Hammer Voicing

The piano's "voice", or hammer voicing, refers to the piano's overall quality of sound and the piano's ability to produce a diverse range of colorful sounds, balance and evenness in all dynamic ranges from loud to soft.  The tone and voicing of the piano are integral to the artistic style and mood you wish to create on your piano. Piano voicing optimizes your ability to play and produce the sound quality which best suits your needs.

Over time the tone quality of the piano will gradually change as the piano is played.  As the hammers repeatedly strike the strings the compressed felt of the hammers slowly starts to harden also causing the hammers to slowly distort from their original shape.  This hardening effect and change in the shape of the hammer affects the quality of tone produced by the piano.  You may notice it when you play as having less of a dynamic or color range (especially when trying to play at softer levels), the piano is generally too loud when you play, the piano is uneven or out of balance dynamically, or certain notes sound out of place compared with the others.  Hammer voicing is typically achieved by working specifically with the hammer felt of each individual hammer by making it harder or softer, or by reshaping (filing) the hammer to its original form to achieve your desired tone.

Some important aspects to consider when voicing your piano are the type of piano that you have, the particular acoustics of the room or location of the piano and the type or genre of music you generally like to play. Different brands and models of pianos all have their own unique tone character due to the different methods and materials used to build them as well as different philosophical ideas regarding the approach to achieving the best possible piano sound.