Surfacing from a conversation in someone else’s replies, advice many folks on Fedi might like (but I don’t want to swamp their mentions):
ADVICE ABOUT GETTING A PIANO
If you’re thinking about getting a •piano• (the acoustic instrument) and not an electric keyboard…
1/ #piano
Consult _The Piano Book_ by Larry Fine, often available at libraries. Doesn’t need to be the latest edition; the “piano blue book” part at the end goes out of date, but the general advice about selecting and owning a piano is timeless.
Consult it •before• you go shopping, and also before you think about exactly where you’re going to place a piano in your home.
It’s a good old-fashioned paper book, and IMO it’s still better and more comprehensive advice than anything you’ll find online. The rest of this thread is just frosting; that book is what you really need to consult.
EDIT: There is now an online form of The Piano Book: https://www.pianobuyer.com The way that site is designed I don’t find to be nearly as browsable as the book; it’s a maze of links without sequential navigation, and easy to miss sections! But it’s something.
2/ #piano
Beware of any and all “free” pianos, which often need so much work they are actually $-2000 pianos.
You can hire a piano technician to take a look at a piano and assess its condition. It’s a really good idea to do this. A piano that seems hopelessly broken might have a problem that can be fixed in half an hour; a piano that seems OK might have a serious problem that is beyond help.
A technician can tell the difference pretty quickly.
3/ #piano
Never, ever, ever, ever, ever attempt to move a piano yourself. Hire piano movers — not just movers, but •piano• movers. The potential damage to humans and houses is so much larger than the extra cost of hiring the right person for the job, there’s just no comparison.
I don’t care if you did it before and didn’t die. I don’t care if the movers seem really strong though. Don’t.
The Piano Book goes in depth about this with some (true!) horror stories. I’m just surfacing it because it’s such an easy mistake to make, and because “preventable safety hazard!” is one of my favorite genres.
4/ #piano
You should budget a couple hundred dollars / year for tuning & maintenance.
Acoustic pianos, even mediocre ones, have a life and a joy in them that even very high-end electric keyboards cannot match. You’re much more likely to be drawn to play an acoustic!
And no, “but it has weighted keys!” does not change this equation. It’s more than key weight; it’s about the incredible organic complexity of the internals of these instruments. An electric can •sound• a lot better than all but the fanciest and best-maintained acoustics, but the acoustics will so often still •feel• better. And feel beats sound.
BUT…
Getting an acoustic piano is more like adopting a pet than buying an appliance, so set expectations accordingly!
5/ #piano
And…
If all that is daunting, there’s no shame in getting an electric keyboard instead! They don’t need tuning, humidity swings won’t ruin them, they need less space, you can move them without hiring specialized mover, you can use them for electronic music production, and you can make them sound like a marimba or whatever!
They’re a great choice for trying it out a little but you aren’t sure if it’s going to stick, or if you’re getting a kid started, or if your apartment is tiny, or etc etc.
Just do note what I said upthread about the mysterious attraction of the acoustic instrument. There are alternatives, but there are no substitutes.
/end #piano
I really am not kidding about that “never move a piano” part.
@inthehands did you ever hire a piano mover and had them show up without any suitable means of moving a piano, clearly having never been in the same room as a piano before let alone moved one, it is just some thing they wrote in a newspaper classified? It does happen n=1
@screwlisp
Oy gevalt
@inthehands In an ideal world, I'd have both - and even better a grand in the living room, an upright in the kitchen and a Nord in the music room 😀
@inthehands I sooo agree with all your advice. We had a piano for years and moved a ridiculous number of times. We ALWAYS hired a piano removalist and we ALWAYS had it regularly tubed and serviced. We reluctantly sold our piano before an international move and we were expecting to live in a high rise apartment.
We bought an electric keyboard with weighted keys etc. It is most definitely not the same as a real piano. I frequently sat at our real piano and played. I rarely do this with our keyboard. I have never worked out what it was, but I have no emotional connection to it, and to me, playing music is about expressing heartfelt things.
