DS Standard Foundation
Enabling pianists to achieve their full musical potential while avoiding injury, with keyboards engineered to match every hand size.
We research, certify, and help build alternatively sized piano keyboards, so that a pianist’s reach is never the reason a piece stays out of reach.
For more than three centuries the piano keyboard has been built in essentially one size. A single width, settled on in the late nineteenth century, has asked every kind of hand to adapt to the same geometry. The DS Standard Foundation exists because that is not a reasonable thing to ask.
Our work is simple in spirit: take pain out of learning the instrument, and put the whole repertoire back within reach, so that what a pianist can play is decided by what they can imagine, not by the size of their hand.
The width inherited from the late nineteenth century. It rewards a long reach and quietly disadvantages the majority of adult female pianists along with a sizeable cohort of male hands.
The middle specification of the registry, and the one most often chosen by institutions. Nearly every adult hand finds relaxation here without losing the feel of the traditional keyboard.
The seven-eighths keyboard, built for smaller adult hands. It offers the pianist of average span the ease historically enjoyed only by very large hands.
Of adult female pianists have a hand span too small for the traditional repertoire on a conventional keyboard. They can play it, but the body usually pays.
Years of measuring hands, building prototypes, and working with universities to figure out which keyboard sizes actually belong in the registry.
One ratio (≈ 0.923) holds every size in the registry together, from the conventional keyboard down through the smallest keyboards for children.
I have actually experienced getting larger hands. All the touches and techniques in piano studies were made easier by a factor of a hundred. I could finally use the correct fingerings.
The 7/8 keyboard has turned an endurance session into pure pleasure. I can’t begin to describe how much fun it is to be able to access the notes so easily without fatigue.
The Foundation grew out of Steinbuhler & Company and now carries on its work as a non-profit. Thirty years of research, a few hundred retrofitted pianos, and a growing list of universities and conservatories came with it.
We vet the makers, help schools get keyboards into practice rooms, and keep the research going, so that the keyboard a pianist sits down to tomorrow is actually sized for them.
by Warwick Dalton
Last year, at short notice, a workshop was quickly arranged to showcase David Steinbuhler’s 7/8 concept keyboard. What is a 7/8th keyboard, and who is David Steinbuhler?
A 7/8th is a keyboard for a grand piano, 7/8ths the size of a regular keyboard. It consists of a keyframe, keys, and action. It replaces the existing action with both actions being interchangeable.
David is an engineer whose family owns a textile mill in Titusville, USA. Whilst staying at a B&B in Niagara-on-the-Lake in 1991, he noticed a 7/8 keyboard in a concert grand. The owner had it built in 1970 after realizing his small hand size was preventing him from mastering much of the great piano repertoire.
“I 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. With 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, I built the first keyboard.”
Building this keyboard threw up the issue of measuring the piano. In America David can travel to and measure, but for overseas orders it becomes impractical. Hence his trip to Australia was not only to measure but to find technicians competent in providing the necessary measurements.
David supplies a kit of jigs and measuring tools to enable accurate measurements. He has built many 7/8th keyboards for universities in America, and now the first has arrived in Australia, for local musician Rhonda Boyle for fitting to her Bernstein SG-185R.
I arrived at Rhonda’s residence on a Saturday morning to do the installation with, I must say, some misgivings. A non-piano person building a complete piano action, half the world away from the instrument, looked like a recipe for a major disaster. The action was unboxed, the existing action removed, and the new 7/8ths slid into the piano. It worked. Unused to the reduced keyboard size, my octaves when playing became 9ths and there was cacophony. However, after Rhonda had practiced for 15 minutes, she had the hang of it, and the smile on her face said it all.
The piano is not altered in any way. The action, which quickly interchanges with the original, uses Renner action parts and Arbel hammers. It required only four hours of regulation and voicing to bring it to perfection.
Warwick Dalton, piano technician, Melbourne, Australia
Recital Testimony
“The greatest difference that I noticed while performing on the reduced size keyboard was the level of comfort I felt at the piano. On the regular piano, I sometimes feel uncomfortable and consequently not in control of the performance. On the reduced size keyboard I was able to carefully place each chord and note so that I was more easily able to shape my performance. I felt that for the first time I was in command of the instrument instead of feeling limited by the physical difficulty of playing the piano.”
“In preparation for my recital, I discovered that I could memorize music more quickly on the reduced size keyboard because the patterns were easier to feel and I could create better pathways for my hands and fingers.”
