Buying a Piano

Parents of prospective piano students often ask me what kind of instrument they should buy, followed by “We don’t want to spend much before we know if they will like it.”   I completely understand that sentiment, as I myself  have a cabinet full of  ice skates, soccer kneepads, art supplies, and fish tanks from when my girls were younger, many virtually untouched.  Sometimes what seems like a heartfelt interest is really not.  But as parents, we’re always on the lookout for that one thing that will ignite our child’s love of learning, motivate them to achieve,  or bring out a latent talent.  We think perhaps music may be that thing.  We don’t want to rule it out, anyway.

And music lessons may very well spark something in a student that nothing else does.  They may take to it easily, love to practice, look forward to performing;  it may become a passion.  Or they be a steady student who becomes proficient over a number of years, working it in between soccer and cheerleading.  There are of course students who don’t take to it at all, but in my experience those students are a small subset, and usually fail because conditions at home are not right to facilitate at least some degree of success.  Most students who are interested enough to start lessons and have a good teacher (that’s crucical) will continue long enough to get the basics, even if they don’t continue throughout their growing-up years. 

So…how much should you spend on an instrument?    My advice is in two parts.  They may seem at first glance to contradict each other, but they really don’t.

1)  Get whatever you can afford, just to get going.  It’s better to have something to play on than nothing.  However…

2)  Spend as much as you can afford.   The bigger the investment in the instrument, the more likely the student will learn to play.  Whether that’s because a nicer instrument is more satisfying to play or whether parents are more likely to enforce practice routines if they have a bigger financial stake in lessons is hard to say.  My guess is that it’s a combination of the two.

That said, following are some options in all price ranges.  This list is by no means comprehensive, nor exhaustively researched.  It just aims to give you a few ideas.

·CasioCTK 61-key keyboard, $140.  This has touch-sensitive keys, which is important, and comes with a stand, headphones, and built-in metronome, which could be helpful.   I found this at Best Buy.

· Yamaha 88-key Full-Size Keyboard, $500 (model YPG535MM).   Get 88 keys if you possibly can.  This one also comes with a stand and a pedal, which is a big plus.   Best Buy carries this model, and they often carry similar models at Costco in the same price range.

· If you can manage another step up in a keyboard, I recommend going to Pierre’s Fine Pianos in West L.A.  (pierresfinepianos.com).   Pierre has a variety of keyboards and digital pianos ranging from $600-$4000.  The more you spend, the better sound quality you’ll get and the better it will feel to play.  There are also lots of fun digital add-ons, but Pierre can explain those better than I can.  One of his most popular digital pianos is the Kawai MP10 for $2495.

·Moving over to acoustic pianos, Pierre carries new and used in some of my favorite brands (I’m partial to Yamaha and Kawai) and usually has something in the store in the $1500 range.  It goes up from there (a new Kawai is about $3000), and is worth checking out, as there is something magnificent about a good piano.  Even if you’re not yet ready to spend thousands, it’s nice to know what might be in your or your child’s future. 

·Yamaha makes something called a Silent Piano, which is an acoustic piano that has been digitized so that it can be played like a regular piano but also heard only through headphones.  It’s an acoustic/digital hybrid, sort of like the Prius of pianos.  They’re $5,000-$6,000 used.  (A quick note on headphones, though…use them if you have to, but it’s preferable that your student practice out loud.  That way you can monitor their progress and, more importantly, it sends the message that you want to hear them play.)

·Renting a piano can be a good option, as it puts your child on a full-size acoustic right away.  Rentals start at about $55/mo., which you can apply it to purchase.   

·I’ve acquired pianos and keyboards from many different sources over the years.  Most of my acoustic pianos I’ve bought from Pierre, as his prices are fair and I trust his guidance.   I did buy a piano from Craigslist once, and it was a fairly decent one for only $500.  The process was a little scary, though, as I had to go from one stranger’s house to another to look at them and then there was the problem of having to hire a mover to retrieve the piano but not having any assurances that the owner or the piano would still be there when we arrived. (They were.)

·If you’re interested in a high-end piano (perhaps you’ve won the lottery or have an inheritance coming), check out the Fazzioli line at Pierre’s, custom-made in Italy.  Or the PDL Pleyel piano for $300,000 that takes a year to handcraft in France.  Or better yet, take home the $1.2 million gold-plated Bosendorfer Imperial that’s on the showroom floor now.  I guess we’ll keep dreaming…

So buy what you can afford, but stretch a little if possible to remind yourself and your child that studying music is a serious and worthwhile endeavor.  If you’re lucky, your piano will become a member of the family. 

My Daughters

My daughters, Elena and Maddie, are now 19 and 16.   Way back when they were little people of 4 and 1,  I started Musical Beginnings so I’d have a job I could bring them to, and they’ve always been the heart of the school.   When they weren’t dancing and singing in one of my classes, they were engrossed in a Barney tape in my office just a few feet away.  As they got older, I created classes I thought they’d like—Foundations, Entertainers, Little Fingers Club—and the studio grew out of what they needed.  When they got old enough for piano lessons, I hired teachers.  When they were ready to perform, I put on recitals.   When a parent had a question, I drew on my own experience.   And on weekends, my daughters helped me empty the trash.

Elena and Maddie and Musical Beginnings all grew up together.   As the girls got older and they tired of Barney tapes, they helped out in the classes by putting away instruments, readying CD’s,  or giving special attention to a restless child.  They performed in every recital and helped with set up and clean up.   Everyone knew them; they were always there.

Eventually they outgrew the Young Child classes and spent their days in their own school.   They still took lessons and performed in recitals, but not every recital.   I still created new classes, but not always for their age group.  But yet their influence remained.  When I wanted them to memorize more pieces, I came up with Trophy Club for the whole studio.  When Elena struggled with 16^th-notes, everyone was invited to do a Rhythm Challenge.  When Maddie couldn’t recall the sharps in a B scale, it was time for Scale Olympics.  As they got more advanced, I implemented the Academy and Honors Recitals.

In high school, the girls got involved with their own things and Musical Beginnings became more mine than ours.  I got used to doing things without two little girls next to me.  I could bring a new focus to my work.  Elena went to college and Maddie turned from violin to journalism and tennis.   Because  things were so busy I had little time for nostalgia.  Still there were moments, quick ripples of longing.

And then this summer my daughters emerged once more as guiding forces at Musical Beginnings.  Deciding between them that I needed digital updating, they got to work.  Elena set up the new Musical Beginnings Facebook page and Maddie created this blog.  Elena transcribed and formatted songs I’d been singing forever but were not written down into music notation for everyone to read.  Maddie organized the CD’s I use in my classes into ipod playlists and hid my CD player until I learned how to use them. I now have a DropBox account, SoundCloud, and two flash drives.  I might have only the vaguest notion of what to do with the DropBox and SoundCloud, but I like knowing they’re there. 

Now when I go onto my computer, when I update Facebook, when I touch the Bubbles playlist on my ipod, I’m given a quick reminder of Elena and Maddie and it makes me smile.  Just like when they were little, my girls are always around.