Where’s your piano?

[BlsdMama]

Thinking of ditching the piano...

 

Currently no one plays. 
 

Entry? I have a wide entry, but still, the bench would be annoying. 
 

A bedroom? I have space. 
 

The living room - I had a spot I no longer want to sacrifice. 
 

Give it away. This might be best. I have two who would like to play but it’s more theoretical than real. However, they’d like lessons in addition to current activities... One is a mock trial and play kid and I do not want to add to my “drive and do” list. 

[Guest]

We have two pianos - a useful one and a useless one - in a room that is technically a formal living room, but over the past several years has been my MIL’s bedroom when she is here. I hope I always have the useful piano, even though no one currently takes lessons. Only if I was moving somewhere very small would I consider getting rid of it. 

I would happily get rid of the useless piano but a) it was my MIL’s and so I don’t want to remove it from “her” room, and b) I really have no idea what to do with it beyond hiring a junk removal service. It is extraordinarily heavy and hard to move and has a cracked harp. I had a tuner in once and he said, “Honestly, there is no point tuning it. It will be out of tune in weeks.” So there it sits, most likely until either my MIL is definitely not coming to that bedroom ever again or we move from this house and “have” to dispose of it. 

[klmama]

Ours is in the living room.  If we needed to move it elsewhere, we'd move it to the bedroom of the dc who plays.  If you want your living room back and have bedroom space available, I'd move it there.

I would encourage you not to put it in the entry, as much of the year the outside air will have a different temp and humidity than the house air; that could affect the piano tuning.

ETA:  With COVID, it's possible to take online lessons, instead of having to travel.  Many teachers are doing it that way now.  My dc has been taking online lessons since April, and it's been wonderful to have the travel time back.  It's at most 10 minutes for dc to set up and put away the laptop for Zooming, rather than the hour needed for round trip travel and the extra time to get ready.  Just something to consider.  

Edited October 31, 2020 by klmama

[fairfarmhand]

I would rather get rid of a piano and buy a keyboard with weighted keys which would be kept in the room of the child who takes lessons.

[Arcadia]

Just now, fairfarmhand said:

I would rather get rid of a piano and buy a keyboard with weighted keys which would be kept in the room of the child who takes lessons.

Mine is in the living room. I wish I went for a keyboard instead so that I can play past midnight when I want to. I ended up using GarageBand on iPad Pro with headphones on.

[gardenmom5]

I got rid of my acoustic piano.  I now have a digital.  Family room.

[EmilyGF]

Kitchen/dining room.

My dad designs custom furniture and often sells to people who are moving from a single-family home to a retirement place. 

His advice: Either keep the piano central (living room, dining room, etc) or ditch it. Don't move it to a place where it'll never be used and always ignored (bedroom, office).

[Not_a_Number]

We only have a keyboard right now, and it's in the bedroom the kids share. We want to get an actual piano, but only after we have more space... 

[MamaSprout]

We have one in the living room (less often played, small upright) and a digital one in last kiddos bedroom (played daily +). The small upright seems to migrate around the house as our older kids are in and out. They all have their own houses now, so it's been in the same spot for a while. That, and I think DH is done moving it, lol.

[Tap]

Mine is in the living room. Luckily it is tucked in an awkward corner. It is an outside wall but due to where the corner is, I can keep it about 10 inches from the wall to offer some air buffer.  It needs some work to a soft key or two and some repair to the sound board (I don't remember what it was). The tuner who last tuned it said it is one of the few pianos he would say was worth repairing. But, the repairs at that time were about $1000 and would require it being transported to the repair studio. He values the piano at $10,000 so it is a worthwhile investment, but I don't want to spend $1000 on a piano that isn't currently played.  It was my husband' grandmother's piano who used it to teach lessons for many years. 

Edited October 31, 2020 by Tap

[Danae]

Family room.

My older son started Zoom lessons during the shut down and we’re going to keep it that way for as long as his teacher will do it. Not having to drive him to lessons is such a timesaver.  

[Guest]

I have a digital piano and a keyboard that live in the dining room. My studio has two pianos, but it is at the center, not at home.

 

I agree that online lessons are readily available now, and I know that I plan to leave it as an option even past COVID. I have 6 out of state students this semester, and a homeschool family that just plain finds it easier to have one child online with me while the other two are doing school with Mom vs having to bring all three kids to the center. I would imagine other teachers have figured out that online is a good fit for some of their students and will keep it around, too. 

[catz]

We have an acoustic piano that is in the middle of our living room on an inside wall.  I have one kid who took serious lessons for many years and who still uses it when he is home from college.  My other kid takes voice and plunks away at it.  It gets used and tuned regularly though we are overdue right now.  We also have a full size weighted keyboard that can move around.  That really doesn't replace an acoustic instrument but  can be fine for basic piano and music theory.

