Benz - addressing part of your last message about sustain - from which I quote-

"Thinking about it, I do see one place where I might use it. If i wanted to have a chord sustained, and move my free hand to a far off chord, leave the sustain, press the next chord, thus giving the illusion that I have moved my hand at the speed of light. Am I on the right track?"

Well Benz -
Actually when one uses the sustain pedal - the hands don't just give the illusion of moving and changing chords at the speed of light - they actually move at close to warp speed. This little understood phenomena was first documented on the set of star trek when they were filming the keyboard player in the Enterprise lounge during one episode- and much to their surprise during video playback at 1/4 speed for editing - the player's hands appeared to move at an extraordinary rate of speed not quite visible to the naked eye in real time. They further noticed that it happened simultaneously with depression of the keyboard sustain pedal. This probably explains why when they show the hands of actors playing piano during the filming of a movie - the music is often way different than their hand positions would indicate.

Strange? but True?

Mike in Alaska on New Years Eve