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My piano at home (August Hoffman) is ca 67,5 cm up to the keys. It feels extremely low. Another piano I play is ca 68 cm up to the keys.
Why would anyone want to play a too low piano?
I have mentioned it to people but they just tell me to get a lower chair/stool. My piano stool is ca 43 cm high. How low should a piano stool be.
Do I need to get a new piano? Did a buy a model for  very short people?

I asked my teacher about this but he only said that I sit too high. He could not tell much about pianos other than that they can feel very different.

I agree that it seems to be a bit low. Instead of getting a lower stool I would rather advise to build a little platform that you can put underneath the piano. A lot of work though, but if you plan to play on this piano for many more years to come, it may be worth it.

How high should it be?
Did a buy a children's piano?
The people who sold it never said anything about it. I think they just wanted to take my money.

That is a bit low, I think most pianos are in the range 71-73cm (28-29in). It sounds like the piano is new to you, is it possible they put the wrong casters on it, or worse maybe forgot to put the casters on?

I agree with the idea of building some kind of platform or using stable blocks of wood, not too unsightly, to raise the piano up some. I also like the idea of adding casters to the bottom of the piano, and I can attest to the fact that it works to raise the piano.

One of my old uprights had a broken castor and instead of replacing the broken castor, that was specific to the piano, I removed all the old castors and replaced them with a set of heavy duty, generic castors that I had from a previous project and I didn't use them. It raised the piano up high enough that I had to build some extenders for the bench I used for that piano.

It sounds like adding the generic castors would likely be the better of the two ideas, and you could still move the piano around a bit if needed, verses the platform.

As for proper height of the piano, in my view, that depends entirely on your most comfortable playing position and your forearms. I like for my hands and forearms to be as level as possible with the keyboard.

Good luck!

Rick

I don't see a castor.
How much higher will a castor make the piano?
I have been told that castors do not make the piano much higher and if it does the pedals will be too high.
Do we have atandard height for the pedals?
But I am still sure that some pianos are low because they made them for short people. Is this true? It cannot just be low due to the fact that it is lacking castors. Will castors make a piano 2 cm higher? If so, how do we make the pedals not becoming too high?

Bwt, my piano is an upright.

My upright is on 41 mm blocks just enough to raise its castors off the floor. If you put some felt pads (such as punchings) between the blocks and the underside of the piano it will likely improve the bass, add clarity across the board, and increase sustain a bit.

The castors on my upright raise it approx 4.5cm above the floor - but you can get smaller and (much) larger castors.

How high are you pedals above the floor at the moment? (That will probably identify whether your piano is missing its castors or was designed not to have them). But if you raise the piano with castors or other devices the pedals will indeed be higher, if that is too high for you might put a block on the floor to raise your heels when playing.

The simplest of all might be to saw a bit off the legs of your stool :-)

Not all uprights have castors, but the uprights I've seen have some kind of foot so the piano is supported at the 4 corners as opposed to just having the wooden frame on the floor.
I was asking if your piano was designed for castors and the movers left them off for some reason. I'm not suggesting you add them if it wasn't designed for them.

I have not heard of a piano made for short people, generally people raise their bench if they are short.

These are good questions. However, if the casters raise the piano enough to make the pedals too high, the wood platform would do the same. In this case, I would try the wood blocks/platform first, as that can be easily adjusted with shims or different sizes of wood blocks. The castors would be more permanent, unless you tried different size castor wheels.

It could be a "trial and error" scenario until you find the right combination and the right height for you, and the pedals. But I would think the height and fit of the keyboard to your hands and forearms would be more important than pedal height, but that can rectified too, with another board or thick rug.

Good luck!

Rick

I have a too high piano problem.

1859 Steinway square, squares from that era were considerably higher than moderns.

To make things worse, the new totally awesome casters I selected raises the keys even higher.

Bought a very nice padded adjustable bench, specific model probably goes higher than any other adjustable, but *still* sits a bit too high.

So, doing exactly what others have said, making a very custom wooden platform for the bench.

When done, platform will be finished in tough West black hi gloss scuff resistant epoxy.

Piano in question... ps, it plays 104 notes, long story.

Maki Namekawa has the ultimate answer playing Philip Glass on a 280VC in the Bosendorfer 230VC thread - watch carefully.

PS the height of the keys on my Schiedmayer is 76cm. I think the height of the piano governs the position of the keys in some way.

I don't know really but I don't think it was designed for castors.

Do I need a professional who ads castors or can I do it myself?
I also hear a strange sound when I use the damper pedal. It is likr something inside is bad. Wouldnt it be easier to buy a new piano?

My piano came without castors as they had been broken/lost/removed over the years it had been passed on throgh the original owner's family.

A few tips from experience:

1. A carpenter friend "helped" me fit the castors. It involved laying the piano on its back, tools I didn't have, and knowing what you are doing.
2. When I wanted to acoustically isolate the piano from the floor the castors were a nuisance. The blocks of wood had to be taller.
3. It was easy to try the blocks once I had figured out how to lift each side of the piano. it's in a confined space which yours may not be.
4. The effects of acoustic isolation exceeded my expectations, might be a bonus for you.
5. Try different thicknesses to see what's best for you. Look and ye shall find, mine came from a skip on a nearby building site.
6. Sticking with blocks? Have some made. Mine came from a workshop with an eBay shop: custom order, fine grained oak, delivered in 2 days.
7. Going with castors? You'll know what height they need to be.

Adding castors is really not easy as you have to lift the piano safely while fitting them so that would be best left to the professionals. However a much easier solution that you can easily DIY is just to shorten the legs of your bench - or buy a very low piano bench.

Buying a new piano isn't exactly easy and is much more expensive of course. But if you have the money and want a better piano that is generally encouraged here :-), but not something to do unless you actually want a different piano.

That reminds me of a member who sold a Steingraeber 138 because the keys were too high.

This is where I could say that I sold my UX3 because the keys were too low - I have long legs and the difficulty was fitting my knees under the piano so a lower bench wouldn't have helped me. However, to spoil the story a bit, that wasn't really the reason we made the change.

I have this same problem, only solution is to put something under piano castors and play without shoes (yes, even when performing

where can I find photos of pianos with wooden platforms?