Window Watchers (May 24, 1954)

hi window Watchers the reason I'm not at the bulletin board today is this right here see the day we're going to be talking about music and in particular about the piano so it was kind of hard for me to try and lift the piano up to the bulletin board so I thought well I just sit down in front of it you really wouldn't care hope you don't remember a while ago we talked about another musical instrument it was a recorder remember and Ed Weiss was here and he told us about the recorder and how old it was and how to play it and it was an end loan flute remember and it was what we called a woodwind and if you remember to that same day we said that there were three kinds of musical instruments that were woodwinds there were percussion instruments which were the drums and there were stringed instruments which took in harps and violins and cellos and bass files and a few other ones too so they were going to be talking about the piano and Ed Weiss is here again come on in and sit down and I see you brought your own piano with you well this is echoes piano these two toes was yes it is it's just a toy piano and that brings me to a question that I wanted to ask you now this kind of piano here that I'm sitting in front of this is kind of a little short one it would it's not very wide I suppose about a yard wide and it's not very tall no that's right what kind of a piano does it call oh that's called a spinet nowadays spin it mm-hmm well I guess I couldn't say they got the word spin it from a spinning wheel because it doesn't look like it's all back in the old days there was a type musical instrument it had strings out and the keyboard it was called the spinet to strings were plucked instead of hit with a hammer but the idea of spinet piano is not a new one but it's the small piano when I'm talking about pianos in general before we come back visit us on the ground oh I'll hold it for you how old are pianos now when we were talking about keeps the last time we said they went back so many several hundred thousand years well how far back can we trace the PM well probably the idea of the piano can go way way way back you heard of a zipper either we strike this with with hammers are you my bus driver mm-hmm stretched over up some sort of a frame a group of wire strings and you hit it well this is like a piano the difference is of course you just hold two hammers in the hands with a piano each string has its own mechanical hammer which cups up the strikes a string now that sort of action as the piano is called the hammer striking the strings mechanically all this probably can go back to maybe about Oh fifteen eighty or even before that 1585 thank you somebody that live well how about Christopher Columbus discovering America 1492 well that's just about hit it well this would be about a hundred years later than the discovery of America I see well that's quite a little benefit yes well now this one here it's a little bit different shape from this one that i'm sitting in front of we said this is a spinet and what you called it well now let's suppose this were a real real to piano yeah and this would be Oh could be a concert grand piano which is somewhere around eight feet long very very long now the keyboard of course isn't it isn't the same on regular pounds it is unknown play one but let's put this down here look shape up in other words this is the main shape the difference is that it has this sense Oh kind of an s-curve life yes this is something like you would find out hard C and harps of very old instruments and be long strings the ones that are for the base notes these are in the long portion and a little tiny springs at her for the high notes are in the shorter Pole well not since this is just a toy I know that there aren't straining atheros iron rods and it looks like might be the same idea here these rods are shorter and these rods are longer and the longer odds have a lower tone and the higher one oh well then there are the concert grounds that are shaped like this only and then the various size grand pianos are they calling some of the piper grand baby grand baby grands if these are I have a size relationships I'm are shorter than others summer long why not we're getting to the stringed instrument park it is a string instrument yes but why is the stream instrument where are the strings now when I look here at this piano I know that when I just play I hit these these keys right here so now is this string right down no your string is way back way back in here mm-hmm now we could open this top and we look down inside we find that the strings go down this way see and then there is a hammer like this that hits the string you strike the key oh wait a minute we got me all control and I know if there's another piano over here is it's all torn apart that we can see the inside let's stop right now and start over with you over this string bit well now this is what you're probably call an old-fashioned piano because they'd really don't make these anymore this is an upright piano and they were very popular and many years ago because they're smaller outside of this type they are smaller and can easily be stuck into a corner you couldn't do this with a concert grand piano which would have to be sticking out and probably take up most of your room Hey well then this one really didn't have a case on it too oh yeah we what I wouldn't say we chop the front off we sort of pulled it off that's right all right now now that I can see the inside what it looks like why don't you do some explaining well let me pull one