19 July 2018 How Does This Heat Wave Impact Your Piano?

How Does This Heat Wave Impact Your Piano?

posted by

Piano maintenance is important to keep your instrument in the highest quality throughout the year. 

If you’ve had your piano for any length of time, you understand that how well your piano plays and sounds depends on a variety of factors. 

  • How often you tune it
  • Where it resides in your home
  • The environment it sits in

Of course, you can’t control how hot or cold it gets outside, any more than you can control how much humidity or dryness of the outside air. But the more you work at controlling the environment your piano sits in, the better condition your piano will remain. How Does This Heat Wave Impact Your Piano?

Wood changes depending on the conditions. If it sits in dry conditions for long periods of time, it dries out and risks cracking. If it sits in moist conditions, it runs the risk of warping or mildewing. Pianos are primarily made out of wood, which means it can be influenced heavily by the conditions around it. 

It’s not just the piano case; the soundboard is equally at risk. This is where the strings are attached and vibrate to produce sound. If the wood expands, it can cause internal damage to your piano. And that will leave behind repercussions for overall sound. 

Be conscious of where you place your piano. 

  • Keep your room properly temperature controlled
  • Avoid direct sunlight
  • Avoid placing near a fireplace
  • Avoid placing near vents and registers

If your piano hasn’t had proper maintenance, now is the time. It’s good to schedule a maintenance visit at the change of seasons, to ensure severe heat or cold haven’t impacted the sound of your piano. 

Is your piano in the best spot in your home for avoiding severe temperature differences? 

Filed Under: Owning a Piano Tagged With:
14 July 2018 Is Digital Killing Acoustic Pianos?  

Is Digital Killing Acoustic Pianos?  

posted by

It’s hard not to notice the change in piano playing around the country. 

Music programs are being pulled from elementary school in favor of STEM activities and sports. Data shows that the level of piano sales continues to fall since its all-time high around the turn of the century. 

But does that mean playing piano is a dying art?

You only have to turn on your radio to discover that isn’t the case. 

Forming a band is still high on a young person’s wish list. Kids at every age love picking up an instrument and discovering music. Is Digital Killing Acoustic Pianos?  

But now, for some, it might not be a traditional acoustic piano. They may be opting for digital instead. 

Traditional pianos tend to have a little more nostalgia built into them. People select them because they remember sitting around the piano at grandma’s house. Or they remember learning on one at home. 

Yet when they look at their current lifestyle, they no longer see a traditional piano fitting in. They have smaller spaces and don’t have the room. They have different activities all day long and need more flexibility in how they play. 

And that’s where digital pianos can excel. 

If you select a good digital piano, they will play and function just like their acoustic counterparts. But they have added details that can make them more functional in your busy lifestyle. 

Their size makes them more convenient to move and stow away when not in use. 

Use headphones for silent practice; different people can be in the same room doing different things. 

Being digital means a player has fluidity and can move their songwriting skills online to play, mix, and share however they choose. 

Are you interested in a digital piano? The best place to start is by coming in and learning more about them. Sit down at a digital piano. Play it. Learn what sets them apart. We can show you the differences and help you make the right selection for your needs. 

Filed Under: Buying a Piano Tagged With:
7 July 2018 A Piano Dealer Does More Than You Think

A Piano Dealer Does More Than You Think

posted by

Are you ready to buy a piano? Are you debating between new and used? While you might be able to find some “deals” with a little searching, nothing feels the same as bringing a brand new one into your home. 

Don’t think of a piano dealer as someone who is merely the middleman between the manufacturer and you. Dealers do a lot more than pulling a piano out of a crate. A lot can happen between where the piano was put together and it’s final resting spot on the dealer’s floor. The dealer ensures it’s brought to full musicality before it makes its way to your home. A Piano Dealer Does More Than You Think

Tuning

Piano parts undergo a lot of stress after being stretched and pulled and placed together. That takes time to adjust. The strings have to stop stretching. The wood has to stop settling. The soundboard has to settle into its new position. That means all of the pieces can quickly cause the piano to fall out of tune. It’s typical for a piano to take up to two years to settle. And that means it can quickly fall out of tune. Dealers will tune it as soon as they set it up on the showroom floor. They also continue to tune it over time, until you make your selection and its moved into your home. 

Action

A piano has thousands of moving parts. And most of these parts are a part of the key assembly. Every time a key is pressed and the hammer is released to strike the strings, this performance is known as the action. This process can be stiff as the thousands of tiny parts are brought together for the first time on the manufacturer’s floor. It goes through a break-in period as it adjusts and stabilizes. And it continues as potential buyers consider it sitting on the showroom floor. Dealers monitor that and adjust as settling and environmental changes occur. 