@inthehands I don't know anyone these days who ONLY has an acoustic piano, so I'd say an electronic piano is a great place to start
@grwster
I mean, me, unless you count the one I use as a MIDI controller for music entry…but I am an extreme weirdo
@inthehands Hah! My wife has always had an acoustic piano, upgraded as our circumstances allowed, but when electronic pianos got good enough and cheap enough we got one of those too and it gets regular use (overlapping but different use cases)
Oct 25, 2026, 12:03 AMHello. I only have an acoustic piano. It was built in 1906 and I got it for free. It needed lots of work to clean up the gunky old varnish, but just needed tuning otherwise. Cost was for piano movers and tuning.
@inthehands
So, we got a piano about a year ago. We got a decent electric one (a Kawaii). Reasons:
* We live in a japanese apartment. An acoustic piano would be heard through the walls and windows. You can dampen it with mats and wall covers, but it sits in the living room and it would look pretty bad.
* We live in Okinawa. 80-100% humidity is the norm. Forget about letting in fresh air and keep the piano healthy and in tune at the same time. Would have to use AC 24/7.
> Would have to use AC 24/7.
…which is what I do from roughly May through mid-Sep in Minnesota.
@inthehands
If we had a separate room to keep the piano and other instruments it'd be doable. But the living room has to be comfortable and pleasant for us, not for our things.
Also, with the instrument right where we usually are we're much more likely to sit down and play around with it than if we had to go in a different room and sit alone.
Oct 25, 2026, 1:01 AM@inthehands
My son learned on an electric piano and his teacher tried for a long time to convince us to get an acoustic piano. No way. Too big and high maintenance. At his last recital, the acoustic piano was out of tune and one peddle was sticking 👎
@inthehands @KayJanes I have a hybrid piano, it has the same keyboard mechanism as an acoustic, your fingers can’t tell the difference, it sounds great, and it never needs tuning and doesn’t bother the neighbours.
I’ve played a wide variety of these instruments that combine some version of a piano action with an alternative method of sound production, ranging from new and fancy electronic keyboards to old and esoteric experimental electroacoustic instruments. I’ll stick with what I said: many alternatives, no substitutes.
None of them respond the way an acoustic piano does. Note one. Many of them, however, make differently worthwhile music in their own right!
@inthehands @KayJanes I’ve played a lot of pianos, too. A few years ago I replaced my lovely Langlau-made Hoffmann with a Kawai hybrid. I’ve played Chopin, Mendelssohn, Hensel, Brahms, and Bach on both, and I’m happier with the Kawai. Would I like to have a Steinway grand with its own soundproof practice room and a budget for a piano tuner? Of course I would. But can I get all the same nuances on the Kawai? Also yes.
Yes, I find that Kawais frequently punch above their weight. For whatever reason, they have a lot of music in them!
It does depend a lot on the music. Bach designed his music to work on a wide variety of keyboards, and so it’s no surprise it can work wonderfully on the the electronic ones; they often bring out something new if you let them be themselves instead of treating them as an imitation acoustic! But I’ve never managed to get a Chopin sound I like out of even the highest-end electronic keyboard.
P.S. What I said about “alternative not substitues” goes both ways, of course: an acoustic is a •terrible• imitation electric! Beyond the practical considerations of space, ease of moving, and silent practice, there are worlds of sounds in synths.
@inthehands I think every instrument has its own character and its strengths and weaknesses. For example, some pianos, whether acoustic or electronic, can tend to sound muddy, and might need to be played with a lighter touch on the pedal. Unless you have an unlimited budget, you adapt, and as you said, you also discover possibilities thanks to the instrument. Chopin composed his Preludes on a little upright piano. :) And even his favourite pianos sounded very different from modern instruments. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PoSlDhoTJ4
@KayJanes
@benjamingeer @inthehands @KayJanes Yes! Justin Taylor has a newish recording of Chopin on a Pleyel piano that I really like. It fits the music and expresses it in a different way from a “normal” piano — hard to describe, but easy to hear.
