All About Pianos

The piano is widely recognised as one of the pre-eminent disciplines in music.  As hundreds of studies have now shown, learning the piano improves memory, concentration, emotional intelligence and cognitive functioning.  It also enhances mathematical skills and foreign language acquisition.

The piano boasts the most extensive solo repertoire and is also widely in demand to accompany almost every other instrument.  To my mind it is the queen of all instruments!

It is essential that students have a piano at home to facilitate daily practice. 

Pianos should be tuned at least once a year, twice a year for a new piano which is still settling in.  Your child’s aural development can be permanently affected if they are practising on an out of tune instrument.

In most cases, grandma’s old piano is not going to be of a reasonable standard for your child to make good musical progress. Similarly, ‘free to a good home’ instruments sometimes have attractive cases but are not worth the money you would have to spend to bring them up to scratch.  Be aware that some tuners will not tune a very poor instrument as ultimately it is a waste of your money.

It is appreciated that a quality piano is a big investment for a family.  Therefore, many families elect to start with a full-size (88 keys) electric keyboard with weighted keys and pedals.  On average, this will be okay for the first two years of lessons.  If you purchase a top of the range electric piano e.g. Clavinova, it will be okay until they have passed their grade 3 exam.  After that a piano should be purchased.

A keyboard is not a piano in the same way that a wooden fence paling is not a cricket bat!  Whilst they have some things in common, you would not expect the same degree of skill development would be attained using a fence paling.  When children do not transition onto an acoustic piano, musicality does not develop well and many technical problems develop due to faulty training of fine motor skills.  No matter what the sales person tells you, fully- weighted keys are very different in feel and response to real piano keys. 

Please seek my advice before buying a piano to avoid costly mistakes! Piano Tuner and Technician Ben Taylor of heirloompianos.com.au can also advise you. You can also book online for him to tune your piano or phone 61403209.