PIANO TIPS

Used Accoustic Pianos:

I highly recommend the book How to Buy a Good Used Piano by Willard M. Leverett before buying (or accepting) a used piano.

While a piano in good condition is a treasure, some pianos are money pits, and their value is primarily sentimental or service as a piece of furniture.

This book will help you evaluate a potential accoustic piano for your family, and avoid a "cheap" or "free" piano that will end up needing lots of investment to be a well-tuned instrument.

Digital Pianos:

While I immensely enjoy playing a well-tuned acoustic piano (especially a full-sized grand!!), I've become quite a fan of digital pianos (even though I used to be an acoustic piano tuner/technician).

I have 2 digital pianos, and I'm really pleased with them.  I get the full, rich sound of a grand piano very affordably.  And the touch/feel is just like a good grand piano, too.  A digital piano does NOT have the light, "springy" keys of a regular keyboard, but keys that are weighted to feel like an actual piano.  They usually have other instrument sounds, too, but their specialty is the piano sounds/touch.  My digital pianos fit in my home studio comfortably, and are quite portable.  My favorite aspect of digital pianos--they never go out of tune!

Digital pianos are wonderful for making recordings.  No need to mic an acoustic piano--the digital signal from these pianos can be captured very effectively, and clearly.  I recorded the music you can hear on this site on one of my digital pianos.

Digital pianos are also great tools for music composition.  They can connect to your computer for easier input into a notation program.

As with any electronics, digital pianos can break, and when they do they're probably going to have to be replaced rather than repaired.  There are technicians that can service them, but by the time something goes wrong it's often more cost effective to replace than repair.

Make sure you do your homework and choose a digital piano that will perform the functions you're interested in doing now (or learning to do later).  I recently bought a stage piano that can be moved by one person--just 27 pounds!  I need to take my instrument with me for many of my playing jobs, so portability was a key factor in that purchase.

My other piano looks like a more traditional piano.  Instead of resting on a stand, it has its own legs.  It's heavier and bulkier to move, but solid and steady, which is why that's the piano I use for teaching and practicing.

Dust (and liquids, which should never be near ANY piano, digital or acoustic) is the enemy of digital pianos.  You can get "stretchable" fabric dust covers (but you probably won't take the time to use it if you're like most people :-), but I'd recommend a pull-down built-in dust cover for your home digital piano.