Comments | jon_leonard: A different sort of piano store experience

jon_leonard

A different sort of piano store experience

Oct 08, 2009 11:19

Beth, Amber & I stopped by a different piano store on the way back from a trip to the mall.

This time, the salesman didn't seem unduly interested in selling me a piano right now, though he did point out several times that renting a piano was a good deal ( Read more... )

piano, sale

Comments 13

akiko October 8 2009, 18:49:02 UTC

Another advantage of electric pianos is that you don't have to tune them. Ben has a pretty nice electric piano he bought 10 years ago for $1500 or so, and he likes it. But he doesn't play it much.

Double bonus of electric pianos - headphone jacks.

jon_leonard October 8 2009, 20:36:10 UTC

Indeed. Even the volume control for non-headphone playing is a nice bonus. At this point I really don't see getting a "real" piano, unless somehow one (or both?) of the children winds up at concert-pianist grade. The fact that I like electronics may have something to do with this.

Also, while you don't have to tune an electric piano, I have actually tuned mine. Huge difference between "for fun" and "sounds bad if you don't", though.

minorninth October 9 2009, 02:48:51 UTC

Piano stores are so much fun!

I would totally get a $2000 digital piano (which gets you a pretty good one) over a $2000 acoustic (which gets you a mediocre upright). I LOVE acoustic pianos, but the quality just isn't good at such a low price point - plus you should factor in paying for tuning twice a year.

Digital pianos also give you the ability to record and play back. This is *really* fun and great when you're learning a piece - you can record the left hand part and then play the right hand part along with it.

Be sure to drop by an electronic music store like Guitar Center if you haven't already. I've never understood why, but piano stores might carry 10 brands of piano but only 1 brand of digital piano. Guitar Center will show you several brands of digital pianos.

beth_leonard October 9 2009, 05:45:19 UTC

This guitar center place... everyone keeps talking about it. We'll have to check it out.

--Beth

mrmorse October 9 2009, 04:39:43 UTC

A couple of years ago I bought a digital piano. My most important goal was to find a piano that felt good compared to an acoustic piano. I don't know how to describe how most weighted keyboards feel to me, but they don't feel anything like a piano. I ended up getting a Yamaha Clavinova CLP-230, which is sort of in the middle of their high end home piano line. It's also the least expensive digital piano that actually felt good to me, although it still doesn't feel like an acoustic. The only other piano I ended up liking was a Kawai, the CA-5 maybe, which was a very nice instrument but even more expensive ( ... )

beth_leonard October 9 2009, 05:44:47 UTC

This guitar center place... all of Jon's commenters keep mentioning it.

--Beth

jon_leonard October 9 2009, 06:00:18 UTC

Could you elaborate on the difference between a weighted MIDI keyboard (etc.) and a digital piano? My naive instinct would be to consider them more or less equivalent in terms of what I can do with them and suitability for practice.

Do I want one, the other, or both?

It's nice having friends who are expert on stuff that I'm not.

mrmorse October 9 2009, 16:34:49 UTC

To a certain extent, the difference is in the connotations. A piano is a piece of furniture in addition to being a musical instrument. You have to arrange the room around the piano, even if it's a digital piano which doesn't take up that much space. A MIDI controller with weighted keys is just something you stick in a corner where it's out of the way. You might even put it away in a closet when it's not being used. This is more convenient, but also makes it easier to stop using it ( ... )

Thread 7

uthrom October 26 2009, 23:37:44 UTC

I realise I'm a bit behind on commenting on this, but I've been musing about getting a piano/piano-esque (keyboard/digital piano) instrument for several years, and I'm finding the information in the comments rather useful.

Oh, and Hello. :)

jon_leonard October 27 2009, 05:28:24 UTC

Indeed: So very much depends on what you want to use it for, and "I want to play a piano" leaves a lot to decide.

At this point, at the low end I'd pick a Casio PX120 if I were looking for inexpensive & piano-like. But my parents just upgraded to something from Yamaha, so we got their old electronic piano as a (welcome!) hand-me-down.

I figure that 88 keys and a piano-like feel is a minimum; your requirements may differ. Obviously there is value added farther up the scale, but budget matters too.

Oh, and Hi. :-)

uthrom December 25 2009, 15:09:55 UTC

Now for the follow-up:

I took advantage of the 15% black Friday discount coupon from Guitar Center to get a Casio PX-130 at a very reasonable price.

So far, it's been great. :)

- d.