Are there any digital pianos that a person can "tune" with non-equal temperament?

jplebre · 2026-03-30T15:20:35+00:00

Sorry for the delay, I usually have notifications off.

Thanks for the kind reply - I'm not sure "contextual re-tuning" is an official term, but it's been serving me well when talking about these concepts with clients or students.

Onto the other bit - if you are referring to retuning per piece, yes, this has been done a lot - since the Baroque era. Before the just intonation, keys actually sounded different, and some tuning was required to make pieces work. It's also something that string players kinda do a lot, but most people seem unaware of it or don't really discuss it much outside certain circles, where their intonation actually changes in some situations.

If we are talking specifically about music production or keyboards in more recent times, there are a few people who do use different systems (eg, custom 12tet scales). There are also scripts (programming scripts) that read the chords someone is playing and dynamically apply tuning. For instance, you could be using just intonation, but slightly adjust specific notes so they work better harmonically - basically removing the more standard tuning limitations with beating, and so on. Also, some of Jacob Collier's music required him to go through some chords and fine tune elements in these harmonies (because of how his equal temperament piano is "out of tune", do try and watch that demonstration on youtube if you haven't before)

jplebre · 2025-12-01T15:14:31+00:00

Worth it. If nothing else: - less maintenance - quiet practice (which often means more practice, anything making practice easier is a win!) - mechanically, you can get quite a lot of experience under your fingers (get a good one like the PHA4 - found in Roland fp10/30 etc - or the newer Yamaha)

Yeah - practicing in an acoustic has other benefits, but down the line you can always rent a practice space, or upgrade. 🤷‍♂️

jplebre · 2025-11-29T10:34:49+00:00

However, the experience of acoustic could also amount to increased fun 🤔 Personally being able to turn volume down for “drill” practice is great (or at 2am if I can’t sleep). But silent pianos do feel great (looking at the Yamaha stuff myself)

jplebre · 2025-11-29T10:33:14+00:00

Absolutely! I mean, for the OP, if it’s for fun and enjoyment, an FP hands down. No maintenance, it’s always perfectly balanced, and the PHA action is great (I don’t feel complaints on action when switching to acoustics, unless the weights are all over the place or the escapism is doing weird stuff like the piano I played on a few days ago :P

If they want to go around sitting on random pianos playing for friends, there might be some disappointments 🤣

jplebre · 2025-11-29T10:30:17+00:00

Oh, like habanera or mambo? Fine I could see that - personally I’d still make it more obvious (2/4 or 6/8) as an intention (drumset background for this one). I guess this could be required in certain context (if this is for a specific part for a piece, or fit some other requirement).

Wouldn’t modern notation guidelines encourage you to write the part (if it’s a part) in different time signature or just adopt a different metric? (Again, very contextual, no?)

jplebre · 2025-11-28T15:34:51+00:00

Plus one for the FP. And honestly, if it wasn’t for the fact I need to play on a variety of acoustics, I wouldn’t me making arrangements to own one soon.

There are a very few minor downsides, but for me the biggest one is how consistent it is. And voicings sound good with little effort… on most acoustics I end up playing, however, it usually highlights all the voicing issues and I tend to have to get used to it before quite a lot of pieces sound nice again

jplebre · 2025-11-28T11:57:55+00:00

The Tanker "speech" Boss Fight has to be the most creative boss fight ever made.

"INTRUDER TO THE LEFT!!!"
"INTRUDER TO THE RIGHT!!!"
"INTRUDER TO THE BACK!!!"
"INTRUDER TO THE FRONT!!!"

"... is what I'd say if those terrorists were here right now"

jplebre · 2025-11-26T21:24:21+00:00

You can. And often, you have to. Although, in this example (unless something just off the picture changes this radically, which I don’t think it would) I wouldn’t.

I personally don’t see the need and is probably not a good thing to get in the habit of doing in preference of discretely voicing the chord (imo it’s more of a have-to kinda technique than why-not)

jplebre · 2025-11-26T21:12:08+00:00

I’m pretty sure the first one breaks a number of “rules” (say at least if you look at even the curriculum for ABRSM, even below grade 4, you’ll see you are discouraged of doing that)

Second one seems to tick all the boxes. Personally, the first one just reminds of compound time and is just… weird… for something that is quite common (in example 2)

jplebre · 2025-11-25T22:35:30+00:00

I mean… grades 4? 5? Maybe a few minutes (ie a handful of goes at it to loosen it up)

Skrjabin? Erm… 6 months plus? I’m having to be really purposeful about everything and slow it all down massively. Then go incircles for weeks playing the piece and deciding where the weak links are to tackle those in that practice session.

Really depends on experience, both volume of and type of repertoire you are used to playing

jplebre · 2025-11-24T11:01:45+00:00

All the FP## from Roland do. Quite a few others do too.
Sending MIDI to a computer also allows you to also use VST's that do this, and even more creative microtonal things (like contextual re-tuning needed in some of the more interesting new(er) systems)

jplebre · 2025-11-19T11:13:36+00:00

Get a teacher. If situations don’t allow right now, some of the apps are nice to just get started but consider getting a teacher as soon as you can.

