When someone posts something that I don't agree with, I don't have to reply and let the world know that I disagree. I may reply if I think I can write something helpful that would be well received. Otherwise, I do not engage.

Sometimes when I get angry I write an email or a text or a post... but I never send it. In my experience communicating electronically while angry just makes whatever I'm angry about worse.

@Quitter I'm sorry if anything I have written on this forum comes across as elitist. As far as I'm concerned, if you are having fun playing the piano you are doing it right! The fun is the whole point, not the genre, technique, piano type, or virtual piano.

Let's keep PianoTell friendly and fun!

    Also: if someone insults or attacks me on a forum, I can choose not to respond, or to respond with kindness instead of counter attacking. If someone is trying to pick a fight on this forum and no one fights back, the fight will not get very far.

    In the not so distant future, digital pianos will very likely be able to not only provide a better action, but also better sound than acoustic ones. Like the Turing test, a professional pianist, trained his whole life with acoustic pianos that is, he is presented with the aforementioned key-full music box. When asked the question "Is it a real piano", his answer is a vehemently "Yes!". Then almost immediately the power goes out.

    Using the words of a fellow neuroscientist: Reality is just a hallucination that we all agree on (A. Seth). So let's just replace the "better" from my initial paragraph, with "unique" and keep enjoying all instruments.

    rogerch When someone posts something that I don't agree with, I don't have to reply and let the world know that I disagree.

    Most of the time I'm the same, but I think it's important not to allow anyone to use accusations of snobbery or elitism to shut down other people, or to dismiss their opinions.

      Random story time:

      "It's delicious, tender meat," said the father, sharpening his axe.
      "It's the root cause of my omelette," said the mother, grabbing her frying pan.
      "It's my beloved pet", said the child, gently stroking its soft feathers.
      "You're all dead wrong," said the scientist, frowning disapprovingly. "It's a Gallus gallus domesticus and don't you forget to capitalize the first G!"
      "Huh?" said the family, "are you talking about our chicken here?"

      I'm glad we're all friends again 😃 Please let this forum be different from other places... pretty please?

        It's all nonsense. If you can tune it, then it's a piano, because a nice tuning can fundamentally change the character of an instrument. And if you can voice it and thus change the character of the instrument, then it's a real piano. And if it has an una corda pedal, then using it gradually changes the character of the instrument.

        If your instrument can't provide any of these features, then it's not a piano.

        Does that mean we are going to get another round of this fight? 😂

          Sophia Random story time:

          "It's delicious, tender meat," said the father, sharpening his axe.
          "It's the root cause of my omelette," said the mother, grabbing her frying pan.
          "It's my beloved pet", said the child, gently stroking its soft feathers.
          "You're all dead wrong," said the scientist, frowning disapprovingly. "It's a Gallus gallus domesticus and don't you forget to capitalize the first G!"
          "Huh?" said the family, "are you talking about our chicken here?"

          I like your story!

            Pallas
            Wait.. by kittens are you referring to you and Josephine?
            And why would you need a pedicure for mud wrestling?
            Btw thanks for lightening the mood of this discussion. Nothing like a pillow fight / mud-wresting match between my two favorite freshly pedicured kittens.
            Edit: ok now that the mood has been restored we can resume piano talk.
            Double edit: oh no! I thought the fight was between you and Josephine, but it was against @Sophia ! Sorry for the confusion! But let's include Josephine. She's already impeccably pedicured.

                Josephine that is cool!

                One of the music theory books was introducing triads with snowmen.
                These two can be V and I. OK that is cheesy so I will stop talking 🙂

                  There's Acoustic Piano and Digital Piano. Both are instruments used to make music. Buy whichever one you like, or can afford, or have space for, and enjoy it. I've owned a few of each type, pros and cons, but presently own a digital piano. It does what I want it to. Does anyone who owns one, or the other, or both, really care what anyone else thinks? When I sit down to play, I don't even think about what it is. I think about what I want to play.

                  How 'bout we all call this, so called, debate, (and a useless one at that), done.

                  Rubens But let's include Josephine

                  Oh I'm totally willing to give up my mud wrestler position to Josephine. I'm generous like that!

                      Sophia

                      That's so sweet of you! 🙂
                      I have never tried mud wrestling before, so I think I should definitely be able to do that.

                        Pedicures, kittens, pillow fights, mud wrestling, and now we're adding peepee to the mix. You ladies are getting me dizzy. Don't stop.

                        Ok, now we totally need to rename this forum... "Welcome to iano Tell. Notice there is no P in it. Let's keep it that way!"

                        I'm going to start by saying it's unfortunate that we, as a society, seem incapable of having a civil debate about anything without it devolving into an argument, replete with name-calling and insults. Internet forums seem to have made things worse.

                        The OP's original question "A question that one might ask or eventually ask is - is a digital piano a piano?"
                        COULD have the potential for an interesting debate, in that I believe the underlying premise is attempting to define "What is a piano?".

                        Without attempting to be too exhaustive, I define a piano as what I believe "most" people visualize when they think of a piano: A musical instrument that produces sound by hammers striking metal strings of different lengths, those strings being strung on a harp, with the hammers being actuated by a set of "keys". The strings are capable of being dampened or un-dampened to control sustain. It can be played softly, loudly, and anywhere in-between. The shape of the piano doesn't matter; grand, upright, box, spinet, etc.

                        Based on "my" definition of what a piano is, I'm going to say "No, a digital piano is not a piano, regardless of the fact that "piano" is in the name".

                        I own two digital pianos, along with some VST's, that I enjoy immensely. I would love to own another acoustic piano (notice I'm intentionally leaving out the word "real" here). However, for me an acoustic piano comes with too many tradeoffs in my situation (living arrangements, amount of maintenance required, cost of acquisition, etc.).

                        • keff replied to this.

                          BKN1964 A musical instrument that produces sound by hammers striking metal strings...

                          This is the current definition of piano in an English dictionary. The dictionaries I have looked at do not mention digital pianos. English is always evolving and I am sure that in the not too distant future digital piano will appear under the piano definition. When I looked for organ in one of the dictionaries it did include electronic organ so I concluded this set the precedent.