Wonderful video! I’ll have to check out the Justin Taylor.
Period instruments can be so full of treasures. For example, I particularly like this recording of Brahms chamber music played on a piano like the one he owned at the time, which IIRC had leather hammers (!!). https://music.apple.com/us/album/brahms-tones-of-romantic-extravagance-piano-quartet/1583521172
My teacher always said of period instruments (probably accurately) that if Beethoven had been offered a modern piano, he’d have thrown his away — and yeah, those Broadwoods are miles behind the Pleyel. But even so, hearing the 111 on something like the instrument he wrote it for, you get the sense that he’s pushing out to the hard limits of the instrument, at the edge of where its sound breaks down…not the sense a modern piano gives!
There’s also the matter of period •tuning•: Chopin wouldn’t have been playing pianos tuned in exactly the equal temperament we’re used to. I’ve found period tuning recordings difficult for my ears to get used to, however!
Oct 25, 2026, 1:30 AM@inthehands thanks for sharing always good to know stuff. That said the weight of a piano is why I stick to strings.
@ladytel
This is a wise choice. And you’re not stuck performing on other people’s instruments all the time!
@inthehands we just inherited the piano my in-laws had at their house. A Kawai. I have never seen anyone play it.
Piano movers placed it, and recommended a tuner and I am set on getting lessons for me and 10 year old kid.
Ask again in a year...
@bleistifterin
Hooray!!
@inthehands i have an electronic piano for practical reasons, but I really love the old, out of tune piano at my parents' house. The sound just feels different
Oct 25, 2026, 9:17 AMFor people who live anywhere near London England and are interested in a player piano, contact the pianola society who are often looking to rehome them. This is a nearly free piano in good nick, however, they are often larger than normal pianos with the same string length.
@inthehands
In theory, it would be nice to get one of the better looking modern uprights when my ex moves get piano out of my place. In practice, I'll get a Nord Stage.
Oct 25, 2026, 11:07 AMYou can also get a silent piano: one that has a conventional mechanism, including hammers and strings, but which, at the flick of a lever, you can put into silent mode and play through a synthesiser and headphones instead. It's not completely silent, because the keys and hammers still move, but the strings aren't struck. It's good enough for practising at 2am if that's what your schedule forces you to do.
A silent #piano has the fragility and neediness of a conventional acoustic piano — you still have to maintain reasonably constant temperature and humidity — but it's a lot more sociable if you're in cramped quarters, and you get the joy of playing an acoustic when circumstances allow.
@inthehands I learned how not to move a piano from Laurel and Hardy.
@inthehands I built what I call my “digital hybrid piano” from a hundred year old baby grand and a modern digital keyboard. The keyboard’s speakers fire into the cabinet, and with the dampers lifted the strings provide the sympathetic vibrations of an analog instrument. For me, it’s the best of both worlds.
That said, you are correct - nothing beats sitting down with a well-maintained concert grand.
@inthehands we have one of those free pianos and got it inspected by a specialist piano restorer after moving it into our house. Don't disagree with a word of what you say.
Question now though is what to do with it... Can't recall the exact diagnosis but it's not reparable. Seems such a shame to scrap it.
Any ideas for alternate uses for +100 year old (iron frame) upright piano?
@jbenjamint @inthehands There's a small performance arena in Edinburgh made out of old pianos 😀
@inthehands And, please know: getting rid of a real piano is, at least here in the US, quite difficult. Few people want them. It took more than a year of poking around and paying the piano mover in order to finally find a home for our old one.
@inthehands hi, you seem to know something about pianos;) - do you know what’s that and if it’s worth restoring?
Only a technician can tell you if it’s worth restoring. Catastrophic internal problems like a ruined pinblock won’t show in any photos.
You might be able to find info on this site about the maker: https://www.pianobuyer.com But hiring someone to look at it is the only sure way to get good info.
