06/10/2009 [Musical Instruments]
Confused by Silent Piano? Is it a real piano or is it a digital? Do you want to learn more about it? See what Pianist Magazine the popular magazine for people who love to play the piano had to say about the subject in thier mammoth 50th September Issue!
The sound of silence
Erica Worth offers a round of applause for Yamaha’s Silent Piano, a fully acoustic piano that becomes soundless (except through headphones) with the switch of a lever
Mention the phrase ‘silent piano’ to a group of otherwise well-informed pianists and you’re likely to bring about a moment of silence – until many of them admit that they don’t quite know what you’re talking about. They’ll certainly have heard of a silent piano, but they won’t know very much about it. Is it digital or acoustic? Upright or grand? What’s the sound like? Who makes it? How much more does it cost than a non-silent model? Or can any piano be made ‘silent’? Few will know the answers to these questions, and judging by a recent influx of queries from Pianist readers, there’s a lot of confusion out there about this instrument. So it seems to me that it’s time to set the record straight once and for all.
I visit Chappell’s of Bond Street in London to find out more and to get a demonstration of Yamaha’s Silent Piano, a product that has been around since the early 1990s. There, I’ve already told you it’s made by Yamaha, so that’s one question marked off the list. The next most important fact is that the Silent Piano, which you can get on any Yamaha upright or grand, is every single bit acoustic, which Leanne Hassan, Marketing and Promotions Manager of Yamaha Music UK’s Piano and Strings division, is keen to point out to me. She sits me down at the U3 upright, and first, shows me the inside of the piano – the soundboard, ith all its hammers and felts and so on. Hassan tells me that this is where the confusion often lies: people just don’t think the Silent Piano is acoustic.
So far so good. I have a nice play around on the piano, and I can confirm that it is indeed acoustic. Next, Hassan shows me the simple lever that one pulls in order to make the change between the piano making its usual sound and the piano becoming ‘silent’. I pull the lever, which is underneath the keyboard around the C below middle C (therefore easy to access – you don’t have to stretch far) and when I play again, I don’t hear anything. What has happened is that pulling the lever has activated something called the ‘hammer shank stopper’. We peer down inside the piano and Hassan shows me the stopper. It’s a long thin felt-covered metal bar that runs all the way across the length of the piano. When this stopper is raised, it comes between the hammer shank and the strings, acting as a barrier. The hammers almost hit the strings – the stopper is just millimetres away from them – but the hammers don’t quite get there. Hence, you’ve played the note, but the hammer doesn’t strike the string. So when you hit the key in silent mode is a sound produced? What actually happens?
Underneath the keyboard, to the bottom left, sits the Silent Piano System (which is also known as the ‘electronic control unit’). It’s a little black unit, the size of a small box of chocolates. And so begins the confusion, as it’s here that the word ‘digital’ comes in to play. After all, the Silent Piano System itself is digital. But before I confuse you further, I’ll talk you through what happens, step by step.
When you hit a note in the Silent mode, the key, hammer and pedal sensors inside the piano pick up everything – from reverb, tone, dynamics, soft and sustain pedal movements to key release velocity. They send all this information to the control unit. The actual tones that you can hear through the headphones are not the tones that come from the acoustic piano you’re playing, however. They are digitally reproduced. The good news is that the tones are actually stereo sampled from the CFIIIS Yamaha concert grand, Yamaha’s top concert hall piano.
This different sound concept interests me, so I listen to the piano sound without the headphones, and then I quickly put the headphones on, pull the lever and listen in Silent mode. I do hear a difference, and I’d say that the Silent sound is ‘larger’ and more sonorous, as one might expect from a concert grand (I’m also surrounded by my headphones, so that the sound seems closer to me anyway). It’s a little bizarre hearing a slightly different sound, having just heard the U3 sound seconds before, but the difference is minimal, and one easily gets used to it.
Now on to the ‘record and playback’, which is not only fun but also incredibly useful for all pianists. At Chappell’s, I play a few bars of music on the Silent Piano and then, with headphones on, I listen to it played back. It’s quite a shock! Did I really smudge that note there? I’m sure I played those four notes in that lush chord simultaneously. But playback reveals everything.
The record and playback feature is included with a silent system on most of the Yamaha uprights (the feature is not available on grands, however). If you are thinking of investing in a Silent Piano, I’d definitely advise buying a model with this important feature. Hassan tells me that the Silent comes with two headphone sockets, meaning you and your teacher can listen to your playing at the same time. Some of us aren’t that great at listening to ourselves, so there’s no escaping the truth when we listen to what we’ve just performed, with headphones on too!
Meet the neighbours
Sabine Vinck, who won our first Amateur Competition in 2005 and chose Yamaha’s US5 Silent as her prize, reiterates the importance of the record and playback feature: ‘I have done a lot of work on phrasing recently, as I find the big gap between amateurs and professionals is the sense of phrasing and the sense of time. When you play, you don’t really hear yourself and using the Silent Piano has been fantastic at improving my phrasing and sense of space.’ Any other reasons that she went for the Silent Piano? ‘Sure! I wanted to be able to practise in the evenings. I live in a flat and didn’t want to drive the neighbours crazy. I work full time so the only time I can practise is at night.’
Normal mode (left); silent mode (right). The hammer shank stopper prevents strings from sounding, allowing digital play or use as a MIDI controller.
And herein lies the most obvious reason for investing in the Silent Piano. Most of us have stories to tell about ranting neighbours (and even ranting family members) and piano playing. When I was a student, an angry downstairs neighbour used to bang on my door every single day (it wasn’t my fault he was one of those nocturnal writers who slept during the day and wrote during the night!). So I can relate to Ms Vinck’s dilemma. What a liberating experience it must be to be able to practise a four-bar phrase over and over again, knowing the neighbours can’t hear you. Shame I didn’t have a Silent Piano in those student days.
Another Silent System extra (not included on all Silent Pianos, but on most) is a choice of voices, including Piano (the default), Harpsichord, Vibraphone, Pipe Organ, Celesta, Strings, Electric Piano 1, Electric Piano 2, Jazz Organ and Choir. I think I’m a purist, as this doesn’t interest me too much – I don’t want to hear anything but the real thing. But I know that many pianists would love the opportunity to create new colours.
Pianist Editor Erica Worth (left) and Yamaha’s Leanne Hassan
The verdict: If you’ve looking for an acoustic piano that can play in the silent mode, then the Yamaha Silent Piano may well the one for you. Yes, there are many digital pianos where you can listen to yourself play through headphones. And yes, there are companies and piano makers that will fit a similar system to a piano post-purchase (a ‘retro fit’, fitting a system after the piano has left the factory). What is unique to the Yamaha Silent Piano (and also to a handful of competitors such as Kawai and its Any-Time piano) is that the silent system is installed at the factory. Some piano experts claim that results are better when this type of device is fitted into the piano as it’s being built.
The best things in life don’t come cheap, though. Yamaha’s Silent System adds about £1,200 to the price of an upright, and for a grand, a hefty £4,000 or so on top of its price. I’m not quite sure what warrants such a huge gap in the price between upright and grand – I know that more intricate work is needed to install the Silent System on a grand, and that may be why. It’s true too that other piano manufacturers also have an expensive price tag for their systems. But what you get with the Silent Piano could be viewed as having two types of piano for the price of one. To keep the neighbours happy, it may well be worth it. Think that one over for yourself – quietly, please.
To see the Silent Piano in action, watch the new online video demonstration at http://www.yamahapianos.co.uk
http://www.pianistmagazine.com