Voicing

If you’ve ever played several pianos in succession and noticed that all sound distinctly different, that’s voicing. It’s the tonal quality a piano produces based on the parts used during production. It’s the hardness of the felt; the accuracy of the strings. It’s every part coming together to give the piano its unique personality. That can be adjusted as a piano continue to be broken in. It takes a little adjusting here and a little tweaking there to give it its unique, rich-sounding quality. 

Finishing

Of course, the outside has to look as good as the inside. Which is why a dealer will touch up and polish every inch of the piano to ensure it’s in top condition. A lot can happen in a crate as it makes its way hundreds, even thousands of miles from its origination point. And a dealer ensures it’s back up to its original condition. 

Are you ready to bring a new piano into your home? 

Filed Under: Buying a Piano Tagged With:
2 July 2018 Music: We’re Losing An Important Part Of Our Culture

Music: We’re Losing An Important Part Of Our Culture

posted by

Having a child today comes with a lot of responsibility. What will you teach her? What activities will you guide her into? What will fill her time?

Parenting used to be a hands-off approach. With lots of kids around, kids simply did what kids do. They played together and went to school. Parents provided a firm hand as necessary. 

But with fewer children per family, many have become integral parts of their children’s lives. They drive here and there. They sign up for lessons. They set up playdates and events. They keep busy morning, noon, and night. Music: We’re Losing An Important Part Of Our Culture

That means there are more choice than ever for a child’s attention. And peer pressure may also have a guiding hand. Join the soccer team? Yes. Practice the piano? No. 

It’s easier to provide group instruction. It’s also more lucrative. Why teach one child when you can teach multiple at the same time? 

And besides, teams give kids important skills about communication and being together with others in your peer group. That’s the best way to go, right?

Well…

There are two sides to the coin. Of course, kids can learn a lot when joining a team. There’s nothing wrong with physical activity. Whether it’s soccer, or swimming, or gymnastics, it offers many different characterizations for a growing child. 

However, it’s important to remember your child needs work from the inside out too. 

That’s where many parents are overlooking one of the most successful ways of helping to develop a young brain – learning an instrument. 

A piano specifically is one of the best instruments to learn on, offering the player the chance to play both the melody and the accompaniment. 

And it’s more than learning how to play an instrument or making music. It’s also about improving your brain. 

Studies show musically inclined individuals are better students, do better on tests, and perform better at learning multiple languages. You’ll find some of the most successful students in med school majored in music. 

And those characteristics last a lifetime. Playing the piano improves cognitive abilities. It’s been shown to lessen the effects of memory-related diseases.  

When you need to destress and decompress, nothing can satisfy like sitting down at the piano.

So why aren’t we pressing more for piano lessons for young kids? Maybe it’s time to make it a priority. 

Filed Under: Piano Music, Piano Playing Tagged With:
17 June 2018 Where’s The Best Place To Buy A Piano Keyboard?

Where’s The Best Place To Buy A Piano Keyboard?

posted by

People usually fall into playing the piano in one of two ways. 

1. Their parents sign them up when they’re small, encouraging them to try something new. 

2. It’s been a lifetime dream. At some point, a person has a little extra free time, and they make playing the piano a priority. 

No matter what brought you here today, you’re in a good place. Creating music is a lifelong skill that one can enjoy from 2 to 102. Where’s The Best Place To Buy A Piano Keyboard?

But before you can start practicing music and begin to put notes together to create a song, there are a few steps you have to do first. The first is to understand the differences in pianos. 

When most people think of the term “piano,” they think of the old piano sitting in their grandmother’s home, or they think of the inexpensive keyboard they see in the big box store around the holidays. 

In most cases, we don’t think about pianos because you rarely see them for sale where you shop. If you do, it’s sitting by itself as a “gift idea’ on the store shelves, in between the other items that supposedly make music. You know, the guitars and the karaoke machines. 

Maybe that’s why we lump the concept of pianos and keyboards together, when in fact they are two separate things. 

A piano can refer to many different types of instrument. A piano in its traditional sense is either upright or grand. It is built out of wood, plastic and strings. In order to produce sound, the key is pressed which triggers a hammer to hit a string, which in turn produces sound. 

A digital piano produces sound through replication. Instead of making music through the action of pressing the keys to trigger the hammer to connect with strings, the sound is recorded and installed into the digital piano. When you press a key, you hear the recorded sound. In most cases, the better the piano, the better the sound. 

When people refer to an instrument like a keyboard, it can take on one of two applications. The cheap instruments you usually find in your favorite big box store around the holidays is often referred to as a keyboard. And other than looking like a keyboard, it does little to act like one. These instruments rarely have weighted keys to imitate true piano playing skills. This is vital to becoming a good piano player. They also have poor sound quality, something a player can pick up on fairly quickly. 

If you can’t produce the sound you’re looking for, why play at all?

This is why most keyboard players give up. 

