Buying a Piano

When I began piano lessons, my sweet grandpa blessed me with a beautiful baby grand piano and that has been the only piano I have owned...until a month ago. So basically up until 2 months ago I had absolutely no idea about pianos!!! Yes, yes, sad, I know. But when you are given a beautiful baby grand piano that keeps its' tune and sounds amazing for 18 years...uuuhh, who needs to know about pianos?!

Well, lame excuse for a piano teacher. But ever since I had to sell my piano (sniff sniff), I have learned a great deal about pianos!

First, ask yourself what type of piano student are you? Because you definitely don't need to go buy a $10,000 piano for a beginner who hasn't even touched a real piano. You want to start cheap. Honestly. No need for that Steinway that everyone thinks is the best piano ever made. Not yet at least. But also, if you are investing in your children and have plans to go far with piano, try to make room for an acoustic  upright piano vs. a keyboard.

Keyboards are great, light, easy to move, don't take up a lot of space...but they teach bad habits when it comes to technic! Be warned, my piano teacher used to comment on the many bad habits I had picked up from playing a keyboard all while I was playing scales for her. Just some food for thought about the keyboards. I own a keyboard and always will. I use it at church and write music with it on my computer. So it has it's pros and cons.

Acoustic Pianos: What I have found is that their are levels of pianos and they go along with your ability level! There are beginning pianos, intermediate pianos, and so on. I did my homework on pianos because I had to buy one and I needed to know what I was doing. Seriously I read way too much information that I was dreaming about different types of pianos. ha. So here is an easy guide that I found the most useful when it comes to buying pianos:

Questions to ask when buying a used piano:

1. How old is the piano?

2. Do all the keys work properly? (play every key for yourself)

3. Are there any sticky keys? (play every key twice for yourself...seriously, nothing more annoying than sticky keys!!!)

4. Has it always been stored inside under temperature controlled settings? (I looked at a piano that was stored around a smoker...not the best idea.)

5. Where was it purchased? (look for original owners)

Here is a short list of classified best to cheapest upright pianos:

GROUP #1Highest quality instruments. Truly the best of the best.Price Ranges: $15,000-and up !!!C. Bechstein  Sauter  Bosendorfer
Schulze PollmannSteinway & Sons

Group #2High performance pianos.Price Ranges: $7,500- $30,000. 
Schimmel ***** HaesslerSauterKnabeAlbert Weber
Group #3Upper Quality Consumer-Grade pianos.Price Ranges $3,500-12,000.Weber
Hallet, Davis & Co BostonJ. Strauss & SonYamaha (Japanese) 
Kawai (K5 , K6 , K8)

Group #4Consumer grade pianos. Price Ranges $2,400-7,000.Young Chang
Kawai (K2, K3, UST)Samick (Indonesian)Yamaha P, T and M seriesKawai (k15, 500, 600, 900)J. Becker 

You can google "piano reviews" to find more information. But watch out when a piano salesman is trying to sell you on a $6,000 Young Chang, when it's not worth that really. The group #4 pianos are easily found around $1000 on craigslist. You truly can find a great deal on a like new piano for way cheaper on craigslist than buying a used piano in a piano store. Email me if you have any questions!