What is a "Felt Piano"?

rsl12

https://variety.com/2025/artisans/news/jay-kelly-nicholas-britell-score-1236605650/

In the linked webpage, the composer of a new movie (Jay Kelly, starring Georgy Clooney & Adam Sandler) talks about his use of a "felt piano" to get an intimate and contemplative sound. What is a felt piano? He says: "The piano has a lever inside with a layer of felt between the piano hammers and the strings. The hammers have to play through the layer, and it makes the sound more intimate and textured. It also restrains the sound a bit." Is this just a practice pedal on an upright? Or is there more to it? Some examples of the music are linked on the webpage, at the bottom, and it sounds a lot like the practice pedal! If that's all it is, why give it a fancy new name?

keff

rsl12 and it sounds a lot like the practice pedal! If that's all it is, why give it a fancy new name?

Also known (at least in the UK) as the celeste felt, which I will allege is the fancy old name.

ShiroKuro

rsl12 If that's all it is, why give it a fancy new name?

That’s definitely all it is!

The fancy new name is because a film scorer isn’t going to want to say “I recorded this one with the practice mute down” bc it doesn’t sound fancy.

😁

rogerch

I associate "felt piano" with videos I see on youtube of felted uprights being played with their panels removed. The result is muted piano sounds with prominent action noise. It sounds a lot different from unfelted piano recordings! I tend to prefer unfelted pianos without the action noise but I appreciate hearing a variety of approaches that produce different piano sounds!

navindra

Steingraeber also market a version of this for their grands as Sordino:

https://www.steingraeber.de/en/innovationen/sordino/

This would have been a useful pedal to me on my grand. I love having it on the upright.

MRC

The name isn't new. In the early 19th century the "sordino"(also called "moderator" or "celeste") pedal caused a very thin strip of felt to be inserted between the hammers and the strings. The felt used was much thinner than that now found in practice mutes, producing a delicate sound but not as muffled as the sound produced by the thick felt of a practice mute.

Steingraeber proposes a sordino pedal as an option. Matthew Bengtson demonstrates it here: