[Rhodes22-list] Piano Stories

[Steve Alm]

Brad,

I use a Yamaha digital on my gig and I practice on a digital at home even
though I have an upright in the living room.  I like to be able to turn down
the volume late at night when the Mrs. is sleeping, or even go under the
headphones if I want it loud yet silent in the room.  I can also change the
sound and have it be an organ, strings or anything.  And they're portable,
less expensive and don't take up much room. That's the good news.

Obviously there's no tuning needed, but keys break, electrical contacts get
dirty, drinks get spilled and short out the circuits, and they have
touch-sensitivity pads that wear out so eventually you can't play from loud
to soft--only medium.  We put a lot of hard hours on the ones at work and
I'm on a first name basis with the guys at the repair shop.  The average
repair is about $175 for cleaning or broken keys.  Sometimes it's a lot
more.

You will never break a key on your Yamaha baby grand.  Nor will you ever
have any electrical problems or touch-sensitivity issues.  Being the
heavy-handed rocker that I am, I like to make those piano strings really
bark and the only thing I've ever broken on a real piano is a string or two.
Years ago I was playing a real grand on stage and was heavily rocking out on
some Jerry Lee Lewis stuff and at the end of the song I karate chopped the
last note down in the bass and snapped a string which came spitting out from
under the lid and dangled there right in front of the audience.  The crowd
went berserk.  It was one of my finest moments!

The overall sound quality of a real piano is superior.  The sounds that they
load into the digitals these days are quite good but then you introduce
extra variables such as amps, speakers, etc.  Many home models have built-in
speakers that almost never satisfy me.  At work, we use a big, professional
PA system with Crown amps, JBL speakers, Yamaha mixing board and
third-octave Eqs.  At home I play through a small but expensive Altec
Lansing speaker system.

Next, there's what's called the "action."  That's how the keys feel and
respond when you play and nothing beats the action of a real grand piano.
By the end of the week, my hands ache from playing on the digitals.  It's
sort of like the difference between jogging on the sidewalk or jogging on
the grass--not that I know much about jogging.  8-)

Finally, a real piano, especially a grand has an elegance to it that makes a
wonderful addition to any home in my opinion.  Imagine a digital piano with
wires and speakers and such sitting there on your new bamboo floor.  No
comparison!  Your friend Ron may love his Kawai, but maybe one of the
reasons is that he lives in Florida where the humidity tends to cause
problems for real pianos.  If it were me, I'd keep the grand.  I might have
to wait until I win the lottery, but I know I'll own one some day.

Slim


On 3/10/05 4:33 AM, "brad haslett" <flybrad at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Slim,
> 
> We bought the Yamaha for ourselves as a Christmas
> present a couple of years ago.  I started lessons with
> my sister as a kid and then took up the trombone.  My
> music interests ended when I started flying in high
> school.  Fan and I started lessons, she has stayed
> with it, I haven't.  She and the nanny both play, and
> we intend for Cora (3) to start soon.  A lot of the
> Chinese families here will go together together and
> gang up on the piano dealers for bulk purchases.
> (They do the same thing at the Honda and Toyoto
> dealers on cars).  Last week we attended a great
> concert performed by the Memphis Youth Symphony.
> Judging by the race of the performers you would think
> a third of Memphis was Asian.  A lot of these kids
> started studying music at three and four and traveled
> around the US and Europe during summers and school
> breaks for advanced instruction.  As good as the
> concert was, I kept thinking to myself, "maybe Cora
> will take up soccer, that much travel and instruction
> has got to be expensive!"
> 
> Over the years I've come "that close" to buying a
> piano several times but either didn't have the money
> or the room.  A co-worker of mine studied music at the
> University of Illinois before he joined the Navy and
> still plays piano semi-professionally.  He does a
> Sinatra routine that makes you believe "Old Blue Eyes"
> is back from the dead.  About fifteen years ago we
> partied several hours in the ex-pat district in Taipei
> and then wandered back to out hotel, the Hilton, late
> at night. The bar was pretty upscale and filled with
> businesspeople, and we were in our best airline pilot
> jeans and sneakers.  Ron walked up to the piano with a
> big cigar in his mouth, the piano player basically
> bolted with fear, then he sat down and put his cigar
> (unlit) on the piano and started playing.  At first I
> thought they had called security.  Then the bar
> started crowding around and clapping.  You had to be
> there.  Anyway, Ron moved from Memphis to Florida last
> year and didn't move his baby grand.  He purchased a
> Kawai digital grand for his new home and says it is
> the best piano he's ever owned.  I think if I had to
> make the piano purchase over, I'd go digital.  Those
> tunings add up.  What do you think?
> 
> Brad
> 
> 
> 
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