A Cure for too slippery of Keys, Please.....

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Well if you're making a living beating your keyboards to death, then the sandpaper mod may be the only thing that works for you.

You'll basically have to disassemble each key and rough sand it with some 200 to 300 grit sandpaper to get the desired texture.

They'll probably look like hell but it's the only safe way to add friction to the surface.

Chemicals make too much mess and gum up the keyswitches.

Gary

Awesome, man!

That worked like a charm. A 320 sandpaper, "scratched" as lightly as possible, making sure the "powder" didn't enter the key themselves (+-70º diagonal positioning). Didn't disassemble a thing, reduced the sandparer instead, and used it with my little finger. The experience of playing in at least 20% more interesting, even with this shitty keyboard of mine.

Tks a lot.
 
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As you age the grip of your finger prints lessen as the ridges dissappear (fail to form). Ask anyone who has ever been taxed with getting a viable finger-print from someone who is over 50. The condition can be quite profound in some people, such that they have virtually no fingerprints to speak of. That is the real reason why people drop things more as they age: the amount of pressure that a lifetime of experience has advised them to use, given a certain tensile tackiness to their fingers, is no longer sufficient to stop an item of a given weight from following gravity to the floor.

I have this problem when I play classical pieces that require straight fingers because the spread needed to accomodate non-conventional chords and arpeggios in 'black-key' tonal centers causes the finger to adopt a more acute angle of approach on the keys in the center of any given hand position; more so the third finger, rather than any thumb cross-over point. Debussy's, Claire De Lune, is just such a piece. It's not fast or hard, it just invites this kind of key slide and resulting error; partly because a flat hand is used to secure the desired articulation, tone and effect, making things worse.

Any fine abrassive polish like brasso will lightly scourge the shine from plastic keys and retain the dust as a paste to be easily wiped of, and any polish polish will restore it if you change your mind. If you have a mechanical piano, fine quality (like 3M) wet/dry automotive paper will cause less residue (and it is dry, powdery and vacuumable) than either steel-wool or scouring pads, and that way you can use a sanding block to do 2 or 3 key tops at a time to cause uniform striations (or no visible etching in the case where very fine grade has been used). It will only take a few passes, and if you don't like it, polish it again with either McGuires or Mothers Plastic Polish.

Additionally, I just tried a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, which worked very well too. Get creative!
 
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this from bill88 on here :-

". I found two suggestions regarding hand lotions I’d like to share with my fellow pianists – Ahava Deadsea Water Mineral Hand Cream and O’Keeffe’s Working Hands Hand Cream. Both are excellent and actually give your fingertips traction and grip while restoring moisture and not leaving a slippery fingertip surface."
 
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I'm so sure this post is a wind up.
What you've already done to that poor keyboard already is criminal.
So let me offer a few suggestions.

Have you tried playing it with a hammer in each hand....see if the hammers break the shine on the keys.

Maybe drill a 5mm countersink into each key to stop your fingers sliding off them

Take all the keys out, and put them back upside down maybe?

A dab of super glue on each finger prior to playing .....You just might be surprised !

and finally

Try playing it with Fish fingers....maybe it hates humans ?
 

happyrat1

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Like the OP posted, roughing the keytops with an abrasive accomplished his goal. Roland keys these days come with a factory roughing, called "Ivory Feel"

I can attest from experience that after pounding on those keys for a couple of years, the "ivory touch" begins to wear off and smooth itself out anyway.

 
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I'm so sure this post is a wind up.
What you've already done to that poor keyboard already is criminal.
So let me offer a few suggestions.

Have you tried playing it with a hammer in each hand....see if the hammers break the shine on the keys.

Maybe drill a 5mm countersink into each key to stop your fingers sliding off them

Take all the keys out, and put them back upside down maybe?

A dab of super glue on each finger prior to playing .....You just might be surprised !

and finally

Try playing it with Fish fingers....maybe it hates humans ?
it honestly isn't a wind-up, there's a few of us on here who've found it enough of a problem to affect playing. I'm fine playing on "conventional" piano keys but still slipping on shiny plastic Juno DS 88 keys.
 

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