Post by Michael JoelOn Thu, 09 Feb 2012 07:22:30 -0500, Jean-David Beyer
Post by Jean-David BeyerTrouble is some schools (not Conservatories of music) teach piano and
other musical instruments because parents insist on it, or because
school boards want to. Like they teach computers. Price is EVERYTHING.
And a $700 digital, like my Yamaha P-85 has a keyboard that looks like a
piano keyboard, feels pretty much like a piano keyboard (I have played
crappy real pianos that feel worse). sounds a lot like a piano in most
respects (since the sounds are recorded from a real piano).
...SNIP...
Post by Jean-David BeyerNow a real music school would probably not put up with a P-85 (or
whatever the current version of that is), but for most schools, it would
be difficult for them to justify the higher price of a real piano.
Actually, when you consider the fact that a $700 price will in 3 years
(maybe that long) will be worth more like $100. Then figure an older
upright could be picked up (many times for free) and then $700 to
$1000 or so put in to fix it up (no it won't rebuild it but it will
get it in good shape) and that this will last years and years with
almost no depreciation (depreciation takes place mostly in the first
few years - so an older piano is not going to have much) - there is an
investment, not just a cost.
I started learning to play piano at a local "conservatory" near me. It
had two spinit pianos of dubious ancestry. They probably got them for
free. My P-85 feels more like a real piano than those two do. It feels
pretty much like the one my piano teacher has. One of these.
http://bluthnerpiano.com/bspecs.html
Now her piano is better than my P-85 in every way. But it does give me
a standard by which I can judge the ones I usually come in contact with.
My Quaker meeting got a free upright piano. It was hopeless. One of our
members rebuilt the thing; fixed broken mechanism, re-did the felt on
the hammers, etc. He could not really get it properly tuned, not because
he did not know how, but because the tuning pegs were just too loose to
hold the tension. Tuning it flat helped a tiny bit, but that just would
not do. I doubt there is any point to trying to restore that one. It
would not make sense anyway, because the building has no air
conditioning, and we heat it to 43F when the building is unoccupied, and
to 65F when there are people there. I doubt a real piano could put up
with that for very long.
Post by Michael JoelOne high school up here picked up a number of pianos for free
(donated). 6' 6" (haven't measured it but it is close to that or
slightly larger) Kohler & Campbell grand, a Yamaha grand (smaller),
and a Yamaha upright.
Digitals are recorded off a piano, true, but what is the sample? It is
a part of the note then the digital loops it. No sympathetic resonance
of other strings (not just when the damper is off), or of the case, or
such.
I am not sure about there being a digital loop. They recorded each note
at 4 different loudnesses, and notice how fast the key goes down and
they use that to decide which loudness, or combination of adjacent
loudnesses to use to make the sound. I believe the better Yamaha digital
pianos do a better job and may even do some sympathetic resonances. But
those are $3000 and up, not $700. They also make real pianos that are
even more.
Post by Michael JoelI have a feeling those pianos you say felt worse than your digital
were in desperate need of regulation. Once regulated I doubt you would
have felt they were so terrible.
I becha you could not have made those pianos work well. Certainly not
the one in the Quaker meeting house.
Post by Michael JoelIf you don't like something about a digital - you most likely are
stuck with it. A piano can be changed to adjust to the player.
Then you have the "but I save because I don't have a tuner come out
and tune it every year" type of stuff. Do you save? One person called
us - they had sold their piano and had a digital (you know the ones
with the shrunk fake piano case) - problem is, it was messing up and a
note (somewhere near middle C) would "BOoooong" off when they got near
it. We don't do digital work, but they said the person that did come
out didn't fix it but did cost hundreds of dollars. They now wish to
find a piano to replace the digital. If it had been a piano (with some
simular problem) we probably could have fixed it free while tuning it.
Thanks for taking the time to read it,
Mike
I certainly do not claim that a digital piano is superior to a real one,
except in a couple of ways. It is certainly inferior musically. For me,
a student, it is better because it fits in my living room, where a real
piano, even a 6' one would not. Tuning it would not be a big problem. I
used to tune my clavichord, which I admit is much easier than a piano
(only one string per note, and only 54 of them). On the other hand, it
needed tuning quite often. I would not presume to tune a real piano
myself, though most recently, I tuned two notes on my 37-note toy piano.
That takes only a good ear and a Dremel tool with a small grinding
wheel. ;-) (I am not kidding.) If you are a professional piano tuner, I
doubt you would like a toy piano -- they are never tuned just right, and
their harmonic development is rather different from a real piano. Here
is a friend of mine playing a toy piano. She is a much better pianist
than I will ever be.
--
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