Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum Thinking of getting an upright for starters

Not an expensive piano, I could use this for maybe 5 years or so.

Now a few questions to ask.

1. How often do Pianos need tuning? Either uprights or baby/above baby grands.

2. Does tuning price vary between piano model or how much tuning it needs?

3. What is the life expectancy of an upright or grand? As in new ofcourse and not bought used, before tuning will no longer be feasible?

4. Misc question but how many pianists end up playing on a concert of some type? Do they get paid for it or they just do it for the love of the game? I presume few make it to play at concerts.
I ofcourse have no interest in playing at concerts, not now not ever, I will be satisfied just having a youtube audience.

Yeah, I know I came a bit brash in this community a few days ago, so for anyone who I've hurt with previous posts I offer my sincere apologies, I hope I can get along well here.

Hopefully some day I'll have something to show XD

Hi LavaWave, I'll answer a few of those questions...

The general consensus is that pianos ( all kinds ) should be tuned once a year as a minimum. Some people tune twice annually for different reasons. For example I do two tunings yearly because my piano isn't in the most stable environment ( dry winters/humid summers ). Without a system installed to control the humidity I will likely continue this way...

Other factors can contribute to how often a piano gets tuned, sensitivity of the pianist, quality of the build, environment etc.

A new out-of-the-box piano will require several tunings over it's first couple years to stabilize it. Often theses extra tunings are included in the purchase agreement from the dealer.

If you purchase a secondhand piano that has been neglected and requires a pitch raise, that will cost much more than a regular tuning...
I believe grands are a little more expensive to tune then uprights, but I'm not sure. Brands shouldn't matter.

Not sure what you're asking about life expectancy...pianos last many many decades if cared for properly. Find a Tech with a great reputation, develop a good relationship with them, and let them advise you on what your piano needs to be at its best.

In this case, I would recommend you a digital piano. Always in tune, not as sensitive to warmth and humidity, and after five years, you'll probably know what you will want next.

I have a different experience than Suzy

I have found the tunings for grand and upright. pianos to be equivalent in price. Once you get a piano you will need to check with the technician about what they charge

Yes, if you buy a new piano it will need to be tuned frequently in the first year or so. Generally about four times in the first year is recommended. I have not seen dealers pay for more than one or two tunings with a new piano, and the remainder will need to be your responsibility. You will need to check when you find a piano that you would like to buy and make sure it’s written into the contract.

used Piano from a private seller: the seller will not pay for tunings once a piano is moved to your house, and generally moving costs and arrangements will be your responsibility.

I know that you really do not want to get a digital piano but I would still recommend it. There will be no basic cost after you buy it and you do have room for it now

True, presuming I have enough cash in bank I would buy something that is 130k or less, in the next 7 years or so.

How would skills transfer from playing digital to acoustic?

Sorry for the spam since I couldn't edit the last post for some reason I am but considering that idea, yeah, you may be right, now my question is how it my skill would transfer for an acoustic one should I play one such.

LavaWave, please look at the PianoBuyer.com website, which has a lot of excellent articles for people thinking of purchasing a piano.
My understanding is that you have never played piano. In this circumstance, I agree with dogperson and Animisha that a digital piano (with weighted keys) is a good option for you. You can make excellent progress on a digital piano and learn what you need to learn. If you want something that looks nice, there are very nice looking ‘console style’ pianos available. They have the advantage of minimal maintenance and generally lower cost.

Regarding the possibility of one day switching to a very high end acoustic grand piano (this is how I interpret your post), you will be able to do this from a digital piano or from an acoustic upright. The feel and response of all pianos is individual, so there will definitely be an adjustment period, but this will exist between any 2 pianos and is not limited to adjusting to super high end, expensive pianos. Perhaps it will be a bit more of an adjustment from a digital, but if a digital piano makes more sense for you now, I think it is a fine choice.

If you do get an acoustic upright, others have mentioned the frequent tuning in the first year or two (if the piano is new). It will definitely need to be tuned within a month or so of receiving it, as the environment in your home is likely to be at least a bit different from its prior environment. Afterwards, the tuning stability will depend a lot on your local environment, especially how much the humidity varies. The usual recommendation is to have the piano tuned twice a year, but certainly at the very least yearly. Regarding price, technicians will charge a lot more if the piano needs a ‘pitch raise’ (this will be needed if the piano is badly out of tune) than a standard tuning.

An acoustic piano is built to last many decades (40-50 years is a number I’ve seen cited).

I think the vast majority of people who play piano will never play for money (and fewer still will play in big concert halls for large audiences). But there are still opportunities to perform/share music, if this is something you want to do. I recently played at my work place’s virtual holiday party, which was attended by a couple hundred people. When I was in college, I played occasionally for church services, and I definitely did student recitals. There are opportunities to play for others, if this is one of your goals.

Do you own a little house such that playing an acoustic will not offend your neighbors? If so, I’d say go with the acoustic.

I was never happy playing on a digital piano. I think it’s hard to control volume on an acoustic when coming from a digital piano because you’ll be used to having a volume control. Acoustic pianos don’t have a volume control, lol.