“Also, my practice time was not limited by physical issues. On the regular piano there are some passages and some pieces that I could not practice as much as I would have liked because of the amount of physical discomfort they caused. This virtually disappeared on the reduced size keyboard.”
“It was actually much easier to play! It was as if practicing on the small keyboard allowed me to work out the kinks, to figure out where my hand should fit, then I could transfer that feeling and position to the larger keyboard and miraculously could play it.”
“I amazed myself by the ease with which I was able to play many of the previously ‘impossible’ sections.”
“My LH almost feels like it is too easily executed.”
“It’s amazing when your hand can reach the notes w/o struggling how you really can practice it, things like rhythm, preciseness.”
“I almost feel like I’m cheating.”
“Some of the tighter chords are causing me to feel ‘bunched up.’”
“My hands feel good after practicing, not stretched.”
“Sight reading the Debussy Preludes was an immense joy. I believe this keyboard may bring me to an enlightenment concerning impressionistic music.”
“The full-size keyboard has become ‘other.’ Mysterious pain in my right forearm. I can’t play legato! I keep expecting to play large intervals w/o any effort.”
“Amazing how fast one can adjust back. I’ve only been practicing for 30 minutes and already I don’t feel a disadvantage for practicing all the time on the 7/8.”
“A whole new technique for this keyboard. I can get deep into the keys.”
“There’s so much I can actually do that I had to fake before.”
“I’ve struggled learning the notes to this piece for a long time. When I started practicing on the 7/8 keyboard I finished learning it in one week! The patterns fell naturally under my hand, no more stretching and leaping or looking up and down from the music to the keyboard.”
“The higher range felt closer to my body so that I didn’t have to learn as far.”
“I experienced less fatique and strain on my hands and arms.”
“I was able to incorporate expression into my playing, where as I had not been able to before.”
“I’m noticing that dom7th arpeggios are much easier on this keyboard!”
“My overall feeling is comfort. My hands feel more secure and strong.”
“It’s easier to have power because I don’t have to struggle while stretching my hand.”
“My hands immediately adjusted to the keyboard in about 30 minutes.”
“Legato octaves, on 7/8 my hand feels directly over each octave.”
“It didn’t sound correct rolled. On 7/8 keyboard, I finally understood the harmony.”
“Sight read La Campanella, if SR on Conventional, my RH would have been extremely tired. On 7/8 I was able to SR better in terms of accuracy.”
“If I want a strong octave with a ringing bass, I could place fingers 3-4-5 on the lower note of the octave and still felt comfortable.”
“I could do many repetitions w/o tiring.”
“I could feel closer and more connected to the keys.”
“Eliminated excess movement.”
“I could not practice Butterfly etude for long periods of time on the Conventional because my hands would become extremely stiff and would hurt.”
“7/8 much more comfortable.”
“I am able to play the right notes!!”
“I am less tense throughout the arms and shoulders.”
“Wow, I can actually do it!”
“I feel comfortable playing on the 7/8.”
“It’s easier to play legato.”
“I don’t have to stretch my fingers as much.”
“On the conventional keyboard, the [RH chords] hurt my hand and I can’t play them quickly. On the 7/8 keyboard, my hand is allowed to be in a comfortable position, making it possible for an accurate and SAFE landing. I am not as afraid to go for the chords.”
“The LH is smoother and more in control.”
“Unusual feel at first.”
“Tests the eyes and senses.”
“Visually difficult to get used to.”
“Hand position is extremely natural.”
“WOW an amazing feeling!”
“In the mirror, my hand looks so natural, high, strong bridge.”
“More opportunity for legato.”
“Stamina, not so easily tired in coda.”
“Can focus on musicianship; musical line rather than struggling in a non-legato manner.”
“I can play fingerings which I could not do on conventional.”
“Conventional looks gigantic, shock to the eyes.”
“More opportunity to think about different gradations of touch and sound quality.”
“Sound is not as choppy.”
“Ability to use less pedal. On conventional, we overuse pedal to cover technical deficiencies.”
“Much more power.”
“Bridge is extremely strong.”
“Less tired in technical passages, can concentrate on music line more.”
“WOW it’s a great feeling!”
“Goal of one overall linear motion is clear.”
“Took only 20 minutes to adjust.”
“Most are avoided.”
“I only taught first year students on the 7/8 piano. I noticed some interesting phenomena in the young students. Most did not notice the difference in size and I never addressed it, but I could see that their small hands fit the keys better and there was a lack of visible tension as they learned to keep a proper hand position.”
If you teach at a school thinking about a DS keyboard, build pianos and want to be credentialed, play and have questions, or would like to help fund the work, the board would like to hear from you.