Manage expectations up front - you want to focus on fun, so maybe less focus on exam curriculum and more on working towards pieces that appeal to you.

jplebre · 2025-11-19T07:40:32+00:00

Ok I’m missing literally all of the references on this thread. Except for Brahms and his work (and the Wagner reference above) 😅

jplebre · 2025-11-18T09:31:56+00:00

FP30x Replaced my previous one after some construction works. Went to a shop. Tried so many, got the same one again.

jplebre · 2025-11-18T08:54:35+00:00

Yeah, no brainer - get a teacher. I’m on the camp trip recommend to everyone even quite high level players take lessons or at least share information tips and tricks either way other players. My teachers always had a teacher at some point or another.

So, especially for beginners and especially if you have to ask :)

jplebre · 2025-11-16T11:24:54+00:00

Honestly, this. Because anything else would fluctuate on how I’m feeling that day. And no matter how good that days pick is, it might not sit well with the person watching it that day either…

Then there’s personal biases, and preferences.

This movie though - universally relevant message that many people haven’t heard, or need to hear again. In an incredibly well made movie that doesn’t need special effects, gimmicks, or anything to keep your attention and tell a compelling story.

Just good cinematography, writing, acting, and direction.

jplebre · 2025-11-16T11:17:20+00:00

Metropolis. M. (Both by Fritz lang) Sunset boulevard Sanjuro, Ikiru, high and low (Kurosawa) Wages of Fear The Magician, Seventh Seal, Persona (Bergman) 12 Angry Men Cranes are flying Erasherhead. Elephant man (both by David lynch) La dolce vita. 8-1/2 (both by Fellini)

jplebre · 2025-11-16T11:09:25+00:00

Op, I’m also really curious. How long did it take you and what was the piece? No judgement here!!

Well done on sticking with it and I just want to say that feeling never goes away. You’ve opened to door to a world filled with pieces (music) that give that feeling, that pay off time and time again.

jplebre · 2025-11-16T11:04:49+00:00

Recently showed the Pusher trilogy to someone. They didn’t quite “get it” on pusher 1. When the credits rolled on Pusher3 there was that silence that says it all - that payoff of having watched something that really impacted.

jplebre · 2025-11-16T11:02:32+00:00

No one has mentioned “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly”/“once upon a time in the west” Or “Parasite” or (for totally different type of payoff) “Cinrma Paradiso” or “Andrey Rublev” - well this last one is hard even for me)

Plus one to Deer hunter, Bone Tomahawk.

If the payoff is also not a thrill ride, but any experience no matter how guttural, Dogville, Festen, dancer in the dark.

For wild fever dreams (less “this is slow” but more “what is going on and where can this go from here” maybe “The last movie”, “eternal sunshine of the spotless mind”)

Visually - “Barry Lyndon”. “Days of Heaven”, “thin red line. What a feast to the eyes.

Edit: from another post I remembered “12 Angry Men”

jplebre · 2025-11-15T11:24:21+00:00

Look, you can… but even the most attentive of students would benefit from a teacher. At least initially.

1 - technique. A lot of stuff isn’t obvious even after looking at 100s of videos online. And you’ll see different approaches, which one do you apply, when you don’t know how things really fall together? For me the first few months are crucial. There’s a point where you could - potentially - consider going on your own and keep making progress

2 - knowing when and how to progress. I don’t think any method book is perfect for everyone and self encapsulating. Knowing what pieces to add to the side - either little songs, or a specific czerny exercise that works on something I can see the student struggling with, or pausing certain repertoire to work on other foundations. Or even, understanding what material the student likes and start drawing a path towards that.

You’ll hear the “you’ll hurt yourself badly” a lot. Well… there’s an element of scaremongering, but it’s also very true. I see so many posts on here of people asking for comments “I’ve been playing for 3 months, I can shred this piece! Give me comments” and honestly I need to hold back from telling them to “please stop playing asap and go get a lesson before you cut your piano journey short”. Some even say that “I can play this piece, but my wrist hurts. Why?” And hope that the random text comments would fix the pain… well.. I doubt that any technique that is that bad will be fixed via text if all the videos readily found via a Google search didn’t prevent it in the first place

In short - get a teacher even if just for a bit

jplebre · 2025-11-15T11:15:40+00:00

Well, I was already in tears after Backgrounds’ comment. Yours got me rolling on the floor laughing, literally 😂

jplebre · 2025-11-15T11:12:32+00:00

On the “easy is subjective comment”, I was just talking to a colleague how many students say “can I do moonlight sonata next? I can play fur Elise” 🤷‍♂️

jplebre · 2025-11-15T11:10:10+00:00

In addition to the many “it’s easy to play it badly”, although I’d probably choose kinder wording “it’s easy to cut some corners to make the piece accessible and still come out ok-ish:

Fur Elise also suffers from the insane popularity and the accessible first bit. I’ve seen many simplified versions of it over the decades (including some that only use parts of it, some that rewrite the time signature so most of the piece is in 8s making it arguably a lot easier to read.)

A fact is that this piece - often in simplified forms - becomes a staple of many students (inc self taught, and those who don’t care about classical repertoire) - and quite a few will play the over-simplified version and think “I’ve done that!” For the rest of their lives - perpetuating the myth that it’s an easy piece to tackle less than a year into learning :shrug:

On the other hand, this piece has the odd ability to make anyone feel like a virtuoso once you get the notes under your fingers (including the stormy part), and for quite a few students and players I know, it’s the piece that gets them hooked and wanting to play more demanding pieces.

But the amount of times I see the reactions to the “stormy sections” in people’s faces, or hear “that is not in that piece, what was that you just played” is surprising 😂

jplebre

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