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As a pianist with relatively small hands I understand the motivation behind this. But: 1. At the vast majority of gigs I play (cocktail piano, big band, accom

As a pianist with relatively small hands I understand the motivation behind this. But: 1. At the vast majority of gigs I play (cocktail piano, big band, accompanying singers for auditions, etc), I play whatever piano is available. If I had spent my practice career on a smaller gauge instrument, I would be hobbled on any house piano. 2. I believe one can be just as expressive a pianist with smaller hands. There are several amazing smallhanded pianists to prove this. Keith Jarrett comes to mind. Sure, maybe some Rachmaninoff is out of reach, or Teddy Wilson's walking tenths, but there's effectively an infinite selection of other music to play. 3. If smaller pianos become popular, how long before modern repertoire starts including 13ths and other fiendish intervals? Last year I was in a church basement in Greenwich Village and encountered a Steinway Model B (my alltime favorite instrument). It was humiliating: I could barely play without fumbling and hitting wrong notes all over the place. I soon realized that the piano was small-scale like those mentioned in this article. While it was fun to suddenly be able to reach any tenth with no effort, otherwise it was not really enjoyable to play at all.

stanrivers 6y ago
Just going to say - for those that don't know Keith Jarrett.. go listen to the Koln Concert. When listening, remember that he improvised - meaning made up on the spot - every note that evening. One of the most powerful moments on the piano, at least to me. Amazon link to Koln concert: https://www.amazon.com/Koln-Concert-Keith-Jarrett/dp/B0000262WI https://www.amazon.com/Koln-Concert-Keith-Jarrett/dp/B000026...
- jbaber 6y ago
  Seconded. The Koln Concert can't be oversold. https://youtu.be/Pd_Kti6jvy8 https://youtu.be/Pd_Kti6jvy8
- sun_bear 6y ago
  What's even more fascinating to me is that the Köln Concert is just one of many long-form improvisations he did and, arguably, far from the best one. In roughly the following order, I recommend: Paris, 1988 Vienna, 1991 Lausanne, 1973 Sun Bear Concerts, 1976 (5(!) concerts in 14 days) Bremen, 1973 La Scala, 1995 Munich, 1982 ...and so on. If you _get_ Jarrett, it's a love affair for life.
- edanm 6y ago
  Totally agree. But the best part of the story, which I wasn't aware of until recently, is this: when they organized the concert, they actually brought the wrong piano, and instead of a performance-ready piano, they brought a piano that was very bad ("The instrument was tinny and thin in the upper registers and weak in the bass register, and the pedals did not work properly" per Wikipedia). When Jarrett arrived and tried the piano a few hours before the concert, he almost refused to play. There were other terrible circumstances (he had barely slept in a few days, because of mixups hadn't eaten properly, etc). In the end he was convinced to go on, and played differently than he was used to to try and get the most out of the piano. What followed is widely hailed as a masterpiece, and remains his most popular work.
- acomjean 6y ago
  I had a Keith Jarret casaste last century. It was just him at the piano, and parts were ok but other parts were mesmerizing. It was also when I discovered that when you listened through headphones you could hear him singing along. I’ll check out this concert. Sadly he’s not well and can no longer play. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/21/arts/music/keith-jarrett-piano.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/21/arts/music/keith-jarrett-...
thirteenfingers 6y ago
This. Fellow pianist-with-smallish-hands here. The string players' paradigm of having differently-sized instruments as one grows up works well because they carry their instruments with them. Pianists are cursed with having to play whatever instrument we find on location (unless you bring your own electronic keyboard everywhere, which isn't a bad idea if it's practically possible). Differences in stiffness/tone quality/whatever are annoying enough to deal with already, and differently-sized keys is going to be a whole 'nother league of confusing. I'd personally rather be stuck with the same standard for key sizes everywhere at the expense of not being able to play all the repertoire I'd like.
Wowfunhappy 6y ago
Y'know, I think this gets to a central issue in technology in general. Perhaps even the issue. Let's say we all agree that most pianos should have one, consistent size. Even so, the optimal size is probably at least a little smaller than what we have today—after all, I'm seeing lots of complaints that the keys are currently too big, and almost none that they're too small. So, is it worth changing the standard size to something more optimal? You would end up with a lot of older pianos that have the legacy size, and it would take a very long time for those to age out of use. But it would happen eventually, and the status quo is clearly creating problems. Personally, I'd come down on the side of maintaining the status quo. Whatever benefit we'd get from from smaller keys would not be worth the pain of the transition. Everyone would have to learn a new size, and potentially replace their pianos. And this is also why I'm not so enthused by USB-C. Or replacing the headphone jack. But, clearly some change is needed, sometimes, or else we'd all be using Mac OS 9, and laptops gigantic enough to accommodate bulky optical disc drives. I'm in favor of those transitions—they were painful, but the need was great enough to make them worthwhile. All the way at the other end of the spectrum are Slack's weekly UI redesigns, both because of their frequency and because they rarely seem like clear-cut improvements.
- philistine 6y ago
  We’ll still be playing piano in 10,000 years. I would hope we would have the gumption to be the generation who painfully went through the transition to make the piano accessible to all.
  - tempestn 6y ago
    Can we switch from base-ten to base-eight while we're at it? That'd be far more painful, but also hugely beneficial in the long run. For one thing you could use the metric system everywhere while maintaining the ease of halving and doubling that the imperial system offers. It would obviously make various aspects of programming simpler too. But it's hard to imagine it ever happening, since the transition would just never be worth it (within the lifetimes of the people making the decision).
