A measurement of piano playing
How long the longest hesitations are, measured against the player's own pulse.
The same passage — Rachmaninoff Prelude, bars 1–2 — from the recordings that sit lowest and highest on this measurement. Every clip is a note list replayed on one sampled grand at one gain, so the only difference you are hearing is the playing.
The 95th-percentile beat period divided by the median beat period. 1.40 means the longest waits are 40 per cent longer than that player's average beat.
Every piece in the library, with the range across its recordings. The units mean the same thing in every row, except for basic tempo, which is in each piece’s own beat.
| Piece | Recordings | Lowest | Median | Highest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bach Prelude in C | 27 | 1.05 | 1.14 | 1.41 |
| Mozart K. 545 | 37 | 1.02 | 1.17 | 1.36 |
| Gymnopédie 1 | 23 | 1.16 | 1.25 | 1.58 |
| Pathétique II | 47 | 1.15 | 1.26 | 1.53 |
| Chopin Étude 10/1 | 31 | 1.13 | 1.30 | 1.71 |
| Schubert Op. 90/3 | 43 | 1.26 | 1.40 | 3.96 |
| Nocturne Op. 48/1 | 27 | 1.32 | 1.51 | 1.83 |
| Nocturne Op. 9/2 | 32 | 1.31 | 1.51 | 1.87 |
| Träumerei | 31 | 1.28 | 1.54 | 1.85 |
| Ravel Pavane | 33 | 1.40 | 1.59 | 1.87 |
| Chopin Étude 10/12 | 19 | 1.47 | 1.61 | 1.77 |
| Clair de lune | 27 | 1.49 | 1.72 | 2.19 |
| Chopin Ballade 4 | 12 | 1.53 | 1.72 | 2.10 |
| Brahms Op. 118/2 | 28 | 1.52 | 1.81 | 2.36 |
| Ravel Ondine | 61 | 1.45 | 1.89 | 2.40 |
| Schubert Op. 142/3 | 9 | 1.70 | 1.94 | 2.25 |
| Fantaisie-Impromptu | 20 | 2.29 | 2.52 | 2.98 |
| Rachmaninoff Prelude | 29 | 2.50 | 3.22 | 4.72 |
A Disklavier capture — the pianist’s own key sensors, no microphone — was rendered to audio, transcribed as if it were a recording, and re-measured. The error the transcription step introduces, as a multiple of how far pianists actually differ on this dial, is 0.06. solid This dial survives transcription intact: where one recording sits on it can be argued from.