Besides that, I don’t like listening to piano through those cheap speakers they put in digital pianos. To be honest, I don’t feel pianos sound convincing on expensive speakers either.

My Yamaha DYUS5 has a real presence, that, to me, you only get from an acoustic piano.

As for tuning, it depends on humidity fluctuation. When brand new, I had mine tuned every three months. After a year, it has settled down and could probably go four months. Yes, that costs money, but I think it owning an acoustic is like being married, there are ups and downs. Some people probably get their pianos tuned once a year.

Hi Larry
he lives in a house with a sister and parents, there a digital will be very practical for someone with full-time employment. On one of his earlier posts, he included pictures of his current room; you might want to look at those.

1. If brand new, 2-4 times the first year. Once settled, 1-2 times per year for most homes, at the same time of year. Minimum, once per year if your piano is really stable, it doesn’t get played intensely, and the humidity environment is fairly stable indoors.

2. Price should not vary unless the piano requires a pitch correction due to not being tuned enough. I charge an extra $30 on top of my tuning rate to pitch-correct a piano that’s 10 cents or more away from 440.

3. Really hard question to answer, variables include initial quality, use, care, and environment. Also, what one’s perception of “worn out” varies widely from player to player. 50 years gets quoted as a number sometimes, if you have to distill it to a fairly useless and vague figure. I have seen 10 year old pianos that are done, and 70 year old ones that were more or less, okay.

4. Ask Rickster, as I think he’s the only one of us with a YouTube channel with videos that have been seen enough to reach the monetizing level!

Maybe his sister and parents wouldn’t mind listening to an acoustic piano. Practicing the piano can be a social event, a family event, as it was before digital pianos were invented, with their rather sad feature of being played through headphones.

My wife likes listening to me play on the acoustic. She was more annoyed by the silent clacking of keys than by listening to me play out loud.

130K, in what currency? That puts you in the realm of the elite. For someone who claims to be neither poor nor rich, that's a pretty lofty goal!

Regards,

Thanks for the suggestions everyone.

Yeah as I said before I'l get a digital first, one with weighted keys preferably since they would fare better when I might switch to an acoustic one in the next 7-9 years, hopefully I'l have more than enough cash in my bank account so I could buy a normal sized grand that is around 200 cm by then.

I don't have many neighbors near my house, it isn't secluded but I think playing around 5:00 til 7:00 will be fine, with the lid closed or half-open (in case of acoustic) with digital I would lower the volume or use headphones and my goal is just to make youtube videos, so far, remixing video game music and such (I know a lot of great video game ost's that would be fun to remix)

I read somewhere that carpets help in absorbing noise, so that could help.


Malta's currency is Euro, should I find that buying a grand is not feasible I would lower my standards but I'm talking years ahead, I'l save my money for the time being, I'm no big spender, quite frugal actually.

And no, I ain't Elite in any way, neither is my family or any person I personally know in this country, the rich people here are foreigners who come here either for vacation or retirement, Malta has nice weather which makes it popular for vacationing or retirement.

Maltese themselves only a select few are rich and own villas/yachts and whatever else, mostly they have to find work outside of this country if they want a job that has good wage, there aren't many jobs here that would make you wealthy here, while saving for something good is possible, it will often take ages, and that presumes that you are one of those rare individuals that has a well paying job such as a doctor, this place isn't like the US.

Are Shultz and Pollmann pianos available in that vicinity? They are I hear very nice pianos.

Well, planning to spend 130,000.00 euros, the equivalent of $148,000.00 US (approximately), on a piano hardly qualifies as being frugal, and for one not claiming to want to buy an expensive piano. But, as they say, it's your money to spend as you wish. I'm just trying to equate your claim of not being rich and the plan to spend that much money on what could only be classed as a luxury item.

Regards,

Hi Bruce
Since he does not play the piano, and like most young men does not really know what his family or work situation will be in ten years, these comments about a $140,000 piano are just fanciful musings. If he lives in the same house with the same allocated space, it seems impractical. Only time will tell, and there is no decision that needs to be made now. .. just a few dreams. Many of us had them when we were thirty.

Yeah, I,l probably aim lower in the future, I think I would settle for around 60k now that I'm thinking about it.

These are the 2 websites I found in my country so far

https://olimpusmusic.com/product-category/grand-pianos/

https://brincatpianos.com/our-pianos/grand-pianos/

Most of the list on olimpus music shows Yamaha that are affordable, then the Bosendorfer which is expensive.

Just came across this

https://m.facebook.com/KAWAI-Malta-202837598435374/

Kawai has a store here in Malta, maybe they may have something that is around 60k, a baby grand would do fine, so I'm not looking for the shigeru models, which I presume may cost as much as any other major normal sized grands.

If you look at the Olympius website, the majority of pianos are ‘available only by order’, which generally means you would need to purchase them without playing them first,


Would it be possible to shop in Italy?

I'm thinking maybe I could visit the shops, I think logically they would allow their customers to try-before-buy so yeah, I suppose buying something from shops outside of my country is possible online and have it shipped here from Italy or elsewhere, Italy is close to Malta so that's good but that's not in my cards right now.