If you want to learn to play the real thing, the best place to start is by investing in real equipment. That means purchasing a real piano. Acoustic or digital is fine. What matters most is the quality. 

And if you have questions, we’re here to help. 

Filed Under: Buying a Piano Tagged With:
13 June 2018 Should You Use An iPad For Your Piano Music?

Should You Use An iPad For Your Piano Music?

posted by

If you took lessons as a child, you probably remember getting new books of music every few weeks. Your teacher would present you with new music, and you’d carry it back and forth as you learned to play. The music would stack up on the side of your piano or in your piano bench as you worked your way through different music. 

Things have changed since then. In many cases, people no longer carry along a file folder of music, but instead tuck away all of their music on an iPad. It’s easier to carry your entire library conveniently in one place. Should You Use An iPad For Your Piano Music?

Today’s iPad comes in four sizes: 12.9, 10.5, 9.7, and 7.9 inch retina displays. Each size comes with its own benefits and upgrades. While the smaller version is less expensive and is easier to tuck away into your bag, it’s also the most difficult to see, especially if you place your music several feet away. The larger size makes reading music more convenient. It also comes with a higher price tag. 

It also extends beyond the screen. There are many apps and attachments that can help you get even more out of your digital experience. 

Start with a Bluetooth foot pedal. With the PedPro, you can quickly and silently turn the pages all with a tap of your foot. And it comes ready to work right out of the box – no setup. 

You can place your iPad on a traditional music stand. However, there are many digital stands available that give you more flexibility when moving your music around. iPad’s are heavy; putting them on a traditional stand can be risky. iPad mounted stands keep your iPad secure and make it easy to move and turn your music, depending on your needs. 

Another tool to consider is the Apple Pencil. As you progress with your music, you’re more likely to write notes on the scores. Apple Pencil is easy to carry around and gives you the ability to mark up your music whenever you desire. 

Finally, there’s the music. iPads make it easy to carry your entire library in one convenient place. If you have traditional music, snap a photo or upload a screenshot and keep it safe in one place. Plus you’ll never need a music light to see your music; it comes already in place. 

A quick search will give you ample suggestions for places to find piano music. Consider using a variety of apps to help organize your sheet music, help your practice routine, and help you become a better player. Try:

forScore – the music reader for iPad. It gives you the power to organize all of your music into one convenient app. 

Notion – allows you to compose, edit, and play scores anywhere your iPad can go. 

Tenuto – a music theory app that requires no internet access – great for playing on the go. 

Genius Scan – lets you scan any document, any time. Perfect for digitizing all of your music into readable documents. 

GoodNotes – this allows you to take down notes, store them, and have them fully searchable forever. Try creating your own music using the music template. 

How do you use iPad to help you play piano better?

Filed Under: Piano Music, Piano Playing Tagged With:
9 June 2018 Choosing A Keyboard That Plays Like A Piano  

Choosing A Keyboard That Plays Like A Piano  

posted by

As an adult, you’re ready to take up a new hobby. 

You’ve recently downsized and have little interest in buying a full-size piano. Who has room for a grand in your newly remodeled condo?

Yet you have the time to do what you want to do. And you’ve finally made it a priority to learn to play the piano. 

Today’s keyboards can be just as powerful and soulful as traditional pianos. IF you know what to look for. Choosing A Keyboard That Plays Like A Piano  

Even though keyboards are largely a personal preference, there are a few things that you should look for and never compromise on when you’re making your final selection. 

Action

It all starts with the action. If you’ve ever pressed a key on the piano and produced a sound, that’s the action in play. Action comes from the connection made when the piano key is pressed, causing the hammer inside the piano to connect with the strings. On a traditional piano, this process is weighted to make the connection feel a certain way. 

Keyboards come in many sizes and price levels. What separates out the good from the bad is action. Low quality keyboards won’t imitate this action process. The keys are flimsy and don’t have much of a feeling when you press them down. If you have a desire to learn to play the piano, you should make sure your keyboard imitates the real thing as closely as possible. 

Keys

It’s also important that you have the proper amount of keys. 

An acoustic piano has 88 keys. And while it’s only a rare song that uses all of these 88 keys, it’s still important to have access to them as you advance in your playing skills. 

Most piano music can be played with the middle 60 keys. If you’re a beginner, it will be some time before you expand beyond these 60 keys. 

But keep in mind that in many cases, the number of keys often is in direct correlation to the action of the piano. When pianos are built smaller, they tend to be lower in price. When a manufacturer shrinks the size of the keyboard, it spends less time making it sound like a high quality instrument. You can often tell how effective a keyboard will be at making music simply by counting the keys. 

Whether you are looking for acoustic or digital, want a grand piano to make an impact in your home, or want a keyboard to save space, we can help you find the right piano for your needs. 

