# A piano with no black keys!



## Taggart

https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/instruments/piano/sinhakken-only-white-no-black-keys/

Came across this via facebook. Almost a case of something for strange news.


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## Shaughnessy

*"This piano doesn't have any black keys. How will it sound?"*

https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/instruments/piano/sinhakken-only-white-no-black-keys/

"The pianist, who blogged about her find in 2014, says: "I can play almost all songs in C major without a black key.

"_But I can't help but feel that it's quite different from the original song_."

Note: the extent of my keyboard expertise consists entirely of being told to please stop playing "Chopsticks" over and over - but even I could have told you that...

"Chopsticks" (original name "The Celebrated Chop Waltz") is a simple, widely known waltz for the piano. Written in 1877, it is the only published piece by the British composer Euphemia Allen (under the pseudonym Arthur de Lulli).

Allen-whose brother, Mozart Allan, was a music publisher-was sixteen when she composed the piece, with arrangements for solo and duet. The title "Chop Waltz" comes from Allen's specification that the melody be played in two-part harmony with both hands held in a vertical orientation, little fingers down and palms facing each other, striking the keys with a chopping motion.

"Chopsticks" continues to be popular in various forms of media." - Based sheerly on the number of times that I have been asked to please stop playing "Chopsticks" over and over - I find this statement to be of dubious veracity.

And in separate news...

*"The World's First Nine Octave Piano - The Big Beleura"*

https://www.worldpianonews.com/new-product/acoustic/first-nine-octave-piano/


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## Animal the Drummer

There's something weirdly unsettling about that video. If Kafka had designed a piano, that's what it would have been like.


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## hammeredklavier

I think MR would have loved it.


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## Chopin Fangirl

.


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## Roger Knox

Chopin Fangirl said:


> I think Chopin once criticized this idea and said that those who wish for a flat keyboard with no elevations might as well cut off joints from their fingers because of its impracticality.


Yes he preferred to play in keys with many flats or sharps and held that E major is easier than C major. Some of his fingerings show that he would slide off a black key onto a white one with the same finger, rather than use a different finger.


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## Animal the Drummer

When starting with a new pupil he'd set them the B major scale in preference to C major as he felt it fitted the hand better.


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## Luchesi

C major is a slightly more difficult key to play in, but since we use C major so often I guess it's about equal with others. 

And when you're practicing scales C major is a more difficult one. I think Chopin started his students with B major.

These are answers I give to beginners, but it all gets homogenized so quickly that these aren't lingering issues. When you're playing with others you have to know your keys and scales without any thinking at all, because there's just no time to think. You can prepare yourself for the tricky passages, but a large part of it is muscle memory (this is why it's so much fun -- and mysterious for me).


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## Flamme

Only white??? But thats...Rayciz!!!


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