The Fluid Piano: on another scale

Written by archtop girl on Monday, 23 November 2009

  Brighton-based composer and musician Geoff Smith has developed a piano which can be 'microtonally tuned' - tuned to any scale, opening up possibilities beyond the usual 88-note range. Sliders on each key can be adjusted to set the piano up for Indian or Persian scales, for example, or other non-Western tunings and unique, bespoke set-ups. 

The so-called fluid piano is to make its public debut at the University of Surrey this weekend, with performances by three different pianists. Smith now hopes to get the piano into production; he's talking about it and demonstrating it on the Guardian website. We've seen Geoff Smith in action before as a maestro of the hammered dulcimer; a few years back he played an eerie self-composed score to accompany a showing of The Cabinet of Dr Caligari at the Duke of York's Cinema, Brighton.