Keyboard or piano - What should I buy?
I’m often asked this question
so thought I would note down some of the main points in for and against each
choice. There are three main options – a keyboard, a
digital piano or an
acoustic piano. Whichever your choice you should also consider an
adjustable piano stool.
These have many good features
including demo songs and the ability to add backing tracks and chords. They
have large banks of sampled sounds, and you can get creative with multi-track
recordings of your own playing. Many models also interface with a PC and USB devices for MIDI music file storage and direct input to
composition or sequencing software. Secondary school pupils in the UK will be taught on keyboards in their key
stage 3 and GCSE work so there are obvious advantages in having a similar
instrument at home.
A good keyboard teacher will use the automatic ‘casio’ chords only at the very
beginning and then progress to fingered chords, using the functionality of the
keyboards to teach harmony and explore musical texture.
It would be advisable to seek the advice of a
specialist keyboard teacher as to makes and models to buy. But if you are
looking for something to support piano lessons, make sure it has at least 66
keys (a piano has 88) and has the option of fully weighted action.
Size is important
so buy the tallest upright piano you can afford – both financially and in terms of
available space. New uprights are described as 108, 112 etc cm – the height of
the case gives a good indication of the length of the strings inside and the
size of the sound board and
therefore the resonance and depth of tone. Older pianos will be taller and possibly deeper as
well.
 Look inside.
Make sure a second hand piano is reasonably clean inside. Check felts are
not too worn and dry, with only a slight imprint where they rest on the strings.
Check that the action looks level and that each arm looks the same - you
are looking for any of the small pieces of felt, leather and springs that might
be missing.
Most modern pianos are ‘overstrung’ (the strings appear to cross over each
other), which is what you want. An older piano may not be – making it look as
though it has longer strings than it really does. Again, most new pianos will
have ‘underdamper’ action (the dampers are behind the strings in an upright or
beneath them in a grand) but there are a few relics that aren’t so check this
for yourself too. It is actually quite difficult to see the sound board (the
wood the strings are mounted on), but if there are cracks in this the resonance
and tuning of the instrument will be seriously impaired. If you want a
sound technical evaluation of a piano you are considering, ask your
tuner-technician to look it over with you; be prepared to pay for this service.
Check the UK piano tuners association site
www.uk-piano.org
for lists of local specialists.
We used to be warned away
from instruments built in China, Korea and the former Eastern bloc.
However there are now some outstanding piano factories in Hong Kong and China producing to
standards demanded by the most prestigious builders.
Try
before you buy. If buying from new, make sure you try the exact model you are
going to get – even the same model may have a very different sound. If buying
second hand, don’t be fobbed off by a dealer who says it could be cheaply
reconditioned or would sound better after a tuning: tell him politely that you
will come back and listen to it after the work has been done. Take a range of
the music you and family might hope to play - do you want a rich Romantic sound
or a lighter tone and action for Baroque and Classical pieces? If you
don't yet play enough to give the instrument a good workout, you will probably
not find it too hard to convince a pianist friend to spend a few hours 'fantasy
shopping' in a piano showroom with you!
Trust
your own good judgement, and your own ears – do you personally like the sound from this piano?
There is a huge variety of tone colour between pianos and none of these is
objectively ‘better’ than another.
Remember
that the acoustics of the room will influence the sound of a piano - soft
furnishings will absorb sound, shelving and other flat surfaces will reflect it
- so no piano will sound exactly the same when it moves in as it did in the
showroom.
New or second hand, this is a
significant investment. Anything from a dealer at under £1000 is probably not
going to give lasting pleasure as your playing develops, and may actually do
damage to your technique or your musical ear (especially if it goes out of tune
almost instantly). So get help - a pianist will be able to tell you if
the action on a piano is basically even and smooth (but again a heavy or light
touch is also a matter of personal taste); a tuner will be able to tell you if
the instrument appears well made and technically sound.
These have vastly improved in
terms of touch and tone in recent years. If space is at a premium, I would not
hesitate to recommend say a Clavinova CLP 240 or higher which you can get for
around £1000 on-line. A digital piano will have some limited recording
functionality – probably only a couple of tracks deep, and only a few songs will
fit in its integral memory – but you can use USB storage devices to supplement
this. Most have a limited but enjoyable range of sampled instruments – the
range of keyboard instruments including pipe organ and harpsichord, perhaps wood
bass and guitar.
The important thing to look
for to support learning the piano is hammer weighted action and touch
sensitivity. A good touch will then produce a rewarding tone. However I
don’t think the makers go out of their way to sample anything but well played
piano sounds – so it is quite possible to play with the touch of a baboon and
still not produce a truly ugly sound. While this might sound an advantage in
the short term (!) it can obviously damage your learning in the process.
It used to be that the super
light touch of a digital piano produced weak and lazy fingers, but I think that
objection no longer stands as long as you set the touch to one of the firmer
settings.
I hope
this information is useful. It will be perhaps painfully clear that these are
only my personal opinions, and a great deal of ink has been spilt in the
discussion of what instrument to buy, and not all of it comes to the same
conclusion as I do.
For good posture, physical comfort and
freedom at the keyboard, do not neglect to source a good piano stool, too.
Your stool should preferably be adjustable, and do test it out first to check it
doesn't wobble and squeak when you use the pedals or rampage up the piano with
speed and force in a quick run through of the Grieg piano concerto....
Take a look at
this site for more information.
   
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