Are the kids damaging the keys?
Sometimes piano technicians get asked if the kids are damaging the keys by “banging on the piano”. As long as they’re using their hands and fingers, and they’re not hitting the keys with toys or other objects, they’re not damaging the piano. But that doesn’t make random cluster chords any less annoying to listen to!
My client and friend, Lori, a piano teacher and grandmother of three, offers this suggestion. When a youngster is interested in the piano before they have had musical training, teach them to play just the black keys. (If they are big enough to reach the pedals, have them depress the soft pedal and the sustain pedal at the same time.)
I suggest you stop reading right now and go try it!
Did your inner child run a little wild? Was it fun?
You may have noticed a tonal center of E flat (minor pentatonic). Playing only the black keys means that you aren’t getting the dissonant intervals of the minor second and the tritone.
Some of the consonant intervals that you can play on a minor pentatonic scale, (octaves, perfect fourths and fifths, major thirds) are the test chords I use to tune.
If your piano needs some tuning attention, call me!
Amy Zilk, RPT 503.936.0594 (text or call)
