Piano Voicing in the Twin Cities

Piano voicing, or tone regulating as it is sometimes called, focuses specifically on the piano’s tone, volume, or sustain. Action regulating and tuning can greatly improve a piano’s tone, but voicing the piano hammers correctly can take the piano to a whole new level of sound and controllable dynamics. Piano hammers are what strike the strings in the action mechanism, and are made of densely compressed wool felt. The quality of the wool felt, and the density of the compression manufacturing process play a big part in the overall tone the hammer will produce. A hammer that is too hard will give harsh thin tones that can be brassy in the bass, and extremely bright or crispy sounding in the treble sections. Hammers that are too soft can sound dead, lifeless, and lack volume.

Most voicing techniques involve a chemical and/or needling process in certain areas of the hammer to alter the tone to fit the particular needs of the artist, or to enhance the piano’s true potential. All pianos need to be voiced periodically to insure even tone from one note to the next, and an overall tone quality to suit the piano, the artist, and the room.