Anyway if you have a functioning piano that holds a tune and a kid as young as first grade, I'm not sure I'd be in a hurry to get rid of it unless you had to.  Virtual music lessons are actually working great here (my teen is taking 2 a week right now - violin/voice) plus various ensemble stuff.  

It's actually not always easy to give away a piano.  Most people I know have had to pay to have them removed.  And I know people who have taken a free piano and regretted it because it wouldn't hold a tune.  I always tell people to take a technician to look at an instrument because that free piano to move might cost you $$$ to get rid of.   It would help to have any tuning or maintenance records available if you wanted to give it away.

Edited October 31, 2020 by FuzzyCatz

[Another Lynn]

2 hours ago, Quill said:

We have two pianos - a useful one and a useless one - in a room that is technically a formal living room, but over the past several years has been my MIL’s bedroom when she is here. I hope I always have the useful piano, even though no one currently takes lessons. Only if I was moving somewhere very small would I consider getting rid of it. 

I would happily get rid of the useless piano but a) it was my MIL’s and so I don’t want to remove it from “her” room, and b) I really have no idea what to do with it beyond hiring a junk removal service. It is extraordinarily heavy and hard to move and has a cracked harp. I had a tuner in once and he said, “Honestly, there is no point tuning it. It will be out of tune in weeks.” So there it sits, most likely until either my MIL is definitely not coming to that bedroom ever again or we move from this house and “have” to dispose of it. 

Is a cracked harp like a cracked sound board?  Personally, I would get a second opinion. It might not be as useless as you think. 

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, Another Lynn said:

Is a cracked harp like a cracked sound board?  Personally, I would get a second opinion. It might not be as useless as you think. 

Yes. He said it would not stay in tune for even a short while because of cracks in the frame holding the strings upon which the hammers strike. 

It may not be. It is not important to me, though. I have a beautiful full-sized Yamaha electronic piano in there, too, which never goes out of tune and never needs servicing. I cannot imagine a scenario where anyone would pick the other piano over the electronic piano so it’s not worth spending money to investigate repairing it. As I said, it is mainly still there because I don’t want my MIL to witness it missing (if that even can happen at any time in the future, which is doubtful at her age and health) and because it will probably require paying someone to remove it because it is so heavy. When we moved it into the house, three men as strong as oxen carried it in. That’s probably the only way it can leave here, too. 

[Tap]

1 minute ago, Quill said:

Yes. He said it would not stay in tune for even a short while because of cracks in the frame holding the strings upon which the hammers strike. 

It may not be. It is not important to me, though. I have a beautiful full-sized Yamaha electronic piano in there, too, which never goes out of tune and never needs servicing. I cannot imagine a scenario where anyone would pick the other piano over the electronic piano so it’s not worth spending money to investigate repairing it. As I said, it is mainly still there because I don’t want my MIL to witness it missing (if that even can happen at any time in the future, which is doubtful at her age and health) and because it will probably require paying someone to remove it because it is so heavy. When we moved it into the house, three men as strong as oxen carried it in. That’s probably the only way it can leave here, too. 

When we had our piano moved, it was just one strong man and a piano jack who moved it in. The company specialized in moving pianos and it was on the first floor in both locations, with only a single threshold step, so that may have made a difference. It was a few hundred dollars 20 years ago, so I would figure $400-500 now. 

[Momto6inIN]

Ours is in what we call our den - just a miscellaneous room where we keep our big desk that DH made in high school, all our bookshelves, science equipment, filing cabinets, and a big ole honking piano 🙂

We currently have 5 kids + 1 adult who play regularly, some because of lessons and they have to and some because they love it and play whenever they get a chance. The kids have already put in dibs for when DH and I die, so we will never get rid of it LOL

[ashfern]

We have two pianos. One is an electric piano that is in the school room/library. The other is an old stand-up Clough-Warren piano that the previous owners left in the basement. It still lives there. We had it tuned and need to get a bench for it. My one child that knows how to play uses both of them.

[PeterPan]

4 hours ago, BlsdMama said:

A bedroom? I have space. 

If you're that desperate to find a spot, give it a way or make it firewood, mercy.

Maybe it's someone's next blessing. It's good to give things away. I have two (the one we bought when we got married and a nicer one we bought later). I had assumed I would keep the early piano for dd, but she seems to be living elsewhere. I should probably give it away and let it move on to bless the world. More room for plants or something. It's in a great spot for plants.

[KungFuPanda]

My piano is in my dining room.  It's only big enough because my dining room is supposed to be my living room, so it's a nice space. What is supposed to be the dining room is being used as a downstairs accessible bedroom.  Nobody plays. Nobody ever played. My grandmother, a piano teacher, left it to me and I've been dragging it up and down the east coast for years.  I almost handed it off to my sister and she started talking about moving it in a pick up truck, then about painting it, and I panicked.  I should have just let her take it.  I was a fool and now she lives several states away.  She just bought her first house.  One day when I have money again I may send it to her.

