Recently we have turned our keyboard manufacturing operation into a non-profit changing our name from Steinbuhler & Company to the DS Standard Foundation and in May of 2018 we were awarded our tax-free status.
Studied the feasibility and practicality of using these keyboard sizes at universities.
We continue to manufacturer alternative keyboards for pianists around the world. If you are interested please contact us.
We have come to know how life changing our keyboards can be, and our mission has expanded to take these ideas to the world through the work of our Foundation.
A chance meeting in the summer of 1991 changed my life. I was visiting the Shaw Festival in Niagara-On-The-Lake and providentially stayed at the bed and breakfast run by Christopher Donison, the Festival's music director. Christopher had a 7/8 keyboard installed in his concert grand piano! An octave on his keyboard was equal to a 7th on the conventional keyboard! While studying music at the University of Victoria, he realized that his small hand size was preventing him from mastering much of the great piano repertoire and had the keyboard built in the late 1970's.
I had been developing products in our family owned textile business in Titusville, PA and believed that 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 that 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.
In the freedom of having no preconceived ideas about how to build keyboards, I 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 the pain she had experienced when playing. I will never forget her exclaiming "It IS easy!" after spending an emotional afternoon with the piano. This was my first experience watching a serious pianist discover the smaller keyboard.
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 keyboard 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 keyboards did not exist elsewhere, everyone believed their careers would be hurt by working with them. Acceptance was probably going to take a generation.
The lack of response to the media attention was a blessing because much work needed to be done. I was convinced of 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. They were young and old, male and female, pianists who struggled with pain and pianists who simply wanted to play a larger piano repertoire. It was fascinating to observe them experiment with these keyboards and this research gave me a solid basis for determining what standards to recommend. In addition to a 7/8 keyboard we also added a size in the middle dubbed "Universal" which we called a 15/16 keyboard. For a complete discussion see Our Research.
We used the nomenclature 7/8 and 15/16 to designate the two sizes, but over the years the use of these fractions proved to be confusing and in 2014 we changed the nomenclature to one that reflects the size of the keyboard's octaves. Instead of DS-7/8 we now are using DS5.5™ and instead of DS-15/16 we are using DS6.0™ which is indicated in parenthesis below.
To be taken seriously I also knew that our keyboards needed to be of the highest quality. Early on a keyboard we made for a Steinway C was 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 proved to completely eliminate the problem. Attention to the engineering aspects of the keys has always been of great interest to me, as I needed to discover whether or not highly professional reduced size keyboards could be built at all. We started displaying our work at Piano Technician Guild conventions where we received valuable scrutiny, feedback, and training. We became proficient in all aspects of action regulation.
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 (DS5.5™) 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 the 7/8 (DS5.5™) 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 long hours of playing the conventional keyboard. For a full discussion of her findings, please read her article Goldilocks Had a Choice published in the American Music Teacher.
Carol Leone's desire to demonstrate these findings at other universities inspired us to build a keyboard that had adjustable features which would allow it to be installed in the Steinway concert grand pianos of different universities. We wanted to see how practical and transportable such a keyboard might be. By the spring of 2002 the keyboard was ready, and Carol scheduled recital demonstrations at five universities. I took the keyboard to the universities in advance to see how well it would fit. We found that it could be adjusted and regulated to play very well; and that spring the University of Oklahoma, Baylor, Rice, Texas Tech, and the University of Nebraska - Lincoln were witness to recitals given on a Steinway concert grand with a 7/8 (DS5.5™) keyboard.
Although it has not proven to be practical for an artist to take her DS Keyboard with her to be installed in the pianos of different venues, the experience we gained developing the adjustable features was valuable. It gave us the ability to build a replacement keyboard that can easily be installed in a grand piano without changing anything on the piano. This means it is now easy for a university to acquire an alternative size keyboard for the piano on their concert stage that can be interchanged with the original conventional keyboard. Once a new keyboard has been installed, it can be exchanged back and forth with the conventional keyboard in just a matter of minutes. This has opened the way for universities to provide piano keyboards that best fit their students' hands and to study all their practical ramifications.
Dr. Pamela Mia Paul and Dr. Kris Chesky are working with 15/16 (DS6.0™) keyboards at the University of North Texas. Kris is director of the Texas Center for Music and Medicine which initiated formal research to address the increasing evidence that a high percentage of pianists struggle with arm, wrist and hand pain and have associated medical problems. They are endeavoring to understand why these problems occur and whether the risk will be reduced with the use of alternative keyboards.
Using 7/8 (DS5.5™) 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 their study are showing a big difference in levels of fatigue.
Aaron has since grown, made the transition to the conventional keyboard, and has gone on to be a winner in two international piano competitions.
The first day of the conference featured the use of the 7/8 (DS-5.5) 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.
Two informative videos about the 7/8 keyboard were produced by Mario Ajero.
Dr. Carol Leone playing the conventional keyboard and then immediately playing the same piece on the 7/8 keyboard. Switching keyboards is a skill she easily learned and is similar to playing the viola and then the violin.
Dr. Carol Leone demonstrating to the audience after her performance the shape of her hand playing chords on a conventional keyboard and then on the 7/8 keyboard.
A demonstration of the ease of removing the conventional keyboard from the Steinway concert grand and replacing it with the 7/8 keyboard.