Filed Under: Buying a Piano Tagged With:
30 May 2018 A Simple Guide To The A-B-C-D-E-F-G Piano Notes

A Simple Guide To The A-B-C-D-E-F-G Piano Notes

posted by

Seven different piano notes create all of the music we know and love. 

A-B-C-D-E-F-G

Of course, it’s a little more complicated than that. But a piano is built around this simple pattern. It repeats again and again, up and down the keyboard. 

It’s a repeating pattern of 12 notes, or pitches. It is made up of 7 white keys and 5 black keys that give you your sharps and flats. A Simple Guide To The A-B-C-D-E-F-G Piano Notes

A sharp raises each note you play by a half step. A flat lowers each note you play by a half step. This represents the smallest change in the keyboard; the smallest change you can have between musical notes. 

So the black key between A and B, for example, represents both A sharp and B flat. 

Simple.

One of the first lessons every piano student has is to commit this pattern to memory. 

You can start at the bottom and run your hands across the keyboard playing the pattern over and over again. 

Almost every modern piano has seven octaves. The keyboard has 52 white keys and 36 black keys to represent these seven octaves. That’s a total of 88 keys. And while some pianos may have less or more, the 88 keys is considered standard in the music industry. A piano with 88 keys will give you a lifetime of enjoyment. 

If you want a simple challenge to help you learn the piano notes, start at the bottom and find all As. Then Bs. And so on. 

When you’re comfortable with that, select a note at random and define it. Your goal is to learn every note and its placement on the keyboard, so they will easily come as you read music. 

This simple activity will improve your piano practice immediately. 

Filed Under: Piano Playing Tagged With:
20 May 2018 What It Takes To Learn To Play The Piano By Ear

What It Takes To Learn To Play The Piano By Ear

posted by

What’s easier: learning to play the piano by ear or focusing in on learning to read music?

That, of course, depends on the person. 

In most cases, parents today take the path of teaching their kids to read music. They start young by putting their kids in piano lessons. And most teachers prefer to teach visual skills and music comprehension rather than focusing in on playing by ear. 

To play by ear, you have to work on developing two major skill sets: listening comprehension and aural skills. What It Takes To Learn To Play The Piano By Ear

Can you recognize the chords and notes that you hear in a song?

Can you reproduce it quickly and without error?

Developing the ear doesn’t mean sitting down at the piano and tinkering around with the keys until you have the music correct. Instead, true aural skills involve understanding music well enough that you can sit down and play, knowing exactly which keys to press to play the song. 

And that takes skill. 

It takes extensive knowledge of music theory. You have to understand scales, chords, and how music is created to be able to put it together quickly in your mind, and transfer it to your fingers on the keyboard. 

If you want to be able to play by ear, that means increasing your knowledge of music theory. It also means learning that the keys are not the notes. A-sharp is B-flat on the piano keys. But that doesn’t make them the same note. They may sound the same, but they have different meaning in music. And if you don’t have an understanding of how they fit together, you’ll never be able to transfer that to the keyboard. 

It takes training. It takes studying. It takes practice. 

Have you trained yourself to play by ear?

Filed Under: Piano Music, Piano Playing Tagged With:
14 May 2018 How Technology Is Improving The Piano

How Technology Is Improving The Piano

posted by

When you look at an acoustic piano, very little has changed over the past century. Piano are still  a cherished, classical instruments, proudly displayed in homes all over the world. 

 When most parents decide to introduce music into their children’s lives, pianos are almost always one of the top choices. 

But like everything, pianos are changing. Technology is impacting the way we play and the instruments we play music with. 

How Technology Is Improving The PianoWireless technology adds the benefit to the smart pianos to connect other devices including computers and tablets. This means you can control what you play and how you play it no matter where you are in the world. 

It starts with teaching. There are a variety of products and apps that are  helpful and allow you to learn everything from hand placement to musicality. They help you be a better player, and can help you become the writer and conductor of your own music. 

With Internet connections, you no longer have to visit a teacher locally. Hop online, and you can connect with an instructor anywhere in the world. They can teach you via Facetime and help control lessons through a variety of resources. To help guide your playing progress, smart piano provide lights to assist your next move.

Of course, programs extend beyond helping you play. They make becoming a songwriter and sharing your music easier than ever before. Smart pianos make connectivity just a touch of a button away, and once your music is edited just the way you like it, it’s easy to share with the world. 

There are programs available for every age, every level, and every interest. In an age where people spend hours online with their favorite video games, why not make learning music just as easy. Piano playing is a skill that lasts a lifetime, stimulates creativity and boosts your brain power. 

Whether you’re young or old, there’s a creative way of using today’s technology in helping you become the best piano player possible. 

Filed Under: Owning a Piano, Piano Playing Tagged With:
« Previous Page
Next Page »