ETA:  I was told never to put a piano on an exterior wall.  I never have.  Is this a real thing or is my family just weird.  (I come from a musical family on my Dad's side.  Everyone plays several instruments and sings.  I did NOT get any of that talent despite years of free piano lessons.)

Edited November 1, 2020 by KungFuPanda

[alisoncooks]

Digital piano at the foot of my bed. I'm the only one to use it. 

[ScoutTN]

Family room, on a wall that has a closet on the other side. Not in the way and it gets played every day. I am the only one here who does not play. 

[klmama]

1 hour ago, KungFuPanda said:

ETA:  I was told never to put a piano on an exterior wall.  I never have.  Is this a real thing or is my family just weird.  

Real thing, at least for older homes.  I grew up playing the piano my mother played as a girl, and it had a cracked sound board.  They had kept it on an outside wall because it was the only one with space for it (others had a fireplace and lots of windows), and the sound board cracked.  I guess it wasn't as badly cracked as some, as it was still able to hold a tune, but it sounded weird compared to other pianos.  I've been told newer homes have better insulation and that it's okay, but I would want to know that the wall wasn't getting warm in summer or cold in winter before putting a piano in front of it. 

[rebcoola]

Living room we have a wall that is just piano sized between the stairs and the kitchen.

[lewelma]

8,362 miles away.  

[J-rap]

Well, we recently moved and gave ours away, but otherwise we kept it in the living room up against a wall that was just plain and blank and not near a window.  We used the top of it to display lots of stuff!  (It was an old upright.)  We were told that the previous owners of our home kept their piano in the large front hallway.  If you had a small piano stool (instead of a bench), it would be easy to tuck away somewhere so it wasn't in the way.

[SKL]

Ours is in the living room.  Honestly, it's a little awkward there, but there isn't any better place for it.  Whoever designed our house made the rooms weird, all very oblong.  There are big openings, windows, and/or a fireplace on every wall - all of which I like, but none of which lend themselves to piano placement.  😛

I would have a hard time getting rid of our piano.  I've always had one and feel like it's an essential part of my home, even though it's been a long time since I've had a chance to really play.

[StephanieZ]

FWIW, my 18 year old is a pianist (very seriously) and since March, all her lessons have been on ZOOM. She is even taking her Royal Conservatory of Music Level 10 performance exams virtually in December. Those exams are usually not only done in person, but typically only in about one location per state. We had to drive out of state one year for them. It's a big deal and costs several hundred dollars at this level, which makes sense since they bring in out-of-region judges and the exams are lengthy and require a very high level pianist as judge. So, that's to say that you can TOTALLY take lessons virtually these days. Even pre-Covid, my eldest took harp virtually from an out-of-state teacher during her last year of high school when we had decided her local teacher wasn't a good fit any longer (too much pressure to enter conservatory/major in music, which wasn't what my dd was aiming for . . . Indeed, she graduated in Computer Science in May and has a fantastic job in her field . . .)

Many teachers (like my daughter's) are ONLY teaching virtually, and considering that many are surely hurting for income right now with most live music not happening, I'd imagine it'd be pretty easy to find a teacher who is willing to teach virtually. So, anyway, that's an option. 

That said, if you don't want the piano, just give it away if someone will take it. Post it on facebook/craigslist/whatever. If not, you can hire a junk hauler to get rid of it. In our years of piano ownership, our first we got free from a family friend whose only requirement was that we hire a professional piano mover to get it out of her house (to protect her house, I'm sure), that one was happily used for several years, then stored in a garage where it went BAD, then junked to the landfill. Our second piano was very cheap ($200? $500?) from a friend, and we happily used it until the big upgrade to the grand piano, at which time I posted a "free to good home" on my personal facebook and quickly found it a good home. 

FWIW, my dd's piano is in a dedicated music room that we added on 5 years ago for the purpose -- it also houses other instruments and a massive closet to store MORE instruments and all the music paraphernalia, but it was purpose built for a big piano. We had an upright before, but needed to upgrade to a grand piano for her at that point because her skills were (and are) pretty serious and she needed a better piano. So, now we've got a music room, and we got the piano right after the room was completed. 

[gaillardia]

My piano is in the living room. In three other homes we've lived it was in the dining room. My daughters play it and eventually one of them will take it. One of them plays a grand piano at church and they all sing too and need it for rehearsing. LOL I can't believe we've come that far.

It was mine when I was a teenager. Our most recent piano tuner said it was an "okay" piano and would suffice for a beginner. We also have an electric keyboard and no one ever plays it. Good luck to anyone trying to sell a piano. You can't give them away either. My MIL had a nice organ and she couldn't sell it or give it away. I think a church finally took it. We have moved ours ourselves (including into the moving truck and out again) with no harm done.