Hearing the Pianist's Fingers: The Importance of Touch in Piano Music

Credit: Lecates via Wikimedia Commons Can you tell the difference between the two tones played in this recording?I'm not convinced that I can, but a group of trained musicians were able to listen to a series of tones like this and consistently distinguish between the two. This is important because there is actually a difference in the tones: in this particular recording, the first tone is an E note played such that the piano key does not hit the bottom of the key frame, and in the second tone, ...