    - 6y ago
saulrh 6y ago
If I had spent my practice career on a smaller gauge instrument, I would be hobbled on any house piano. I somehow find it unlikely that you could go an entire career without ever having a few hours to practice on a larger keyboard. TFA cites some research saying that it takes about an hour to completely acclimate to even the smallest of the standardized sizes they propose. I could sort of believe that you'd have not spent as much time stretching and might not be quite as flexible, but at the same time, I could also see you having had fewer hand injuries and being more flexible. edit: I read more of the linked site. I no longer particularly believe that practice could make you better at reaching larger spans. http://smallpianokeyboards.org/pain-injury-and-performance-quality/ http://smallpianokeyboards.org/pain-injury-and-performance-q...
- philistine 6y ago
  When you live in a world where you know that pianos come in different sizes, you teach people how to adapt for that. Right now we live in a world where those are gotcha novelties.
skybrian 6y ago
If you're willing to break with tradition, couldn't you go digital and bring your own keyboard? I haven't played an acoustic piano in years. In theory, we could have acoustic player pianos available as MIDI output devices, so you could still get the sound of one while using your own keyboard.
- redis_mlc 6y ago
  > couldn't you go digital and bring your own keyboard? Sure, if you own a forklift. Pro digital keyboards weigh in the 80-100 pound range.
- autarch 6y ago
  > In theory, we could have acoustic player pianos available as MIDI output devices, so you could still get the sound of one while using your own keyboard. Not a theory. Such things have existed for quite a while. See https://disklavier.com/ https://disklavier.com/
  - Nition 6y ago
    Long enough that it's the Disklavier line because the early models used a floppy disk for storage.
BurningFrog 6y ago
Yeah, the only way I see this becoming practical is if you can decouple the keyboard from the "sound box". That is, when you encounter a "Steinway Model X", you should be able to swap out only the keyboard, while retaining the acoustic qualities of the piano itself. Some standard keyboard/piano interface is needed for this. It could be digital or mechanical. Such a thing is perfectly possible to build, and should be acceptable even for "purists" who won't touch electronic pianos. The bigger problem would probably be to get piano manufacturers to agree to building these things.
- wyre 6y ago
  I don’t think it’s realistic. It would be very hard to design without changing the responsiveness and tone of the keys. And even if possible “purists” won’t accept it for those reasons and also because it isn’t a traditional piano.
- freeone3000 6y ago
  No, it can't be mechanical. The interconnection between the key hammers and the strings is THE defining sound of the piano. It is a direct mechanical linkage. If you change this, it is a different instrument, and cannot sound the same. If it's digital, well, why bother with the soundbox at all, and simply have an electronic keyboard entirely?
  - mrob 6y ago
    There is no direct mechanical linkage between the keys and the strings. The piano action sets the hammer moving, and then it flies through the air uncontrolled until it bounces off the string. The only control the player has is how fast they start it moving, and there's no reason you couldn't do this with a solenoid (although it would have to be a fast one to match the latency of the mechanical action).
    - siltpotato 6y ago
      That sounds too expensive for a problem that could more easily solved by switching to a different instrument, like a button accordion. I know a longtime jazz guitar player who recently switched to something radically different, a clarinet, just because arthritis has been catching up to him.
adrusi 6y ago
1. That's definitely an issue. But in the space occupied by a single upright acoustic piano, a music venue could easily store three digital pianos. No doubt it would take decades before you could be able to rely on a venue having made this transition though. 2. Yes, but it sounds harder, and needlessly so. 3. Yeah but that actually sounds like a good thing.
- bluGill 6y ago
  The best digital pianos are enough cheaper than the best acoustics that you would save money. For top level competitions digital is enough worse that quality goes down. Most piano players are not good enough that the best digital is a hindrance to their playing, and the ability to sound like several thousand not a piano instruments is useful in itself. But then most people compare a cheap digital to a much more expensive acoustic and of course the acoustic is better.
greenyouse 6y ago
If the alternative keyboard sizes get more popular it may become standard to brush up on playing all the sizes. Professional saxophone players usually specialize in one of the major sax types (like alto, tenor, or baritone) but they know how to play all of them. The key positions for those three are mostly the same but they play completely differently. It's not too hard to learn each one but it takes some practice. With prior experience it doesn't take that long to learn the ins and outs of a new model. For the different keyboard sizes, that might be something that new students could train on. Professionals already out there might want to practice on them but that stinks to have to get stuck with a random piano size at a gig.
atomack 6y ago
Good points. I'd add to this that small hands are actively advantageous for a lot of repertoire. Bach fugues, say, or fast intricate passages can be a nightmare for long-fingered pianists to get their hands around. The OPs focus on big Liszt or Rachmaninov chords is understandable but there's so much more to piano playing.
pclmulqdq 6y ago
The baroque harpsichord literature is riddled with 12ths and fast 10ths for this reason. The keys are smaller than piano keys, so it isn't be a problem to hit them.
stjohnswarts 6y ago
I think choice is always a good thing. no one forces someone to buy these other pianos. There are always pros and cons but almost 100% of the time choice is a better solution.

