a series of communication, starting with the key, it is therefore necessary to understand the method by which this communication is conducted and kept open.

The piano key is, basically, a lever that's lifts the hammer that strikes the string. It is a lever of the first class, its fulcrum, or prop, lying between the power and the weight. In the case of the piano, this fulcrum, or centre on which the lever works, is placed about halfway between its two ends, the hammer (with some small intermediate mechanism) being the weight, and the finger the power acting on it. The very limited area should be noticed within which the action of the key is confined.

The immediate factor of tone is the hammer. The hammer, by means of intermediate mechanism, being in direct and close contact with the far end of the key, is raised when the near end is depressed by the finger or any weight; and the force with which the hammer is made to strike the string is in proportion to the speed brought to bear on the piano key by the finger at the moment of the push. Quantity of tone is thus the result of the amount of speed used in pushing the key down.

When the string has been struck by the hammer, the hammer falls back immediately, to allow the string to vibrate freely. This fallback of the hammer is, however, not a return to the position occupied by it before the stroke; it does not fall completely back until the key is allowed to rise. When the piano key rises, the hammer returns to its original position, and is ready for the next key push.

It is of great importance for the student to remember that the hammer is always at some distance from the wire. Except during the very short period of time spent in striking; that after having struck the wire it leaves it instantaneously to assume the half position described above; and that it is powerless to do any more work until after the key has been allowed to rise.

And here is another random article you might be interested in...

How To Realistically Set Your Fees - Part 3

Effect of Benefits

We have previously examined realistic billable hours and the effect of business expenses on your hourly rate. Now we'll look at the effect of benefits.

Once upon at time, when we were employed, we received a benefits package from our employer. This usually included health, life and disability insurance. Many firms also had available pension programs, profit sharing, dental and vision coverage. In addition, one-half of your social security was paid by your employer.

As self-employed individuals, we have to provide these benefits for ourselves. This means an additional boast to the hourly rate we've calculated so far. For the sake of argument, let's figure a standard benefits package consisting of health, life, disability, pension and profit sharing. Let's figure health insurance costs at $300 per month; life at $50 per month; disability at $150 per month; pension (a SEP-IRA) at $500 per month and about 10% for a profit margin.

If we total these up we get a yearly figure of $12,000. Now keep in mind, that most of these will be paid for in after tax dollars. So, we need to add approximately an additional 30% to this number, for a true total of about $15,600 per year. The 30% represents the amount of taxes you need to pay to end up with the net amount of money needed to pay for your benefits package. Keep in mind that I chose 30% as a completely arbitrary number. Your own tax situation may be higher or lower.

How does this effect our hourly rate, let's see. Last article we left off at $56 per hour. This represented a yearly salary of $42,000 plus annual business expenses of $15,000. If we take the $15,600 in benefit costs and divide by our billable hours of 1100 per year, we get approximately $14 per hour. This brings our total hourly rate to $70 per hour.

Now, we need to factor in our profit sharing percentage. Once again, I choose 10% as a representative number. Your targeted profit could be higher or lower. If you take your $70 per hour rate, multiply by 10%, you end up with $7 per hour. Your total hourly rate comes to $77 per hour.

This is the amount you need to charge to cover all we discussed so far.

Compare this to the approximately $20 per hour you would need to get paid by an employer to earn our hypothetical $42,000 per year. And yes, I know today many employers require a co-payment on their benefits package. I stated it this way for simplicity sake.

So, you need to charge almost 4 times what you would earn in salary to end up at the same place. Don't be discouraged, there are many people out there that are charging a lot more than this and getting all the business they can handle. Remember, these numbers are hypothetical, your situation may be much different.

Copyright 2003, DeFiore Enterprises