of these keys off now this is a piano key this is covered with ivory some pianos use a plastic covering nowadays but this is covered with ivory and there is a hole here and a hole here a metal pin goes right up through here and one flew here so that the key will be held in the same position and now I use my finger and the key will pivot back and forth and I press my finger here and the back goes up and I release it and the spring pushes the key up to normal position so it's a sort of movement now the back of the key is this little tiny piece of metal which comes into contact with another piece of wood that is we'll call it the piano action that's right that comes into contact with the hammer and when you press this this sends the hammer toward the string and it strikes the strength oh I see what we ought to be able to see that work fairly well I think you can pretty well now now wait these are the hammers right up here I think we can get a better look at those shortly these are the hammers right up here and as I press the key the Hammers I sent towards the string now this channel is old and very much i love to as a matter of fact the tuner left is signature and label their 1912 but this is just for purposes of explanation hard some instances hammers do come out hit it now you see what happens here this piece of wood is raised when you press the key start here you press the key like this see down it goes and it's a pivot sort of affair and what it does now is raised this one back here see and this is attached to the action which pushing the key or rather pushes the hammer right towards the strength now the hammer is not made of metal or anything like that it's really small piece of wood covered with heavy felt I think that's I can pull this away I hope it doesn't fall hard it may goes in there down any lower you're innocent why all right there no I think you can see it it's just a little bit better this is a hammer now you can see them more easily even these out of hammer push the key and you see how they move up and if the string is here they hit the string just like that see get it good and hard or soft depending upon how you press all online notice the bigger strings lower tones are at this end of the piano and the Hammers there are bigger and heavier because the strings are longer and thicker this end he's a little tiny ones see these strings a little tiny string oh now wait a minute just can I do that too oh I call the piano no you take that 1 i'll take the pier all right now these are very short strings and a great big fat ones down there let's see what s Oh mine's much higher than you know I would not recommend anybody doing this with a good piano that he has him in his home because moisture from the fingers would get on the strings if you do that might cause them to rust into them you should never touch the inside of the piano with your hands well of course really I don't think anybody want to take your piano apart I don't like this either well there's one other portion we forgot about you notice when you do this on the strings you get a sound and they keep vibrating they keep sending out this tone well now this is all right if you want that effect but most often you want to strike just one note at a time so when the hammer strikes the string the string will vibrate and then when the hammer falls back and you're through with that tone you want to stop it from vibrating so there are little pieces of felt here cause dampers and they come against the string and keep its revival now this finger will be less pretend this fear this finger is the damper and this finger is going to be the string all right now as I press the key the damper comes away from the string and the hammer strikes it and then I release the key and the damper comes into place and stops the key but what the damper for then it's just like taking two big kitchen list hot new pants I'm taking you clanging them together and I'll keep going clang and take a whole lot choice and then taking a hold of a ringing a tin lid would be the same thing as this damper that's why edding gone that's right you see just like do it you stop see oh it just stops them from moving back and forth right well is that what makes the tone well what do you mean makes the toe well now this is just a piece of wire back here right right and then if I would take my finger and pull it like that now is it wiggling back and forth so well yes I know it's vibrating so rapidly if it gives you this sound notice here that the strings at the top end of the scale of high-pitched strings the highest sound are thin and short while those that go way down here give you the base are long and thicker see so the longer the string and thicker the deeper will be the toll Oh a sound the same principle as your flute the longer the flute the lower the tone yes I true loser the longer the string the lower the tone well now it's an upright piano like this with the strings running up and down better than a baby grand or one with those streams running no a grand piano and we're not even discussing makes a piano no a grand piano would be better than this is he like pushes up so very old an upright piano or a spinet piano would not be as desirable as a grand piano because the grand piano is longer and the bass strings can then be longer and less think in order to get the same type of string on toll this sort of piano will spin it the springs will be shorter and thicker the longer the better well we've had a wind instrument and a stringed instrument now we'll have to try percussion next time goodbye you