What to know about buying a piano?

[Samiam]

My 14 year old has asked to take piano lessons. I've shocked, but all for it! Might as well have the other two do it too.

 

So now trying to figure out how to get a piano. I know NOTHING about piano's. I've done some basic internet research...about how each time a piano is moved, it needs to be tuned, so $$...and that it costs $300-500 to move a piano so a "free" or cheap piano off Craigslist isn't always that cheap by the time all is said and done. How piano's shouldn't be placed on walls to the outside due to temperature variation affecting them. So now I'm scared of Craigslist pianos.

 

We can't afford a new one, for sure...plus since this is new, not sure I want to invest a TON until we know if lessons will be lasting long-term.

 

Thoughts on how one gets a decent piano at a decent price?

Help?

[Arcadia]

It cost me about $200 for moving my piano and $100 for maintenance tuning. I'll see if there is any rent to own piano stores near to you and check their terms and conditions.

[songsparrow]

I got a free piano from a local family who wanted to give it away. I paid a piano tuner to come and evaluate it for me and tell me whether it was worth the money to pay to have it moved to my home. I've been very pleased with it. Maintenance tuning is around $100 per year, but you're going to have to pay that with any piano.

[bnbacademy]

This is why we bought a digital piano... no tuning, and moveable. Another bonus is that they can record their pieces and play them back. It has various keyboard sounds to experiment with, and weighted keys to give it a realistic piano feel. It was expensive, however. Maybe a used one is available?

[Kathy in Richmond]

I paid a piano tuner to come and evaluate it for me and tell me whether it was worth the money to pay to have it moved to my home.

 

:iagree: We did the same thing when we bought our used piano, which we found through an ad in our community newspaper.

[Sara in AZ]

Yes, I'd be afraid of Craigslist pianos unless you had a pianist friend willing to check them out with you.

 

The Piano Book by Larry Fine is an excellent guide to purchasing a piano.

[gardenmom5]

might I suggest an electronic keyboard with stand? make sure it has weighted, full sized keys and the pedal attachment. some advantages are - it's easy to move, and they can use headphones so as not to distrub others. a decent quality one sounds fine. (expensive ones can actually sound pretty good.) and they don't require tuning.

 

We've a friend who has a grand, and a keyboard. she records what she plays on the keyboard, as well as uses the headphones after her kids have gone to bed.

 

eta: I have an old upright - and I've been tempted to ditch it for a digital because dd's work schedule affects when I can play (with a digital - we could use headphones and play when we want). and then tuning, and refelting, and the keys are chipping .. . . sound board is nice though. (maybe she'll actually decide to buy a house and take it with her . . . . )

[ailysh]

Speaking as a musician (piano peformance degree) and a former piano teacher, I'd say go digital. Digital pianos have come such a long way, they sound almost the same (better actually than most low-end pianos), never need tuning (saving you a couple hundred a year), feel the same when you play (that is the important part, get weighted keys), and take up half as much room. I have a litte spinnet accoustic piano that was given to us for our wedding. I've spent more tuning it the last nine years than I would have paid for a digital piano. Probably twice as much. Someday I still want to get a digital piano, but I don't want to offend my in-laws who bought me the Wurlitzer. Unless you have the room and you want a nice piano for the "furniture" aspect, I'd go digital every time. Just my two cents. Hope that helps!

[magnificent_baby]

I would check on a free or very cheap piano. Ask how it has been stored. You don't want anything that has been stored in a storage unit, for example (too much temperature change and humidity exposure). If you are worried about the condition, you could pay a tuner to take a look for major flaws. I would ask around for a good tuner recommendation from the teacher. Yes, it is a pain to move a piano but I think it is very much worth the effort as the skill of playing piano is a lifelong benefit.

