| Why play the piano? | | | | up to now, I have not come across any good |
| The piano is an extremely exciting instrument to play - | | | | electronic pianos to match with my 5' 2" Kawai BL61. |
| the piano has at least 300 years of literature for you | | | | They are not even as good as my 20 year old Pearl |
| to choose from, music from Bach to Mozart to | | | | River. |
| Beethoven to Chopin to Schumann to Henry Mancini | | | | Maybe one day I will recommend electronic pianos |
| to Yiruma to...The list is endless. | | | | when the touch can match a concert grand. :) |
| Choosing the right type of piano is extremely important | | | | What to consider when buying a piano? |
| - a good piano will develop good sense of touch, build | | | | Many things, to be honest. |
| up finger strength & dexterity, build up the correct | | | | 1) Budget / Price: How much are you willing to spend |
| sense of pitch... and so on. | | | | to buy an instrument? For example, you definitely do |
| What types of piano do we have? | | | | not want spend a few hundred thousand bucks on a |
| Three centuries ago, what we call a piano is something | | | | concert grand, if you are just starting to take lessons. |
| that looks like a harpsichord, but sounds differently. | | | | 2) Space: How much room do you have for your |
| Nowadays, we have mainly concert grands, baby | | | | piano? If you need a good piano, but do not have |
| grands, uprights, and even electronic pianos. Besides, | | | | room for a grand piano - a tall upright is the solution. |
| there are so many choices of brands - Steinway, | | | | 3) Tone & touch: This really depends on your |
| Yamaha, Kawai, Young Chang, Pearl River, | | | | personal likings. You need to test playing the pianos |
| Bosendorfer... | | | | yourselves before selecting. Even if you are just |
| Given so many choices, let's go through each of type | | | | starting to take lessons, try to press the keys - do you |
| of pianos: | | | | like the sound? Do you like the touch? How loud and |
| Concert Grands | | | | how soft can the piano go? Are the keys responsive |
| Those 9 feet long grand pianos which you see at | | | | enough - if you press hard, do you find the sound goes |
| concerts. These are the best pianos one can ever | | | | loud enough, and if you press softly, does the sound |
| afford, Steinway is famous for their concert grands - | | | | goes soft enough? |
| many classical pianists prefer them. | | | | 4) Length of the piano: The measurement of length is |
| Concert grands' touch are very heavy (compared to | | | | for grand pianos, and the height is for upright pianos. |
| others), but this heavy touch enables very beautiful | | | | As a general guideline, the larger the length or the |
| tone and color to be generated. If you are a good | | | | height, the heavier the touch will be, and the better the |
| piano player, and if you do have lots of money and a | | | | tone & responsiveness will be. |
| big room to accommodate your instrument - the | | | | 5) The piano shop technicians / after sales service: |
| obvious choice is to go for a concert grand. | | | | This is very important, all pianos (except electronic |
| Baby Grands | | | | pianos) will go out of tune, whether you play them or |
| Baby grands are usually 5 or 6 feet grand pianos - | | | | not. It is important to find out whether the shop |
| which is about 2 feet smaller than the "normal" grands. | | | | provides tuning services. |
| The smaller size enables it to be fit into a smaller room, | | | | Other important tips when buying a piano |
| however from experience, you need quite a large | | | | 1) If you know a honest piano technician, it is always |
| room for the baby grand to sound nice. | | | | good to ask him/her to help you on piano selection. He |
| Baby grands' touch are still quite heavy but not as | | | | she will be able to look at the internals of a piano to |
| heavy as a concert grand. If you have lots of money | | | | tell whether it is in a good condition or not. Bring your |
| and a moderately large room to place your piano, | | | | technician to the piano shop and ask him to try them |
| baby grands is a very good choice. Furthermore, some | | | | out. |
| people see baby grands as a beautiful furniture. | | | | 2) If you do not know a piano technician, why not bring |
| Uprights | | | | over your piano teacher / instructor? Teachers |
| Upright pianos are the most common piano. Unlike a | | | | definitely has better piano knowledge than beginners. |
| grand piano, the upright's strings are placed vertical | | | | 3) Buying pianos over eBay: yes it is possible! But I |
| instead of horizontal. This makes the mechanism totally | | | | personally do not recommend doing this, let's don't talk |
| different from grand pianos, so the touch is also very | | | | about the security about trading over the internet - the |
| different. (Don't worry though, if you have started with | | | | fact is you do not get to test and try the piano for |
| an upright, you will have no problems playing a grand - | | | | yourself, you might be ending spending lots of money |
| just that we need some time to adapt to the heavier | | | | and getting an instrument which you hate. |
| touch) | | | | 4) Reconditioned / refurbished pianos: it is really hard to |
| A lot of people prefer uprights because they are more | | | | find good reconditioned / refurbished pianos nowadays. |
| affordable, requires less space to keep, and it has a | | | | No doubt that we do have good ones, however these |
| damper pedal so that the sounds are muffled. By | | | | are really hard to find. If you do not have a piano |
| pressing the damper pedal, the volume immediately | | | | technician / teacher to help you out, avoid those. |
| turns down - this enables practicing even late at night | | | | Reconditioned pianos usually goes out of tune quickly, |
| without giving neighbors headaches. | | | | and has bad touch and bad respond. |
| Electronic pianos | | | | 5) Electronic pianos: if you really have budget |
| I personally do not recommend buying an electronic | | | | constraints, think of this: most people only buy ONE |
| piano, despite being the most affordable and the most | | | | piano in their entire life time - do you want to end up |
| compact. | | | | playing a bad touch, bad respond, too light touch |
| Electronic pianos has the advantage of being able to | | | | electronic keyboard after 20, 30 years? Honestly I still |
| produce many instruments' sounds. But trust me, by | | | | recommend to totally AVOID electronic pianos, |
| giving in to these fancy sounds will really sacrifice the | | | | whatever the sales person tells you. |
| development of correct touch for the piano. At least, | | | | So, that's it! Happy hunting for your dream instrument! |