stanrivers 6y ago

Just going to say - for those that don't know Keith Jarrett.. go listen to the Koln Concert. When listening, remember that he improvised - meaning made up on the spot - every note that evening. One of the most powerful moments on the piano, at least to me. Amazon link to Koln concert: https://www.amazon.com/Koln-Concert-Keith-Jarrett/dp/B0000262WI https://www.amazon.com/Koln-Concert-Keith-Jarrett/dp/B000026...

jbaber 6y ago
Seconded. The Koln Concert can't be oversold. https://youtu.be/Pd_Kti6jvy8 https://youtu.be/Pd_Kti6jvy8
sun_bear 6y ago
What's even more fascinating to me is that the Köln Concert is just one of many long-form improvisations he did and, arguably, far from the best one. In roughly the following order, I recommend: Paris, 1988 Vienna, 1991 Lausanne, 1973 Sun Bear Concerts, 1976 (5(!) concerts in 14 days) Bremen, 1973 La Scala, 1995 Munich, 1982 ...and so on. If you _get_ Jarrett, it's a love affair for life.
edanm 6y ago
Totally agree. But the best part of the story, which I wasn't aware of until recently, is this: when they organized the concert, they actually brought the wrong piano, and instead of a performance-ready piano, they brought a piano that was very bad ("The instrument was tinny and thin in the upper registers and weak in the bass register, and the pedals did not work properly" per Wikipedia). When Jarrett arrived and tried the piano a few hours before the concert, he almost refused to play. There were other terrible circumstances (he had barely slept in a few days, because of mixups hadn't eaten properly, etc). In the end he was convinced to go on, and played differently than he was used to to try and get the most out of the piano. What followed is widely hailed as a masterpiece, and remains his most popular work.
acomjean 6y ago
I had a Keith Jarret casaste last century. It was just him at the piano, and parts were ok but other parts were mesmerizing. It was also when I discovered that when you listened through headphones you could hear him singing along. I’ll check out this concert. Sadly he’s not well and can no longer play. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/21/arts/music/keith-jarrett-piano.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/21/arts/music/keith-jarrett-...

