Geoff Smith's revolutionary 'Fluid Piano'

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Geoff Smith's revolutionary 'Fluid Piano'

Brighton-based pianist, dulcimer player and composer, Geoff Smith, has invented the world's first fully fluid, acoustic microtonal piano, which you can hear in action in the video below.

The Fluid Piano enables composers and pianists to utilise non-western scales and also explore the vast range of microtonal tunings possible, altering the tuning of each string independently.

Smith has commissioned new works for the instrument, which will be premiered at the Southbank Centre's Purcell Room in March 2010.

There have been many previous examples of creating pianos with bespoke tunings and de-tuning standard pianos, but finally in the Fluid Piano there is now an instrument that allows the pianist to change the tuning easily and fluidly, enabling changes between pieces and during pieces.

It's a great achievement - congratulations Geoff!

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Thu, 10/12/2009 - 01:27 — Richard Thomas

Interface

I'm surprised he stuck with the original piano keyboard interface, rather than something like the haken continuum or tonal plexus

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