How many pianos / keyboards do you practice on regularly?

TC3 · 2025-07-23T18:35:03+00:00

Just out of curiosity spurred by comments in the "recital crash" thread. How many pianos / keyboards to you practice on regularly (however you want to defin...

thepianoplayer416

Mostly Yamaha P-125. I'd made recordings on a Yamaha C3 baby grand at the conservatory where my lessons are held. And when I'm travelling, I use Piano de Voyage with semi-weighted keys put together in 4 pieces.

Jane

1 ^ ?

One (Yamaha N3 hybrid).
But a variety of VSTs.

I had an experience 4 or 5 years ago when I went to a guy's house to see whether he'd be a good fit as a teacher for me.
I played for an hour on his Kawai with the lid down.
The richness of harmonics was so different from the rather pure tone I was used to from my N3 with some rather high-pitched Sony headphones, that sometimes I was playing the right keys but dissonance (particularly in C# minor) threw me off and I thought I was completely losing it.

Never saw him again, but after that I dedicated a computer to my piano and bought a number of VSTs.
While my preference from the sound standpoint is usually the Modern D or occasionally Ivory 3, I sometimes force myself to spend a day with Pianoteq or one of the VSL pianos... even ones I don't particularly like... just so I don't get too comfortable.

Of course, that's not as good as really playing on different actions and feels, but at least it forces a bit of inconsistency.

TC3

Jane Very good observations! I hadn't thought of it, but different sounds on the very same DP can alter my perception of the action. Touch sensitivity settings can also be another way to mix things up. Thanks!

twocats

TheBoringPianist Anecdotally, there's something about the shape or layout of Steinway keys that throws off my sense of where things are on the keyboard — like, I'll look down and be like "What are these weird black and white patterns? Where am I?"

Huh, interesting! I get that feeling playing the 9 foot Steinway for one of the casual playing events, but I always assumed it was because of the bright lights overhead and the piano being a bit clapped out, it's all very unnerving. I haven't experienced it with other Steinways!

ShiroKuro

TheBoringPianist My piano teacher has two Steinways in his earthquake/fire/tripping hazard of a home,

🤣🤣 this description made me laugh! I imagine that, with the challenges of fitting two pianos into a space, it’s no his fault but still! 😃

Anecdotally, there's something about the shape or layout of Steinway keys that throws off my sense of where things are on the keyboard — like, I'll look down and be like "What are these weird black and white patterns? Where am I?" —

This is so interesting because when I was practicing in the rental studio during my trip to Japan, I found the astrinway keyboard to be some how unfamiliar or discombobulating as well. I’ve played on various Steinways before, but mostly heave been old and not super well maintained, so whatever discombobulation I felt, I probably attributed it to the tuning condition or other issues. (Like the S&S we use when we have piano recitals at the music school I attend, that one is on a piano dolly which makes it wobble when you play, god I hate that).

Anyway, the rental studio Steinway was quite well-maintained, with no other issues. But I remember thinking that the keyboard look and feel, and the action/touch, seemed so different from my Yamaha C2, I was really surprised by that.

ShiroKuro

Back to @TC3 ’s original question… I have a very nice, meticulously well-maintained Yamaha C2 at home. One of the reason I bought this piano was because I absolutely loved the action, so I feel very spoiled to have such a nice instrument.

The music school I go to has a billion piano rooms (I don’t actually know how many, maybe 10?). There are at least two grands and then the rest are all uprights. With my previous piano teacher, for whatever reason, they moved him around all the time so sometimes we’d be in a different room each week. Almost all of their pianos are in terrible condition 😂 so I suppose you could say that is good practice for adjusting to terrible pianos. 😅

With my current teacher, she uses the same room, I think she’s been at the school longer and that piano room seems to be almost like her dedicated room (maybe that’s part of the reason why my previous teacher left, bc they didn’t give him that kind of set up there).

Anyway, so I play a fair amount of different pianos at the music school. Then there’s our recital piano, which is a very hoo-hum S&S, which, as I said above, is on a piano dolly that makes it very wobbly… then there was the rental studio Steinway… and the Yamaha upright public piano I played at the airport in Japan… and a totally beat up M&H on campus I sometimes play…

Looking backward, before the pandemic, the experience when I was piano shopping for my current piano was a 6-ish month time span of driving all over the place, visiting piano dealers and private sellers, playing all the grand pianos I could find. That was a very interesting experience, which included Petrofs, Feurichs, S&S, Kawai, Yamaha, Boston, Seiler, M&H… but I’ve still never played an a Estonia or Bosie…

Also pre pandemic, I used to attend regular music parties at the home of someone who owned a (very sad) Francis Bacon baby grand, this was also a rickety piano. And in grad school I used to play the beat up pianos in the campus practice rooms… and then there was the many years I was living in Japan, working as a traveling English teacher, when I semi-regularly played the different pianos at the schools I visited, mostly a motley crew of Yamahas and Kawais, uprights and grands…

I guess maybe that’s a lot…

Given all the differnt pianos I’ve played over the years, I guess I don’t have much excuse for freaking out whenever I play an unfamiliar recital piano… 😅

iternabe

I started with a Roland FP-30X for one year, then bought a Kawai MP11SE which I now practice on daily for the past 6 months. The Roland is collecting dust. Maybe I should use it from time to time? What's stopping me is less about the action (although MP11SE is nicer), but the built-in sound being so inferior to Pianoteq.

Jane

iternabe What's stopping me is less about the action (although MP11SE is nicer), but the built-in sound being so inferior to Pianoteq

I'm not familiar with the Roland, but just googled and see that it supports MIDI via USB. Is there any reason you couldn't also use Pianoteq with the Roland?

iternabe

Jane Thank you for looking into it! And I apologize for not being clear in my previous post. Yes, the Roland FP-30X works with Pianoteq just fine. But now, my Kawai MP11SE is hooked up to my computer that runs Pianoteq. The Roland has been moved to another room and sits there by itself. I suppose I could load Pianoteq on my iPad (the license allows installation on 3 devices) and hook it up to the Roland and make it work, too.

keystring

I have access to one piano - my own - so that's what I play.

pseudonym58

@TheBoringPianist Funny you should say that. I had the distinct impression on my mother's Steinway A that the keys were further apart and it threw me a bit. However I think that that's an optical illusion; I think the keytops were just the slightest bit narrower so as to make it appear that the notes were further apart.
@ShiroKuro The Yamaha C2 I chose also has a very pleasing action with seemingly a little more "resistance" (I prefer that). Some technicians refer to that as a stiffer action, I think. I also chose this particular instrument because of its seemingly darker, less bright tone.

I've tried to get used to sizing other pianos up very quickly, at least in terms of the keyboard's velocity (dynamic) sensitivity. I can't take for granted that I'm going to have a lot of practice time, so I try to play things where I have to bring out certain voices over others. It's something that my fingers have to get used to very quickly, because I can't really think about it while I'm playing so much.

ShiroKuro

pseudonym58 Some technicians refer to that as a stiffer action,

interesting! I wouldn't call my piano's action stiff.... It is very responsive. But also not mushy, but rather, you know you're playing it, it has its own backbone.... maybe 🙂
It's been a long time since I tried to describe action feel!!

pseudonym58 I've tried to get used to sizing other pianos up very quickly,

Yep, this is the challenge for me! If I have time, I can get used to any piano. But in a recital situation, there's no time!