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A Big Idea
A chance meeting in the summer of 1991 changed my life. My daughter and I were visiting the Shaw Festival in Niagara-On-The-Lake and providentially stayed at the bed and breakfast of Christopher Donison, the festival’s music director. Christopher had a 7/8 keyboard in his concert grand piano! In the late 1970’s, he had the keyboard built while studying music at the University of Victoria after realizing his small hand size was preventing him from mastering much of the great piano repertoire.
I play the piano a little, and my ease at adapting to his smaller keyboard amazed me. Christopher explained how a whole new unknown world open before him when he first got the keyboard and that this germinated his idea of creating a second standard. “This”, I said, “is a big idea!” Christopher’s Testimonial
The DS Standard™
I had been developing products in our small family owned textile business in Titusville, PA and believed this was an opportunity placed before me. I had computer  programming experience and the idea of building keyboards out of a computer data base intrigued me. Never mind I knew nothing about the piano industry; I told Christopher I would try to build small keyboards and he conceived the idea of calling the new proposed keyboard size the Donison Steinbuhler Standard. The DS Standard™ was born. To designate this standard on the keyboard itself, Christopher designed a logo which we would attach to the front of the first bass key.
“It is easy!”
In the freedom of no preconceived ideas about how to build them, I first started tinkering more or less as a hobby. One thing led to another and by the summer of 1994, on the loading dock of our textile plant, using a computer driven router, a coworker and I built our first keyboard which we installed in my mother’s Steinway upright. Linda Gould, an acquaintance of Christopher’s, flew from Victoria, BC to try it. She had given up her dream of becoming a concert artist because of her pain when practicing. I will never forget her exclamation, “It is easy!”, after spending an emotional afternoon with the piano. This was my first experience watching a serious pianist discover the smaller keyboard.
On the spot, Linda made the decision to buy a keyboard for her Yamaha grand. I turned my attention to grand keyboards and the nagging key strength issue. By January 1996, after building prototype keyboards for my Steinway B, I was ready, and we flew to Victoria to measure Linda’s piano. Two months later, relying heavily on Linda’s technician, we sold our first DS Standard™ keyboard. Linda’s Testimonial
The Catch 22
We knew that before acceptance of the keyboard could become a reality, universities would have to work with and endorse them, so we got a grant and “seeded” five universities with keyboards. There followed a flurry of news media attention. National Canadian TV interviewed Christopher with his keyboard and newspapers, loving the story, ran feature articles.
The lay person intuitively understands that pianists with different hand sizes need pianos with different keyboards sizes and wonders why it had never been done before. Piano teachers and serious students, on the other hand, were afraid to touch it. We got no immediate response from the media attention and no one at the “seeded” universities worked with the keyboards. Since the keyboard did not exist elsewhere, everyone believed their careers would be hurt by working with them. Acceptance was probably going to take a generation.
What size keyboards?
The lack of response to the media attention was a blessing because much work needed to be done. I had been convinced without question as to the keyboard’s importance, but to make recommendations as to size, there needed to be a study which evaluated the complete range of possible standards. We began building keyboards of every size and one by one pianists started coming to Titusville to play them. There were young ones and old ones, male and female, pianists who struggled with pain and pianists who simply wanted to play a larger piano repertoire. They would bring their music and it was a joy to watch them play as they had never played before. All this gave me a solid basis in determining what standards to recommend. It really turned out to be quite natural and very simple. For a complete discussion see Our Research.
Suitable for professional use?
To be taken seriously, I also knew that our keyboards needed to be of the highest quality. Early on, we had a keyboard for a Steinway C rejected by a prestigious piano rebuilder in New York City who told us that it was “not suitable for professional use.” In those days, we needed to work with rebuilders as our rough frame needed to be fitted to the piano and the action stack mounted. Their complaint was the springy nature of the highly angled keys in the bass section.
This led to the development of techniques to measure key strength and the “brace” which completely eliminated the problem. We started displaying our work at Piano Technician Guild conventions where we receive valuable scrutiny, feedback, and training. Technicians have always enjoyed working with the keyboards and we are grateful for their endorsements. My coworker, Bob Fratus, gives scrupulous attention to the keyboards fit and finish and signs his name on the key that is numbered the same as his age.
First University Study
And then, through the inspiration of Dr. Carol Leone, Southern Methodist University became the first university to purchase and study an alternative size piano keyboard. In the fall of 2000, we fitted the Steinway B in her studio with a 7/8 keyboard. She and several of her students started working with and performing on it, enjoying remarkable results. By the end of the school year, Carol had personally committed herself to using a 7/8 keyboard believing that its use would revolutionize traditional teaching of children and small-handed pianists, and would offer relief to pianists with injuries related to playing the conventional keyboard. For a full discussion of her findings, please read her article Goldilocks Had a Choice[1] published in the American Music Teacher.
