Upright Piano that Sounds Like a Grand Piano

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] I visited Satsuma Sendai City Kagoshima Prefecture situated in the south western tip of Japan's island of Kyushu hi Michelle from this town which is rich in nature a Takumi renovator has come up with a historical feat in piano manufacturing techniques it is set to be unlike anything in the 300 year history of piano and it is said to be spreading throughout Japan let's go find out we visited a piano store on the main shopping street hello and Michelle thank you for coming all the way to see me i'm fuji today's Takumi is leukemia huger he is a piano tuner and has been running his store for 30 years there are two basic types of pianos the grand piano which is used in concerts and the upright piano for home practice an upright piano is low-cost and compact and it doesn't take up too much space yet it does have a weakness that is the movement of the keys a grand piano has a mechanism in which you can hit the same key again when one third of the key returns to its original position but in the case of an upright piano when you hit a key once you cannot play it again until it completely returns to its original position I see what you mean there's no sound at all that I can use the model to show me why a grand piano can quickly make a sound when the piano key is pressed a hammer hits the string which makes a sound the L shaped part called a jack conveys the movement of the key to the hammer in a grand piano as soon as the key starts to rise back up the jack quickly returns to its original position ready to produce the next sound what makes this possible is something called the repetition mechanism two parts play an input rule a wooden lever pushes up the hammer from underneath and allows a jack to easily return to its position and there's a spring that's underneath the spring tries to expand and quickly pushes the key back [Music] on the other hand here's a model of an upright piano it has a jack just like in a grand piano but there is no repetition mechanism consequently the return of the jack is slow and is not able to quickly repeat a note like a grand piano what you are taught with the grand piano cannot be done using an upright piano at home if you play an upright too much at home then it will feel different when playing your piano teachers grand piano so the takumi made a certain modification to the upright piano it's this spring you need this simple and tiny spring that's right the takumi added a string right here using a repulsive force of the spring the jack is pushed back into place this allows the upright piano to quickly repeat a note I had a chance to try it oh this is much easier to press repeatedly how much closer to the grand piano did the performance become with the help of the Kagoshima Prefecture Institute of industrial technology we filmed with a high-speed camera this is a conventional upright piano it was only able to repeat a sound seven times per second but when the Takumi's device is added they can repeat a sound fourteen times this is virtually the same as a grand pianos performance as a technician it makes me very happy to catch a glimpse of the scientific evidence behind this concept the Takumi is working on other features this is a regular upright piano and that is a newly developed piano try playing them okay this seems like a typical piano with a nice sound it's totally different the sound is very clear and enchanting what made us sound better the secret was in another spring that he added [Music] in fact our grand pianos hammer moves vertically so it leaves the string quickly this creates a rich sound yet an upright pianos hammer moves sideways therefore the speed in which the hammer leaves the string is slow and that limits the resonance so that Akuma could another spring to raise the speed of the hammer late in the string [Music] the addition of just two strings made the upright piano dramatically closer to a grand piano they're already about 700 pianos using the Takumi's device around Japan the piano industry has been declining in Japan so I'm thinking of taking this technology abroad I really hope that my device can help make a contribution to the industry today I brought in a model of the piano keys that appeared in the video it has two keys one is the conventional and the other is made by the Takumi Tomoko please try feeling it thank you so this here is the conventional tonight this is the Takumi ski yes I think I can feel the difference that Takumi's key the I can feel the key springing back to my finger but we can't hear the sound here because there are no piano strings but it's amazing that by adding these two tiny Springs makes such a huge difference in the pianos sound the piano was first invented in Italy in the 18th century and the repetition mechanism was added in the early 19th century in France and now it's amazing that in Japan another historical function has been added yes it's really amazing can this function be added to an ordinary upright piano yes certainly and it only takes about two days to add to the constructions and of course you can also buy a piano that's entirely designed by the Takumi - the name of a Japanese Takumi may be written on the history of the piano which was born in Europe as a fellow Japanese I'm very proud yes thank you very much Michelle so miss Yamazaki how would you wrap up today's program we were able to see the hidden potential of shoe clubs such as a creation of silk thread with new properties in various substances including medicine I was surprised that many of these substances are already being used in our daily lives and silkworms may even help humankind in space they have already accompanied humankind for 5000 years and it seems like a new chapter in the history it's just beginning thank you miss Yamazaki and that's all for science cue I hope to see you all next time you

Channel: TishoYanchev

Views: 1,016,532

Keywords: nhk, nhk world, japan, science, science view, technology, j innovators, innovators, j-innovators, piano, music, upright, sounds, grand, grand piano

Id: ivuczNJPubo

Length: 9min 8sec (548 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 23 2017