thirteenfingers 6y ago

This. Fellow pianist-with-smallish-hands here. The string players' paradigm of having differently-sized instruments as one grows up works well because they carry their instruments with them. Pianists are cursed with having to play whatever instrument we find on location (unless you bring your own electronic keyboard everywhere, which isn't a bad idea if it's practically possible). Differences in stiffness/tone quality/whatever are annoying enough to deal with already, and differently-sized keys is going to be a whole 'nother league of confusing. I'd personally rather be stuck with the same standard for key sizes everywhere at the expense of not being able to play all the repertoire I'd like.

Wowfunhappy 6y ago

Y'know, I think this gets to a central issue in technology in general. Perhaps even the issue. Let's say we all agree that most pianos should have one, consistent size. Even so, the optimal size is probably at least a little smaller than what we have today—after all, I'm seeing lots of complaints that the keys are currently too big, and almost none that they're too small. So, is it worth changing the standard size to something more optimal? You would end up with a lot of older pianos that have the legacy size, and it would take a very long time for those to age out of use. But it would happen eventually, and the status quo is clearly creating problems. Personally, I'd come down on the side of maintaining the status quo. Whatever benefit we'd get from from smaller keys would not be worth the pain of the transition. Everyone would have to learn a new size, and potentially replace their pianos. And this is also why I'm not so enthused by USB-C. Or replacing the headphone jack. But, clearly some change is needed, sometimes, or else we'd all be using Mac OS 9, and laptops gigantic enough to accommodate bulky optical disc drives. I'm in favor of those transitions—they were painful, but the need was great enough to make them worthwhile. All the way at the other end of the spectrum are Slack's weekly UI redesigns, both because of their frequency and because they rarely seem like clear-cut improvements.

philistine 6y ago
We’ll still be playing piano in 10,000 years. I would hope we would have the gumption to be the generation who painfully went through the transition to make the piano accessible to all.
- tempestn 6y ago
  Can we switch from base-ten to base-eight while we're at it? That'd be far more painful, but also hugely beneficial in the long run. For one thing you could use the metric system everywhere while maintaining the ease of halving and doubling that the imperial system offers. It would obviously make various aspects of programming simpler too. But it's hard to imagine it ever happening, since the transition would just never be worth it (within the lifetimes of the people making the decision).
  - 6y ago

saulrh 6y ago

If I had spent my practice career on a smaller gauge instrument, I would be hobbled on any house piano. I somehow find it unlikely that you could go an entire career without ever having a few hours to practice on a larger keyboard. TFA cites some research saying that it takes about an hour to completely acclimate to even the smallest of the standardized sizes they propose. I could sort of believe that you'd have not spent as much time stretching and might not be quite as flexible, but at the same time, I could also see you having had fewer hand injuries and being more flexible. edit: I read more of the linked site. I no longer particularly believe that practice could make you better at reaching larger spans. http://smallpianokeyboards.org/pain-injury-and-performance-quality/ http://smallpianokeyboards.org/pain-injury-and-performance-q...

philistine 6y ago
When you live in a world where you know that pianos come in different sizes, you teach people how to adapt for that. Right now we live in a world where those are gotcha novelties.

skybrian 6y ago

If you're willing to break with tradition, couldn't you go digital and bring your own keyboard? I haven't played an acoustic piano in years. In theory, we could have acoustic player pianos available as MIDI output devices, so you could still get the sound of one while using your own keyboard.

redis_mlc 6y ago
> couldn't you go digital and bring your own keyboard? Sure, if you own a forklift. Pro digital keyboards weigh in the 80-100 pound range.
autarch 6y ago
> In theory, we could have acoustic player pianos available as MIDI output devices, so you could still get the sound of one while using your own keyboard. Not a theory. Such things have existed for quite a while. See https://disklavier.com/ https://disklavier.com/
- Nition 6y ago
  Long enough that it's the Disklavier line because the early models used a floppy disk for storage.

