Home piano gets makeover made-in-Montreal, grand piano sound in an upright

The home piano - an old favourite - is getting a made-in-Montreal make-over.

The interior “mechanics” of a grand piano are being recreated in an upright piano by a local company.

This new technology can make your home piano more responsive to the touch, and, apparently, more fun to play.

Composer and musician Erin Leahy said the action of the instrument is key for a piano player.

"You want the piano to be responsive, you want it to take the command from your fingers!” said Leahy while playing a lively original tune she wrote called “All In Stride” on one of the updated pianos.

The hammers and mechanism making this music have been reimagined in a Montreal Mile End workshop.

Years ago, American inventor Darryl Fandrich struck a chord when he innovated a vertical action for upright pianos. That idea has been finessed further by local manufacturer Oliver Esmonde-White.

“He invented the most amazing action that is proven to be really 250 per cent more than existing technology," he said. "It turns regular pianos into these neanderthal instruments.”

Esmonde-White and his team took a good idea and made it better, the team said, by simplifying installation and maintenance.

“We made it better by making the assembly easy and by making it easy to adjust and that adjustment in one movement," said junior engineer Francis St-Laurent. "Really accurate to gram levels and it makes it a system that is viable, solid and will last.”

The team patented their new upright action.

Esmonde-White says the sound of their vertical action makes a regular upright piano sound like a grand.

“Grand pianos have been so superior until now," he said. "Upright pianos, all of a sudden we have a game-changer. Now I think people will actually prefer the experience of an upright piano.”

Leahy also favours the full sound.

“You have a really beautiful bottom end and a really bright clear end as well," she said. "I've never played an upright that is so well balanced in terms of tone."