@inthehands there shouldn't be any shame in it, but what was great about pianos being around was that occasionally someone would sit down and know how to play and it would be magical
you don't see that with keyboards, a piano in a shared space is an invitation
Oct 25, 2026, 7:16 PM@inthehands I got all the way to the end of this and I still don’t understand the metaphor as it applies to computer science. Is this about pipeline optimization?
I have only moved or helped move about 10 pianos, and I agree. Don't do that if you are a mere mortal.
Oct 25, 2026, 9:26 PMThere's a lovely book about choosing a piano (or being chosen by one), and it includes a piano-moving story. T.E. Carhart's "The Piano Shop on the Left Bank." Worth a read.
@d_a_n_a
I’ve read it! It’s a sweet and lovely book.
@inthehands @mkb man maybe we shouldn't put these things in our home. musical death traps=p
@inthehands @mkb yeah 🤔 moving trees also very dangerous
@inthehands An underappreciated way to get a good piano is estate sales. You can tell when it's the estate of a musician and they've taken good care of their instruments and devices. Found an incredible Steinway that way, moving it cost almost as much as the piano, but such a joy!
@inthehands We have an old piano that our (retired, sadly) piano technician struggled not to disparage, but faithfully maintained. It’s a Whitney, very low-end old brand.
We hired legit piano movers to get it up our steep front steps. The process was so terrifying that I hid in the kitchen pantry until they were done.
I don’t even play, but I love the old thing for all the times I got to hear acoustic music resonating though the house when my kids played. Some of my happiest memories.
@inthehands A friend gave me his grandmother's old practice piano. "If you can move it, you can have it." I paid to move it ($100 across town, pre-crazy inflation times), then had it tuned. I figured it was tuned and inspected yearly, but was informed it hadn't been tuned in 15 years! Despite this, my friend recommended a good piano tuner who said we could go up slowly back to 440 Hz, but I didn't mind as long as it was in tune with itself.
@inthehands It wasn't a spectacular piano, but I loved it nonetheless.
@theorangetheme
A lucky story indeed! Yay!
Not having been tuned for decades is not necessarily a problem. But then there are things like “the pinblock is shot” or “the soundboard has collapsed” that mean the thing is either a massive, costly rebuild or junk.
@inthehands For sure. Fortunately, I knew it already worked (my friend was a professional organist, and he at least knew the status of his instruments). I assume it would've been more obvious if something were deleteriously wrong? But I'm not sure.
Want fun and games? Deal with a harpsichord.
@inthehands just reminded me that i REALLY need to get our piano tuned. We had a tuner who would text me every year to remind me and then he retired and I've had a few folks since then but it's always someone different and I can never remember (a year later) who it was and then i just get tired and take a nap.
@inthehands One of my friends is a sword maker and his brother is a professional piano tuner.
Brother learned piano growing up and my parents bought him an acoustic.
In retrospect I wish I had learned (instead I picked up wind instruments, which I actually hated, just because a wind instrument was needed at my school at the time.)
There were a few nights when my brother was in college and my parents were out of town that I got absolutely sloshed and sat down at that piano and just poured my soul into it and those are some of the most magical memories of my life.
I literally had goosebumps just filling the house with the emotions that were welling up inside of me.
There was nothing like it in my experience with flute, guitar and bass.
Yeah.
The amazing thing about a piano that’s even halfway in tune is that it will just sound the way you touch it, and if you touch it beautifully, it will sound beautiful. Even with nonsense notes, beautiful touches will sound some kind of strange beautiful.
A string or a woodwind, you have to spend ages practicing just to make it not grating to the ears. But the piano, you just put your fingers on the keys and it shows you something about who you are.
Now playing well, playing specific music, learning all the techniques…yeah, there’s a lot there that’s hard. But just making sound with one is something is a door that’s open to everyone.
@inthehands We inherited a piano that has been in the family for nearly 100 years at this point. The actual piano movers had so many clever little gizmos and techniques for navigating it through the house and up/down little steps and so on. And were very knowledgeable about the specific model, as we had no idea what it was.