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.

            It depends on the dictionary 🙂 Cambridge has the following definition:

            I'd say that kinda covers all 😃

            Oh and the American dictionary:

            Works for me!

              I don't mind how the instrument is called that you are playing, I only hope that you do get to play it often. And also that it gives you some joy. I have an acoustic grand and also a synth key digital piano. I like both and they get along splendidly. The one is very portable and the other one is clearly not. One is very loud, the other can bet turned very silently. I you prefer only to play on an acoustic and like to excel on that, then that is great. If you play on a 2-octave Casio and love it, that is also great. The other day I heard someone play on a short Casio and it was impressive. If a digital piano is what you love, that is also wonderful. However, if you prefer to try to replicate a acoustic piano by evolving the digital piano in the direction of hybrids, that's also cool. The digital piano can strive to match the acoustic piano, but it does not have to, it could also simply be a stand-alone musical instrument. Either way works. And then there people that intentionally mix piano sounds with strings and other instruments. That's me. That works as well. And some like to even add a little sustain electronically without having a foot pedal. That can work great in a band. And there are already plenty of names for all of these. Acoustic piano, digital piano, keyboard, hybrid, Midi-board with VST, etc.

              So to answer your original question ... yeah, a digital piano is also a piano, i.e., a digital one 😃 Sometimes I refer to it simply as keyboard or slab. A hybrid piano is also a piano, i.e., a hybrid one. But are digital pianos, hybrid pianos, etc. the same as an acoustic piano ... probably not, because there is no need to tune the digital piano, the way the sound is generated is just different and that is o.k. as well.

              So, whatever instrument it is that you like, play it and hopefully it makes your day brighter. Better yet, play and sing together with someone.

              I'll never own a grand piano so I'm thankful for all of the advances we've seen in actions and VST's. Love to check out a hybrid but probably better off not knowing what I'm missing. 🙂

              Sophia Oh and the American dictionary:

              I'm surprised that a dictionary has "I play piano" instead of "I play THE piano". 🤣