Separation of piano keyboard vibrations into tonal and broadband components

A new method is presented for splitting musical notes into tonal and broadband components by removing the harmonic peaks from the spectra. This method was used to analyse the key vibrations of eight pianos (four grand and four upright). The broadband component of vibrations was found to be more intense in the upright pianos than in the grand pianos, while no such difference was found in the tonal component. As grands are considered to be superior to uprights, this suggests that it may be possible to improve upright pianos by reducing the strength of the broadband component of vibrations.