What Is The Relationship Between Keystroke And Timbre In Piano?
by Yuki Akizuki
Category: STEM
Abstract – This paper is about ‘what is the relationship between timbre and keystroke of the piano?’. I confront this question and made a hypothesis by focusing on the hammer string interaction with Fourier series equation. Several hypotheses were made such as, decibel will decrease as harmonics increase. I conducted experiment by dropping coins from different height on piano key and analyzing it on the ‘Audacity’ to find difference in frequency spectrum. Results showed that at the bigger force, decline of decibel relative to harmonics was lower which led to brighter sound while at the smaller force, opposite result was shown leading to softer sound. At the same time, there was interesting results such as that harmonics content showed unique shape especially at larger force. This showed the complexity of piano and further variables of piano has to be considered to accurately predict the timbre of piano sound. This research and further work will be useful for pianist to have more accurate control on timbre with their keystroke rather than relying on senses which could be inaccurate.