Piano voicing
Tuning decides which notes your piano plays. Voicing decides how they sound. The tone of a piano lives mostly in the hammers: small mallets of compressed wool felt, one for every note, each striking its strings thousands of times a year. Over time the felt hardens and grooves, and the piano gets harsh, brittle or uneven. Voicing is the craft of bringing the tone back.
I took training classes in the tone building seminar at the Steinway & Sons factory, where voicing is treated as the last and most personal step of making a piano. I apply the same discipline to any instrument, from a concert grand to the upright in your living room.
What does a voicing do?
Voicing is done with needles, files and occasionally a hardening solution, hammer by hammer. Needling softens felt that has become too hard, so the tone warms and loses its edge. Reshaping restores the hammer’s profile so it meets the strings cleanly. Where a hammer has gone too soft and the sound is muffled, the felt is firmed up instead.
The goal is not a particular sound but an even one: the same character from the lowest bass to the highest treble, so that a melody does not jump in color as it crosses the keyboard. After that, I can lean the whole instrument warmer or brighter to suit the room and the player.
When a piano needs voicing
- The piano sounds harsh or metallic, especially when played loudly.
- Some notes ring louder or brighter than their neighbors; runs sound lumpy.
- The tone is dull and lifeless even though the piano is in tune.
- The hammers show deep string grooves or a flattened striking surface.
- New hammers have been installed and need to be voiced into the instrument.
- The piano has been moved to a different room and the sound no longer fits the space.
Voicing and regulation go together
A piano cannot be voiced properly if the action is out of regulation, because the hammers are not hitting the strings consistently in the first place. Before voicing I check the regulation and correct what is needed. Most voicing appointments also include a tuning, so the instrument leaves the session sounding its best in every sense.
What to expect
A first voicing session usually takes two to three hours, longer for a full concert voicing. I work with the lid open and ask you to play, or I play for you, until the sound is where you want it. Voicing is reversible in the sense that a piano can always be brightened or warmed again later; it is not a one-time event but part of the instrument’s life.