Tack piano

The tack piano is a permanently altered version of an ordinary piano, in which tacks or nails are placed on the hammers of the instrument at the point where the hammers hit the strings, giving the instrument a tinny, more percussive sound. See prepared piano.

Perhaps this preparation attempts to emulate the sound of a poorly maintained piano: as the felt hammers age and compact through use they become hard and cause the piano to yield a similar sound. A piano tuner will use a tool consisting of a number of fine pins to open and loosen the striking surface of the hammers, called voicing, a precision job calling for a good ear and lots of experience.

Problems and Disadvantages

The use of tacks on a piano is always discouraged, as they will usually be ejected from the hammers and can then become lodged in other parts of the mechanism. If the jammed mechanism is then forced by hitting the keys parts of the action may be broken. But most importantly, the holes created in the hammers by the tacks act like a poor job of voicing, and may permanently reduce the sound of the piano to dark mush once the tacks are removed.

A safer alternative to real tacks is a curtain of felt hanging between the hammers and strings. The felt is slitted on the edge, and paper fasteners or paper clips attached. The device can be purchased commercially or built by hand, but ultimately causes the piano hammers to be worn away from repeated impacts with hard metal. This device was once termed a "Mandolin Rail" and could be found in home pianos at the turn of the century, but was most popular in commercial coin-operated pianos.

Use as a musical instrument

Canadian pianist Glenn Gould experimented with a tack piano made especially for his use by Steinway, which he called a "harpsipiano" (a portmanteau of "harpsichord" and "piano"). It was intended to recreate (somewhat, at least) the sound of the harpsichord, but unlike a harpsichord it could be readily placed amongst an orchestra and capable of dynamic expression as on a piano. Gould used it in a 1962 television broadcast in which he played Contrapunctus IV from Bach's Art of Fugue. One of the few occasions he conducted was while playing the harpsipiano: he directed Bach's "Brandenburg concerto no.5" from the instrument and realized the continuo part of Bach's cantata BWV 54, "Widerstehe doch der Sünde", in a 1960s television recording (now to be seen in "The Glenn Gould Collection").

In popular music, Elvis Costello used a tack piano on two songs on the album "Mighty Like a Rose": "The Other Side of Summer" and "So Like Candy," which was co-written with Sir Paul McCartney. On his album "Sleeps with Angels," Neil Young used a tack piano on the tracks "My Heart" and "A Dream That Can Last." It was also used briefly in the studio version of Cheap Trick's "I Want You To Want Me". The German pianist Fritz Schulz-Reichel had considerable success c. 1955-57 on the hit parade with his tack piano recordings, released under the name "Schräger Otto" ("Crazy Otto" or "Slanted Otto" in German). During the craze, ragtime and blues pianist Johnny Maddox also recorded "The Crazy Otto Medley" with a tack piano, starting a "honky-tonk piano" fad. Both purportedly used thumbtacks in the felt hammers. The Fiery Furnaces also make extensive use of the tack piano, to produce a "Vaudevillian" sound. Patrick Warren plays the tack piano on many of the tracks of Bruce Springsteen's "Magic" album. The 5th Dimension hits "Sweet Blindness" and "Wedding Bell Blues" both start with a tack piano intro. Benmont Tench of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers also plays a tack piano solo on "To Find A Friend," featured on Petty's "Wildflowers" album. Hanne Hukkelberg plays a tack piano in several of te tracks of her album "Rykestrasse 68". Ben Folds first experimented with the sound in the 199 album "The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner," and made more extensive use of the modification in 2001's "Rockin' the Suburbs".

On jazz drummer Shelly Manne's "Daktari" album, affiliated with the CBS television series of the same name, Mike Wofford plays a tack piano. On the jazz combo Weather Report's "Mysterious Traveller" leaders Wayne Shorter and Joe Zawinul play tack pianos.

In film scores, Nathan Johnson used tack pianos along with a number of other nontraditional or invented instruments for his score to the film Brick.

A Tack piano is used in the song "Lovers in Japan" by Coldplay on the album Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends

ee also

*Luthéal
*Prepared piano