I would never recommend a specific make or model of piano to anyone, but I will tell you what to think about when shopping for one…
Your Musical Style
Choice of instrument largely depends on what style of music you enjoy playing.
A piano that sounds/feels/plays great for blues, boogie woogie, and ragtime may not have enough oomph for rock or the clarity and playability required for classical music.
Also note that every acoustic piano, even a $200,000 Steinway Concert Grand, has only one sound. Electronic pianos typically have dozens and even hundreds of keyboard sounds to choose from, which give you lots of flexibility to choose a sound that suits the music you are playing.
Sound Quality
First and foremost, you must enjoy the way the piano sounds.
If the sound of the instrument does not meet your expectations, it does not matter what other features it may have. You will be forever frustrated with both the instrument and your music-making.
Things to consider…
- Clarity and depth of the low notes. Many pianos (even very expensive instruments) can sound “muddy” in the low register.
- Clarity and brightness of the high notes. They should sound crisp and clear, not brittle (like breaking glass).
- Smoothness of the transition across all registers. Play a chromatic scale over the entire keyboard to see if there are any “breaks” in the timbre. On an acoustic instrument this is caused by changes in the weight, length, and number of strings. On an electronic instrument, this is caused by poor synthesis or poor sampling.
- Natural sounding sustain. Play a long, sustained chord without the sustain pedal in various registers at different volumes and allow the sound to fade out. Does it sound and feel natural, with a pleasing resonance and decay?
- Sympathetic resonance. Play various arpeggios with the sustain pedal and listen. Is the sound rich and multi-dimensional?
“Size” of the Sound
A concert grand (and even some uprights) sound and feel spacious and three-dimensional because there is a huge sound board that is vibrating in time and space.
A spinet can sound a feel quite “small” and one dimensional by comparison.
The “size” and spaciousness of an electronic instrument all depends on the amplification and speaker system. A good sound system using multiple speakers can produce a more spacious sound and feel than an acoustic piano.
Volume
Some concert grands have enormous sounds that can overwhelm a room, while some spinets have tiny sounds that can be lost in a room.
Neither type has a volume control knob.
The volume of an electronic piano is infinitely adjustable. You can even use headphones, allowing you to play without disturbing the neighbors or those in your household who would rather watch TV.
Dynamic Range
Dynamic range is the difference between the softest notes and loudest notes.
A good concert grand has a wide dynamic range, while most spinets have very little.
Cheap electronic instruments have zero velocity sensitivity and therefore no dynamic range, but professional electronic pianos have exceptional dynamic range, often far beyond that of expensive acoustic instruments.
When shopping around, make sure to play each piano at its extremes of loudness and softness.
The Action
Much of the size, weight and cost of a piano is driven by the quality of the action.
A weighted action with velocity-sensitivity is absolutely essential if you want to play like an artist.
A wide variety of actions are available — from extremely light to extremely heavy. Heavier actions provide more inertial feedback than lighter actions, but tend to play slower.
The actions of good electronic pianos can be superior to (and more consistent than) the actions of very expensive acoustic pianos. And because the action on most electronic pianos are mechanically much simpler, they are less susceptible to clicks, squeaks, and stuck keys than an acoustic piano.
Note: The weather can have a huge impact on the action of a mechanical piano, made mostly of wood that expands/contracts with changes in humidity. Also, pay special attention to how the keys feel as you play along the entire length of the key. Cheap actions become almost unplayable as you play towards the plate where the name of the piano is stamped.
Tuning
Electric pianos never go out of tune!
A mechanical piano routinely goes out of tune with time, use, and changes in humidity.
Keeping a mechanical piano in tune can be frustrating (who wants to play an out-of-tune instrument?), expensive ($100 or more per tuning, several times per year), and time consuming (2 or more hours per tuning, several times per year).
Remember: An electronic piano never goes out of tune, ever. This is a huge deal!
Size & Weight
Even the lightest spinet is quite a beast.
And moving an acoustic piano is a delicate matter that should done by professional movers, not by a gang of your buddies.
Electronic pianos are much smaller, lighter, and infinitely easier to move… both within your home and between locations.
Appearance
Whether or not your piano will be a place for vases and family photographs, you would still like it to look nice and to suit your own taste.
Other Features
In the age of microelectronics and software, electronic pianos can have many desirable features built-in: volume control, headphone jack, transpose button, recorder, metronome, MIDI capability, audio outputs for recording or playing through a sound system, and lots of voices (organs, electric pianos, harpsichords, strings, synthesizers, drums, etc).
An acoustic piano has none of these features.
Maintenance
Reliability and complexity are incompatible with each other.
Acoustic pianos are far more complicated than electronic pianos.
Besides requiring frequent and expensive tuning, acoustic pianos occasionally require other maintenance: 1) “Voicing” of the hammers (softening the felt by hand as it becomes hardened over time), 2) replacement of strings as they unwind or break under stress, and 3) the elimination of squeaks, clicks, and stuck keys as the action warps and swells.
Electronic pianos require ZERO maintenance. Again, this is a huge deal!
Consistency
In the acoustic piano world, there are “good” pianos and “bad” pianos of the exact same make and model.
Even if you have the money to afford the initial investment in a concert grand (several tens of thousands of dollars or more), the large and humidity-controlled space to house it, and the hundreds of dollars per year to maintain it, you may still be disappointed.
Each serial number of a given make/model of an electronic piano is identical. There are no “good” ones and “bad” ones to worry about.
Cost
Don’t assume that there is a strong correlation between cost and quality.
You can choose from several makes/models of good, zero maintenance, professional-quality electronic pianos (with many features) between $1000 and $2500.
You can expect to pay $20,000 or more for a high-maintenance acoustic piano of comparable sound quality and playability.
By the way, never pay the list price. Don’t even pay the discount or sale price. Whether you are in a real store or buying on-line, always ask for the real price. Always.
Summary
Take your time to shop around.
Check magazine and on-line product reviews. Give a fair consideration to all the factors discussed above: sound quality, volume, dynamic range, tuning, maintenance, playability, portability, functionality, and cost.
And realize that no single instrument will satisfy everything that you are looking for. There will always be some compromise.
That said, prioritize those factors that are most important to your lifestyle, budget, and the kinds of music that you want to make.
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