Choosing the best piano for your home: some thoughts and considerations

Tuesday, 24. June 2008 by Todd Ellison

Yesterday, a piano tuner came to our house and tuned our lovely little Baldwin console.  We’re sure glad the Lord provided that piano—it has brought lots of life and beauty and worship into our home and it has proved to be a wonderful choice.  Remembering everything we went to, years ago, to find this piano and drive it here (the sole item in a large U-Haul truck driven more than 300 miles), made me want to share with you some thoughts about how to select a piano that will be the best “fit” for your home.  Buying a piano is a significant decision, not only because of the expense but because a piano can take up a sizeable amount of the space in your home for many decades.  Here are ten steps for choosing a piano for your home:

1. Portable or stationary? Do you expect to be moving soon, or frequently? Will you want to play this piano in other venues? If so, a digital keyboard might be the way to go.

2. Digital, acoustic, or hybrid? An acoustic piano is the traditional wooden type, dating back to the 1700s; it uses a complex array of keys, strings, hammers and pedals to produce sounds. Digital pianos emit recorded sounds, and can be played soundlessly using headsets. Hybrid pianos are expensive because they use strings etc. like acoustic pianos and therefore retain the benefits of that type of piano, but also have the benefit of the software, recording and playback capacities of digital/electronic pianos.

3. If acoustic, are the strings stretched vertically (spinet, console, studio, or upright) or horizontally (grand piano)? A tall vertical piano can produce perhaps 6/10 the sound of a horizontal. This relates to the next point:

4. How much space is available for it? If your quarters are cramped, you won’t want a grand piano (which ranges from 4’5” to 9’ in length). The spinet uses the least space of any acoustic piano (height of 36 to 38 inches). By comparison, the upright piano (the “old clunkers” that our grandparents played and that you’ll see around the edges of meeting halls around the country; we vigorously discourage purchasing old clunkers, because the savings you make in buying them will be eaten up by the costs of moving them—even just into the next room) can be 60 inches tall. Most vertical acoustic pianos are 58 inches wide. If even a spinet is too large, you probably are looking at a digital piano instead.

5. What is the style of your home’s existing furnishings? You’re selecting a piece of furniture as well as a musical instrument. Unless it’s a keyboard that you will be storing under a bed when it’s not in use, everyone who is in your home will be looking at it.

6. Who will be playing it? Older serious piano students will need an acoustic or a hybrid since a digital piano lacks the tonal resonance and the touch and tone of an acoustic piano.  Anyone can use an electronic piano for the first year, to acquire the beginning skills.

7. What is your budget? The cost (which is very negotiable) can range from a few dollars for a cheap digital keyboard at a thrift store to six figures for a Steinway concert grand. We believe this is not the time to go into debt, even for such a wonderful investment as a beautiful piano. Also, think of your ongoing expenses for tuning, repairs, and insurance: digital pianos never need tuning; tuning costs anywhere from $80 and up, at least once a year, depending on the stability of the environment of the room where the piano is kept. It can cost $6,000 to rebuild the mechanism of a grand piano. If your budget for a piano is non-existent, consider practicing on a nearby church’s piano.  Also, sometimes someone needs a good home for their lovely piano, and will loan it to you rather than have it suffer in a storage unit.  But, good deals on fine acoustic pianos are readily available these days.

8. New or used? Unlike other items, a good used acoustic piano can maintain or increase its value over time. The main consideration is whether the used piano was kept in a stable climate, without extreme swings in temperature and humidity.

9. Ask a piano tuner. If you’ve decided on an acoustic piano, ask someone who has spent many hours around hundreds of different piano. A piano tuner will be able to tell you what make and brand of instrument has been known to produce (and retain) a beautiful sound—and may also have some leads as to used pianos available for sale or loan. In addition, he or she may be able to inspect and evaluate a specific instrument you are considering purchasing (especially if it is a used acoustic piano).  However, you are the best judge of the sound that you will be hearing for a long time.

10. Synthesize your decisions by using this piano selection matrix table.  Then, once you’ve acquired a piano for your home, you can learn how to play it right there in your home using our Quick Piano lessons. After that, you can progress to playing the music published by companies like Hal Leonard Publishing, which includes the chord letter with the melody lines, just like all of the music in our book does.  (For more information on selecting a piano, see Darrell’s Music Hall’s online advice for choosing a piano.)