Can You Use An Ebo On A Piano???

moho

As the title suggests cept i spelt ebow wrong!

Pacomc79

as long as the piano is analog yeah I'd imagine so. Probably easiest on a grand.

I'm not sure how loud it would be unless it was mic'd or something like that but yeah, as it is a stringed instrument, I imagine the ebow could vibrate the strings. The thickness of the strings might diminish the effect I'm not really sure.

moho

Pacomc79 wrote:

as long as the piano is analog yeah I'd imagine so. Probably easiest on a grand.

I'm not sure how loud it would be unless it was mic'd or something like that but yeah, as it is a stringed instrument, I imagine the ebow could vibrate the strings. The thickness of the strings might diminish the effect I'm not really sure.

Cool i have a piece to write for college and part of the requiement is to have sustaining notes on the piano... so i thought sticking an ebow on a mic stand and placing it inside the grand might be very very cool.

Pearl Jam and toast

It will work. Pick the right string though... somewhere in the middle range I'd imagine. Make sure you know how to use the Ebow before you place it too,.. it can be tricky.

moho

Pearl Jam and toast wrote:

Make sure you know how to use the Ebow before you place it too,.. it can be tricky.

Well see i wont ever have to play this... just write the score... whoever marks it can try that! I'll probably never even know what it sounds like!

Pearl Jam and toast

Some things to consider..

You won't be able to use the ebow on more than one string at a time and it will have to be repositioned if you change the note. I assume you're just creating a long sustained droning note under the score though, which could in theory be easily done with the Ebow. Whoever tries it needs to make sure they have someone experienced with it place it though. I picked it up pretty quick from watching Ed play it so much, but I see my friends trying to play mine and so far no one's been able to do it right. So I'm just gonna assume it's trickier than my experience showed me.

Pearl Jam and toast

BTW, to add merit to the theory that this will work..

Ebow will work easily on acoustic guitars and bass guitars (if placed right).

exhausted

depending on the metallurgy of the string and whether it reacts/interacts with a magnetic field.

my wound acoustic strings don't but the plain steel strings do.

moho

Ok cheers for the info!

who's_pearljam?

It does work!

If you're going to write something for someone else to play, you want to try it, though to find out which notes work. . We were at a friend's studio in Philly, and he had a grand piano in there. I stuck my ebow in back and it sounded good. It works better on the midrange strings, and it takes longer to get the note going than on the guitar.

One other way we got sustained notes that sounded even better and louder were with a thin piece of nylon cord. Loop it around one of the piano strings and pull back and forth on it and get the string vibrating, like bowing a cello. What worked even better was what they call parachute cord. It's thin flat rope that's really flexible and soft.
We thought we were genius (Ok, I thought I was a genius) until we went to see this avant garde composer, who's name I forget,,, but he had ten people with some sort of cord, one on each note the same way, and they were playing a piece he wrote, while he conducted it.
Haha, nobody was sitting at the piano, everyone was leaning over the back of it!
I'll sell you that secret for free. Just don't tell anyone else here!

moho

who's_pearljam? wrote:

It does work!

If you're going to write something for someone else to play, you want to try it, though to find out which notes work. . We were at a friend's studio in Philly, and he had a grand piano in there. I stuck my ebow in back and it sounded good. It works better on the midrange strings, and it takes longer to get the note going than on the guitar.

One other way we got sustained notes that sounded even better and louder were with a thin piece of nylon cord. Loop it around one of the piano strings and pull back and forth on it and get the string vibrating, like bowing a cello. What worked even better was what they call parachute cord. It's thin flat rope that's really flexible and soft.
We thought we were genius (Ok, I thought I was a genius) until we went to see this avant garde composer, who's name I forget,,, but he had ten people with some sort of cord, one on each note the same way, and they were playing a piece he wrote, while he conducted it.
Haha, nobody was sitting at the piano, everyone was leaning over the back of it!
I'll sell you that secret for free. Just don't tell anyone else here!

hahaha cheers mate thanks!