Transportable Keyboard
Carol Leone’s desire to demonstrate her findings at other universities inspired the development of adjustable features on the keyboard and the addition of our own action stack. These enhancements gave it the ability to be moved from piano to piano of the same make and model. We built the prototype of our transportable keyboard for Carol’s personal Steinway concert grand. In the spring of 2002, this keyboard was installed in the concert grand pianos at several universities where she gave recital demonstrations.
The transportable keyboard makes it possible for universities to easily acquire alternative keyboards for their pianos. Depending on the level of voicing and regulation, it takes a technician only one or two days to install a new keyboard in a grand piano. He makes no changes to the piano. Once installed, the new keyboard and the original keyboard can be exchanged in just a couple of  minutes.
Growing University Interest and Research
Southern Methodist University acquired a 7/8 keyboard for their concert hall and two uprights with 7/8 keyboards for practice rooms in addition to the one in Carol Leone’s studio Steinway B. Under the direction of Dr. Lora Deahl, Texas Tech University is working with three 7/8 keyboards; one in Lora Deahl’s studio Steinway B, one for their concert hall and one in an upright for a practice room. Lora is measuring the preferences of pianists of different ages, genders, and hand sizes for the conventional versus the 7/8 keyboards. Students at both SMU and Texas Tech are performing recitals on them and the two universities have collaborated with each other in joint recitals. Their studies are demonstrating the ease and practicality of working with alternative keyboards. SMU Student Testimonials
Dr. Pamela Mia Paul and Dr. Kris Chesky are working with 15/16 keyboards at the University of North Texas. Kris is director of the Texas Center for Music and Medicine and they are initiating formal research to address the increasing evidence that high percentages of pianists struggle with pain and have associate medical problems. They are endeavoring to answer the questions of why these problems occur and whether their risk will be reduced with the use of smaller keyboards.
Using 7/8 keyboards at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Dr. Brenda Wristen also initiated a formal study of the factors that cause injuries among pianists. She collaborates with Dr. Susan Hallbeck in the department of engineering to electronically measure the stress in the muscles of pianists as they play the different size keyboards. Results of her pilot study are showing a big difference in levels of fatigue. For a interesting and informative video of their work go to UNL Small Piano Research.
Ergonomic Interventions Eliminate Piano-related Pain
The use of smaller keyboards are really ergonomic interventions which are resulting in the complete elimination of pain for a growing number of pianists
Linda Gould described (Linda’s Testimonial) how the use of a 7/8 keyboard totally solved her struggle with pain. This has allowed her to begin to realize her dream of becoming a performing artist.
In her article Goldilocks Had a Choice[1], Dr. Carol Leone describes working with one of her students who struggled with pain, writing: “...we revised her repertoire to include pieces that minimized any stretches or large chords. Still, she reported having to be continually vigilant about over practicing to avoid pain. This became frustrating for me, since I am especially careful about teaching sound principles of technique that avoid injury. In the third year, this student began to practice exclusively on the 7⁄8 keyboard. Soon, she reported that her practice hours became joyful and satisfying; she was able to practice many hours without fatigue or pain and found her facility and strength were increased dramatically.”
In a University of North Texas news release announcing Eri Yoshimura performance of the complete 24 Debussy Preludes on a 15/16 keyboard we find: “...Yoshimura now can practice a wider repertoire on the piano for hours on end without pain or discomfort, thanks to a smaller keyboard that is 15/16 the size of a regular keyboard.”
Working With Children
Dr. Carol Leone again is leading the way being the first teacher to conduct studies with children. In January of 2005 she began teaching young Aaron Kurz who had an upright piano with a 7/8 keyboard on which to practice in his home. Carol wrote, “...I have performed a preliminary study with one student, ten year old Aaron Kurz, who after one year of study on the 7/8 piano keyboard, performed a Rachmaninov Prelude at the national MTNA 2006 conference. His powerful performance of a piece previously reserved for large-handed pianists broke new ground and astounded those in attendance. One well-known American piano professor was brought to tears by sheer wonderment at a child possessing the ability to present this advanced repertoire by virtue of having a keyboard that suited a child-sized hand.”
Aaron is growing and making a transition to the conventional keyboard, but still learns his most challenging repertoire on the 7/8 before moving to the standard keyboard. This spring he has gone on to be a winner in two international piano competitions. See Student Wins Piano Competitions.
In the Fall of 2007, Southern Methodist University is initiating a research project to study “the pedagogical and physiological benefits to children who use the 7/8 keyboard for study and practice. The study will define performance metrics and observe, measure, and report results.”
The National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy 2007
Tradition and Transformation: Learning, Playing, and Teaching Outside the Box
The first day of the conference featured the use of the 7/8 keyboard in a concert by Dr. Carol Leone playing a Steinway concert grand that was fitted with the smaller keyboard. After the concert, the piano was on display in a separate room so that all in attendance could personally experience the keyboard.
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