 

I purchased a digital but ended up returning it. The dealer pressured us into it, as that is not what I was going into to look at. It didn't have the right "feel" to me (and the keys were weighted). We take Suzuki lessons, and from what I read, it is difficult to learn to produce good tone using Suzuki finger technique on a digital. The one we purchased had a limited number of hours it would play in it's lifetime. It was a high number, but for what I paid for it, I want something that can be passed down to future generations. Of course, if you can find a free or very cheap one, it would be better than nothing!

[flyingiguana]

http://www.pianoworl... Synths & .html

Discussion of digital pianos -- there are a lot of people on this forum who own these, so you can get a lot of info from them.

 

There are discussions of regular pianos, too, if you go up a level. They talk about which are quality instruments and which are junk.

 

We have a digital and an upright. The digital gets played all the time. The upright not so much anymore (although it's a nice piano).

 

There are crummy digitals same as there are crummy "real" pianos.

 

We've got a Kawai. I like the way it feels -- although I might appreciate a better tone quality. I *think* the issue is that I'm sitting right on top of the speaker when I play, because when my kids play, it sounds fine. It sounds great through the headphones, though. Looks like you could get a new Kawai for about 2000 these days. You can get a keyboard for 1000, but it's not quite the same thing.

 

We also have a weighted-key keyboard (I forget the brand), which is ok and all, but it's just not a piano. However, I do know that there are families who get these cheaper keyboards and their kids use them for a couple years. They seem to do ok on them. Later on, if they want to keep at it, they can graduate up to something more expensive. My SIL teaches a number of kids who start on these keyboards. She doesn't notice much difference in the first year or so in their playing. You will want to have a pedal though, before they get too far. And weighted keys.

[flyingiguana]

We take Suzuki lessons, and from what I read, it is difficult to learn to produce good tone using Suzuki finger technique on a digital.

 

 

What is Suzuki finger technique?

 

If it's just regular old finger technique, it should work fine on a decent digital.

 

If it's not, seems the student is going to have relearn how to play after awhile.

[Julie Smith]

We ending up getting a digital one.

 

We brought a tuner in to take a look at a piano for sale in our area. The cost of moving and tuning for that particular piano was less than digital.

 

Personally I would get any piano checked out by a professional before taking the expense of moving it. But the expense of getting one checked out is sometimes 100 dollars. So knowing that makes a digital one look really good to me.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/30/arts/music/for-more-pianos-last-note-is-thud-in-the-dump.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

[sparrow]

I wouldn't be scared of a Craigslist/classifieds piano. If you get one, and find out it's not really what you want, just re-list it. If you get one, and find out it's just what you need, you just saved hundreds of dollars!

 

We got a piano for $50 and paid another $50 to get help moving it. The tuner was about $100 and she said we got a steal. My kids have been taking piano lessons for 5 years with that piano.

[Susan in TN]

Speaking as a musician (piano peformance degree) and a former piano teacher, I'd say go digital. Digital pianos have come such a long way, they sound almost the same (better actually than most low-end pianos), never need tuning (saving you a couple hundred a year), feel the same when you play (that is the important part, get weighted keys), and take up half as much room. I have a litte spinnet accoustic piano that was given to us for our wedding. I've spent more tuning it the last nine years than I would have paid for a digital piano. Probably twice as much. Someday I still want to get a digital piano, but I don't want to offend my in-laws who bought me the Wurlitzer. Unless you have the room and you want a nice piano for the "furniture" aspect, I'd go digital every time. Just my two cents. Hope that helps!

 

We have a KORG digital (got it on clearance) 15 years ago and still use it way more than our upright.

 

The difficult thing about "real" pianos is that old ("cheap") ones are usually horrible to maintain, and often can't really be repaired to get them in good playing condition - and repairs will often cost more than you paid for the instrument - warped soundboards, damaged strings/hammers/pads that need replacing, etc. Unlike violins, pianos do not improve with age :).

[magnificent_baby]

What is Suzuki finger technique?

 

If it's just regular old finger technique, it should work fine on a decent digital.

 

If it's not, seems the student is going to have relearn how to play after awhile.

