Designing a pedal assist for a grand? to pedal damper with left foot
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I wonder if your doc could prescribe some sort of rigid boot for you to put on for piano playing.
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Ah, achilies repair... I went through that back around 2000 and mine was a slow recovery with no weight bearing to start. I grew to hate crutching.
Do you also have a digital? Perhaps that would be the easiest beginning step using a plug in pedal that you could place where convenient.
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I don't know if I can describe what I'm thinking, but I'll try anyway.
What if you made a box with a hinged pedal in it, and weighted, to rest on the floor to the left of the piano's pedals. The pedal would need to be long enough to create sufficient movement to move the real pedal. Attach a very strong type of thin cord to the pedal so that when you push down on the pedal the cord is pulled down. This next bit is where you may have reservations: You'd have to screw two eyelets into the bottom of the keyboard--one of each side of the piano's pedal unit. The cord from the boxed pedal would run up to the eyelet on the left, across the underside of the keyboard, through the eyelet on the right, and down to the real pedal where it would be attached to the back of the pedal. When you pressed the boxed pedal, the cord--traveling up, across, and down to the real pedal would lift the back of it as if you were pressing your foot on the front of it.
Maybe it's an unrealistic design. It depends on strong cordage and the willingness to screw eyelets into the piano's underside. And, I don't know if you'd be able to get enough power from it to actually lift the back of the real pedal.
Maybe this makes sense, maybe not. I hope so.
This next bit is where you may have reservations:
Yikes, Bernard, I couldn't even read past that!! No holes in my piano!!
@rontuner what happened to your achilles? Did it rupture, or did you have a problem with your heel?
My problem is that the heel deformity apparently triggered achilles tendonopathy, so both the heel bone needs fixing and the achilles tendon itself.
Re a digital... I don't currently have one. My mother has one, but it's the furniture type, I'm not sure how easy it would be to move the pedal for that.
if this were longer term, I might consider just getting one. I wonder if you can attach an extra pedal to a furniture type and just override the sustain pedal....
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Sounds like a great opportunity to practice Bach and other Baroque composers using only finger legato! Even Schumann recommended that pianists do some organ study to improve legato and learn finger substitutions.
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Sounds like a great opportunity to practice Bach and other Baroque composers using only finger legato! Even Schumann recommended that pianists do some organ study to improve legato and learn finger substitutions.
Sounds like a great opportunity to practice Bach and other Baroque composers using only finger legato!
I know, I know…
I would just rather make repertoire choices based on what I want to play, as opposed to have to make choices based on something I’m not able to do.More to the point, that isn’t the kind of music I am motivated to play. Sorry, I don’t mean to whine, but the whole thing is depressing. I am certain to go stir crazy as it is, and not being able to play piano (the way I normally do) is just going to make it worse. I don’t know what I’m going to do with myself during that time.
Anyway, if nothing else, the impending immobility will hopefully compel me to polish and record all the things I’m working on beforehand.
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This next bit is where you may have reservations:
Yikes, Bernard, I couldn't even read past that!! No holes in my piano!!
@rontuner what happened to your achilles? Did it rupture, or did you have a problem with your heel?
My problem is that the heel deformity apparently triggered achilles tendonopathy, so both the heel bone needs fixing and the achilles tendon itself.
Re a digital... I don't currently have one. My mother has one, but it's the furniture type, I'm not sure how easy it would be to move the pedal for that.
if this were longer term, I might consider just getting one. I wonder if you can attach an extra pedal to a furniture type and just override the sustain pedal....
@rontuner what happened to your achilles? Did it rupture, or did you have a problem with your heel?
Weekend warrior driveway basketball. Mine didn't completely tear which complicated diagnosis. Primary care doc got it wrong and I hobbled around for a few weeks until I saw a specialist and he got it right away.
I was also going to suggest Bach - nevermind!
I looked at the C3 pedals last night and the back side woudn't work on those, but the front side seemed a bit flatter than I remember so perhaps a clamp across that side could be possible? See what your husband thinks? You should be able to press up from under the piano on the lever that the pedal rod pushes, allowing the pedal rod to slip out of the hole at the back of the pedal on the left and middle pedals.
The really cool solution would be to use one of those plug in pedals for a digital to activate a little servo-motor to push up on the back side of the pedal from the floor. Way beyond my expertise, but I'm sure some engineer type could come up with something from off the shelf parts!
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Here's a lever idea for a drum that may give your husband some ideas? Something like this would need to anchor to the pedal box for stability
Link to video -
Here's a lever idea for a drum that may give your husband some ideas? Something like this would need to anchor to the pedal box for stability
Link to video@Rontuner hmmm that's interesting to see.
So when you push down, the lever goes up, but I would need something where I push down, and then it pushes the pedal down... Mechanically, that seems more complicated.
Someone at PT wrote:
IMO anything with enough leverage to depress the right pedal from the left is going to be big and heavy and any slight bump is going to dislodge it or nick your pedal box/lyre.
There are probably a lot more logistical challenges than I realize....
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Remember that I'm thinking about the back side of the pedal - which makes a lever idea possible because we want to push UP the back side to lift the dampers. That way it will be pushing between the floor (support) and the underside of the back of the pedal.
Getting the mechanical linkage to wrap around behind could be an interesting challenge, which is why I like the idea of a solenoid (like in a player piano system) connected to a pedal or knee switch to activate. It would be "all or nothing" which is simpler than a servo that would allow for half pedal and more sensitive movement. Again, because it is a grand piano, there is access to the back of the pedal to apply lift between that and the floor.
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