When considering the purchase of a piano, there are so many considerations to be made – price, length of investment, available space, artistic needs…maintaining a good relationship with the neighbours!
These days the differences between the feel of an acoustic and digital piano are less noticeable than you might think. With our Millennium III, Ultra-Responsive Action, and Grand Feel keyboard actions, Kawai pianos of all stripes boast long wooden keysticks, immaculately reconstructed key surfaces, key balance weights and more, ensuring the most expressive touch ever available. For the last 300 years, the piano has had solid wooden keys, and there are good reasons for this.
Consider the jarring shock you get when you hit a cricket ball with a cheap plastic back. It hurts because much of the impact energy is absorbed by your body – your hands, wrists, arms and shoulders. Hitting the same ball with a high quality wooden bat is a radically different experience, as much of the impact energy is absorbed by the timber itself. On a much smaller scale, the same can be said about your finger pressing the key into the keybed of a piano’s keyboard action. Regardless of how fast or slow you press the key, from its resting position, the key will travel for a period of time and then stop abruptly when it reaches the end of its descent. And something has to absorb that energy!
We use solid wooden keysticks in our digital and hybrid pianos because of just this principle. If you’ve never experienced the difference, head down to your nearest Kawai retailer and try one of our Concert Artist Premium Pianos alongside some other (dare we say, lesser?… yes we do) instrument, and notice how much more precisely you can control the motion of the Kawai keystick. That precision translates to expressive and dynamic freedom, and it’s one of the reasons that Kawai piano actions are among the most highly regarded in the industry – and beyond.