Dr. Anita Renfroe from Millersville University playing the 7/8 keyboard for the first time with her comments.
Sarah Evans and Dr. Peter Davis from Bob Jones University share the results of their study which tested the ability of pianists to adapt to playing on a smaller keyboard. Pianists who practiced one hour a day for five days found significant improvement in accuracy in a short amount of time. An attitudinal survey revealed that pianists adapted more quickly than they had expected.
The highlight of the conference for me came when Dr. Carol Leone played the Chopin G Minor Ballade first on our 7/8 (DS5.5™) Keyboard and then on a conventional keyboard after Kathleen had fitted Carol with the powerful ProformaVision tool (shown at right in the circled area). The muscle tension feedback shown in the graphs is remarkable. Normal stress patterns for the piece played on the 7/8 keyboard became off the chart readings when played on the conventional keyboard. This again is scientific proof showing the importance of providing pianists with keyboards appropriate to the size of their hands.
Rhonda's was our first keyboard outside North America. To read a piano technician's guild news article by Warwick about his experience see First DS Keyboard installation. For more detailed information and pricing see Grand Retrofit.
The Walter Piano Company was the first manufacturer allowing us to sell their pianos worldwide that were built with our keyboards. Since we do not retrofit upright pianos, this filled the need to provide upright pianos with smaller keyboards. Our customers select the model, style, and finish of the Walter upright they want, we supply the DS Keyboard size they want, and the Walter Piano Company builds the piano.
Walter Piano is a family owned company located in the USA that has built an impeccable reputation for the quality of their products. Their uprights are known for the richness of their tone and fullness of their bass. Their long keys are especially suited to accommodate the higher angles of our DS Keyboards. They pay close attention to every aspect of fine instrument building, and we are pleased to be working with them.
We recently shipped a Walter Studio Upright with a DS Keyboard overseas to Sydney, Australia and established another major city with a 7/8 (DS5.5™) Keyboard that pianists are welcome to experience! For more detailed information about the pianos and their pricing see Walter Uprights.
Today, for the first time in the history of the piano, there is a growing list of universities that own and are studying alternative size keyboards. Also, for the first time in the history of the piano, there is a growing list of pianists who own and use a 7/8 (DS5.5™) keyboard. Rhonda Boyle recently conducted a survey of many of these pianists. You can read the questionnaire she used and the results she obtained in her paper Hand Size and the Piano Keyboard. Rhonda has also started a website dedicated to presenting all the relevant data and arguments for smaller keyboards :Piano Keyboard Size: A Level Playing Field?
Taken as a whole, this accumulating evidence demonstrates that pianists in general are locked in a one-size-fits-all world of profound discrimination. Students who study piano are mostly female, and yet universities provide only pianos with large size keyboards. When we step back to reflect on this, is it not astounding to realize that universities around the world do not provide their students with instruments that are appropriate to the size of their hands? Today, slowly, they are becoming aware of the two great secrets Christopher Donison discovered when he first got his 7/8 keyboard.
We now know that the smaller keyboards work and grand pianos are easy to retrofit. But, this world of the piano is tied to tradition and will not change easily. How will we ever overcome this impasse? One of the main drivers probably will be the growing awareness that alternative keyboards greatly eliminate piano-related pain. I do not think it is too strong a statement to say that it is really a question of human rights. Again and again, pianists have expressed to us how thankful they are to have this option. Over the years this feedback has kept us going.
Interestingly, many of the inquires we receive are requests for smaller electronic keyboards. I know that as awareness and acceptance grows one day an electronic keyboard manufacturer will provide them. The ability to take your 7/8 keyboard with you when you travel would be liberating!
The Chinese could be a huge factor. A high percentage of the students who study piano are Chinese, and their hand spans measure at the small end of the spectrum. It would seem to be natural for their piano industry to lead the way. For an industry that has generally been in decline for decades, promotion of the keyboards could be a most welcome boon.
Yesterday I gave an audition lesson to an incoming graduate student. She played a challenging Romantic work with a lot of struggle, even though she intentionally left out many notes to accommodate her small hands. I then found out that she is an injured pianist, with chronic carpal tunnel and also nerve damage in her right arm. Then she told me that she came to SMU specifically to study on the 7/8 keyboard. So, over to the 7/8 Steinway we went and she proceeded to play passages from her piece perfectly with all of the notes! She looked at me incredulously and burst into tears, apologizing over how emotional she felt and exclaiming how she has been trying for years to "discipline myself to stay away from Romantic repertoire."
More than two decades have passed since I first met Christopher Donison with his vision of a second keyboard standard. Giving thanks to the Lord for the many blessings and opportunities we have enjoyed, I patiently ask, "What next?" The Lord willing, I'm available.
It is clear that piano manufacturers must be involved. In order to expedite that, the DS Standard Foundation has relinquished the intellectual property rights it has developed through its patents at the margins of keyboard manufacture (specifically its patent for the "brace" which ensure adequate key strength in the 7/8 (DS5.5™) and 3/4 (DS5.1™) sizes and for the use of key-leveling plates).
Pressure is growing beneath the surface, and, although it may take decades, at some point the use of alternative keyboards will become commonplace. In the meantime building them has become routine for us as we remain committed to this exciting adventure, believing that we are witnessing the beginnings of an ergonomic revolution.