BurningFrog 6y ago

Yeah, the only way I see this becoming practical is if you can decouple the keyboard from the "sound box". That is, when you encounter a "Steinway Model X", you should be able to swap out only the keyboard, while retaining the acoustic qualities of the piano itself. Some standard keyboard/piano interface is needed for this. It could be digital or mechanical. Such a thing is perfectly possible to build, and should be acceptable even for "purists" who won't touch electronic pianos. The bigger problem would probably be to get piano manufacturers to agree to building these things.

wyre 6y ago
I don’t think it’s realistic. It would be very hard to design without changing the responsiveness and tone of the keys. And even if possible “purists” won’t accept it for those reasons and also because it isn’t a traditional piano.
freeone3000 6y ago
No, it can't be mechanical. The interconnection between the key hammers and the strings is THE defining sound of the piano. It is a direct mechanical linkage. If you change this, it is a different instrument, and cannot sound the same. If it's digital, well, why bother with the soundbox at all, and simply have an electronic keyboard entirely?
- mrob 6y ago
  There is no direct mechanical linkage between the keys and the strings. The piano action sets the hammer moving, and then it flies through the air uncontrolled until it bounces off the string. The only control the player has is how fast they start it moving, and there's no reason you couldn't do this with a solenoid (although it would have to be a fast one to match the latency of the mechanical action).
  - siltpotato 6y ago
    That sounds too expensive for a problem that could more easily solved by switching to a different instrument, like a button accordion. I know a longtime jazz guitar player who recently switched to something radically different, a clarinet, just because arthritis has been catching up to him.

adrusi 6y ago

1. That's definitely an issue. But in the space occupied by a single upright acoustic piano, a music venue could easily store three digital pianos. No doubt it would take decades before you could be able to rely on a venue having made this transition though. 2. Yes, but it sounds harder, and needlessly so. 3. Yeah but that actually sounds like a good thing.

bluGill 6y ago
The best digital pianos are enough cheaper than the best acoustics that you would save money. For top level competitions digital is enough worse that quality goes down. Most piano players are not good enough that the best digital is a hindrance to their playing, and the ability to sound like several thousand not a piano instruments is useful in itself. But then most people compare a cheap digital to a much more expensive acoustic and of course the acoustic is better.

greenyouse 6y ago

If the alternative keyboard sizes get more popular it may become standard to brush up on playing all the sizes. Professional saxophone players usually specialize in one of the major sax types (like alto, tenor, or baritone) but they know how to play all of them. The key positions for those three are mostly the same but they play completely differently. It's not too hard to learn each one but it takes some practice. With prior experience it doesn't take that long to learn the ins and outs of a new model. For the different keyboard sizes, that might be something that new students could train on. Professionals already out there might want to practice on them but that stinks to have to get stuck with a random piano size at a gig.

atomack 6y ago

Good points. I'd add to this that small hands are actively advantageous for a lot of repertoire. Bach fugues, say, or fast intricate passages can be a nightmare for long-fingered pianists to get their hands around. The OPs focus on big Liszt or Rachmaninov chords is understandable but there's so much more to piano playing.

pclmulqdq 6y ago

The baroque harpsichord literature is riddled with 12ths and fast 10ths for this reason. The keys are smaller than piano keys, so it isn't be a problem to hit them.

stjohnswarts 6y ago

I think choice is always a good thing. no one forces someone to buy these other pianos. There are always pros and cons but almost 100% of the time choice is a better solution.