In this paper, a method providing an excitation signal for the waveguide piano synthesis is presented. The waveguide synthesis string model needs an excitation signal, which stimulates the model to resonate at the partial frequencies. This signal simulates the force pulse, which occurs in the piano when the hammer hits the string. In the proposed method, the excitation signal is produced by usi...

This paper proposes a Hidden Markov Model (HMM)-based algorithm for automatic decision of piano fingering. We represent the positions and forms of hands and fingers as HMM states and model the resulted sequence of performed notes as emissions associated with HMM transitions. Optimal fingering decision is thus formulated as Viterbi search to find the most likely sequence of state transitions. Th...

The design floods of several reservoirs were recently re-evaluated and the revised spillway outflow could result in dam overtopping with catastrophic consequences for some embankment structures. Herein a physical study was performed on flat and pooled stepped spillways with a slope typical of embankments (θ = 26.6◦) and four stepped configurations were tested: a stepped spillway with flat horiz...

Indirect touches touches that originate from above the key play an important role in piano technique. Analysis methods are presented and applied in a study with piano students performing different touches in slow motion. Colored markers that were attached to the players’ fingers were tracked and the angles in the joints were determined. Methods to judge the regularity of the measured movements ...

An experiment has been conducted, measuring pianists’ sensitivity to piano key vibrations at the fingers while playing an upright or a grand Yamaha Disklavier piano. At each trial, which consisted in playing loud and long A notes across the whole keyboard, vibrations were either present or absent through setting the Disklavier pianos to normal or quiet mode. Sound feedback was always provided b...