 

It's specific ways of moving the fingers and the positioning of the arm and wrist, to bring out good tone. After we bought the digital, I did a lot of reading on the Suzuki forum. Should have done that before purchasing, but it was not planning on purchasing it when I went to the dealer.The teachers explained that it's hard to distinguish between good and bad tone because the sound is preprogrammed. Yes, dynamics can be controlled, but it is difficult to control tone.

 

Not sure how it differs from regular technique. I took lessons when I was young, but was never really taught any kind of finger technique.

[Julie Smith]

Speaking as a musician (piano peformance degree) and a former piano teacher, I'd say go digital. Digital pianos have come such a long way, they sound almost the same (better actually than most low-end pianos), never need tuning (saving you a couple hundred a year), feel the same when you play (that is the important part, get weighted keys), and take up half as much room. I have a litte spinnet accoustic piano that was given to us for our wedding. I've spent more tuning it the last nine years than I would have paid for a digital piano. Probably twice as much. Someday I still want to get a digital piano, but I don't want to offend my in-laws who bought me the Wurlitzer. Unless you have the room and you want a nice piano for the "furniture" aspect, I'd go digital every time. Just my two cents. Hope that helps!

 

When we went piano shopping I tired to get a used one. I found one, got a piano tuner to take a look at it for me. (cost 50? dollars?) He did a though job taking a really good look at it. The owners of it watched him test it out open it up, all that jazz. The cost of moving it and then getting it up to playing ability was not worth it. The owners ended up offering it to me for free after I turned down the chance to buy it. They even offered to share the moving costs with me.

 

In some areas pianos are hard to get rid of. I was also not willing to keep spending money looking for a hidden gem. Most pianos were built around the same time and have a similar life expectancy So lots of them are dieing of old age right now.

 

We got a nice digital with lots of extra buttons that let you do lots of neat things. Easy to move, light weight, no tuning, ... and you wouldn't get stuck with a bum piano.

[catz]

I wouldn't take a free piano without having it checked out BEFORE you move it on what kind of repairs might need to be done. Many free pianos are trash and you can end up with one in your home and have to pay to get rid of it anyway. Local to us, there are several businesses that will guarantee used pianos and move them for you too, so for many pianos with repairs and moving costs, it ends up to be a better deal than taking a "free" piano.

 

As to digital vs. acoustic, our teacher requires students to have acoustic, so that's one thing to check. If you have a kid that wants to play around and learn some theory, a digital is probably fine. If you have a kid that wants to advance through classical repertoire, you'll definitely want the acoustic. We have both now. Our digital is full 88 keys, touch sensitive. And it's still not even close to our 100 year old well maintained acoustic in terms of being able to work on tone, phrasing, balance, etc.

[PinkyandtheBrains.]

We had someone who knew piano's come play on the "free" piano for us to decide if we wanted it. Then we moved it (carefully) ourselves. It cost us under $100 to move it ourselves. We rented a piano dolly and truck for the day. It also cost us $100 to have it tuned.

 

If you are just starting out, I'd take a chance on a free piano unless your local piano dealer has used piano's with free delivery that you can afford.

[wapiti]

Yes, I'd be afraid of Craigslist pianos unless you had a pianist friend willing to check them out with you.

 

The Piano Book by Larry Fine is an excellent guide to purchasing a piano.

 

I will second The Piano Book! Check your library. It looks like he has another book out - Acoustic & Digital Piano Buyer: Supplement to The Piano Book, Spring 2012 - I wonder what's in that one.

 

We have a Korg digital and a Kawai acoustic. While the digital does fun stuff, I much prefer the sound from the acoustic, and I like the "vibration" feedback (I'm not sure what the official term would be) that the acoustic gives to my dd. The sound "feels" different.

[flyingiguana]

BTW - I once bought a used piano from what I was told was a reputable shop. It was a piece of junk. We did eventually manage to get rid of it. Not quite sure how to avoid that.

 

You could look into renting. Then they do the moving and maintaining. It might turn out to be worth it.