When Abigail Terrill (MM 鈥�24) learned about alternative piano keyboards, it seemed she鈥檇 found an obvious solution to a complicated problem. Terrill spent the last year of her master鈥檚 experience researching narrower keyboards to accommodate pianists with smaller hands, and how quickly pianists can transition to and from them.
鈥淭he length of alternative keyboards is the same as standard keyboards, only the width of each key is very slightly smaller,鈥� Terrill says. The CU Boulder College of Music has had such a keyboard on loan from the since April 2023, featuring a six-inch octave instead of the standard six-and-a-half-inch octave.
鈥淭he reason I got interested was because I have tendonitis and I noticed a bunch of my female pianist friends were also getting tendonitis. I鈥檝e had friends who have had to quit because they got some kind of severe playing-related injury,鈥� Terrill says.
can help pianists avoid injuries sustained from over-reaching and enable individuals with smaller hands to play some repertoire that is physically impossible for them to perform on standard-size pianos.听
鈥淜eyboards are made to a standard size and the human hand is not a standard size,鈥� says Jennifer Hayghe, associate professor of piano and chair of the Roser Piano + Keyboard Program at the College of Music. 鈥淚n my 25 years as a professor, I have seen the number of students with injuries rise exponentially. I spend a lot of my time working with students trying to reduce their stress and tension and work through the injuries they鈥檝e accrued. I do believe that if we had smaller keyboards as a standard thing, that would not be an issue.鈥�
The piece loaned to the College of Music is a piano action鈥攖hat is, the keyboard and the mechanism that causes hammers to strike the strings when keys are pressed. This action can technically fit onto any piano, though some fittings are more difficult than others. Mark Mikkelson and Phil Taylor, both piano technicians at the College of Music, say they put in 50 to 60 hours of work fitting the alternative keyboard into a Steinway piano.
鈥淭he problem in making these keyboards for Steinway instruments is that Steinways are entirely handmade, which means they鈥檙e not all exactly the same,鈥澨鼿ayghe explains. 鈥淪o when alternative keyboards are made as close as possible to a 鈥榮tandard鈥櫶齋teinway size, all these little adjustments are necessary. It took a long time and a lot of adjusting to get that keyboard used to that piano.鈥澨�
鈥�Abigail Terrill (MM 鈥�24) and duo partner James Morris (DMA 鈥�25) rehearse his first piano duo composition that premiered last year. Terrill is playing an alternatively sized keyboard on loan at the CU Boulder College of Music.As part of her master鈥檚 thesis, Terrill discovered that attitudes around alternative keyboards are often of disdain. 鈥淚 was really frustrated when I first started this research because I was telling people how unfair it was to not have smaller keyboards available to students鈥攁nd the reaction I heard most was people saying 鈥榶ou don鈥檛 need that, you just need to fix your technique.鈥櫶齋o my response was, if I can show numbers to people who don鈥檛 want to bother with having to switch sizes, that may be more convincing.鈥�
Terrill鈥檚 thesis project involved 15 pianists playing a musical excerpt on a standard piano, and then on a narrow keyboard. She measured their errors when initially playing on the alternative keyboard and after 10 minutes of practice.听
鈥淲e found that everyone by the end鈥攖ransitioning from the standard size to the second try on the narrow keyboard鈥攈ad fewer errors than on the first try,鈥� Terrill says. 鈥淢ost of them said 鈥業 wish I could practice more on it.鈥欌��
Since graduating this spring, Terrill has been teaching piano lessons鈥攁nother instance when narrow keyboards would be helpful. 鈥淢ost instruments have smaller versions for when you鈥檙e learning as a kid, but not the piano,鈥� she notes.
鈥淚 really see this as an equality issue. I鈥檓 looking for movement from people. I want to push for more research and for people to have conversations about it鈥擨 think even arguments will help.鈥�
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(NPR)
