I’m thinking about buying a digital piano. But purists tend to denigrate them, For example, C. C. Chang, author of “Fundamentals of Piano Practice,” 2nd Edition* says that they
“… do not allow the control of tone, color, pianissimo,staccato, and the special manipulations of the damper and soft pedals, that good grands provide."
Although I’ll never afford a good grand, I think I can spring for a decent digital. (One under $4K, anyway.) And I want very much to be able to do all of the above on the model I buy.
I’ve played a very good Yamaha weighted-action digital piano for a few years before ponying up to have a grand moved to my apt.
It’s a trade-off. The acoustic piano will, for most of its life between tunings, not be perfectly in tune. In addition, some actions are just too clunky to consider an improvement over a fake action. Moreover, most digital piano samples are recorded in stereo – and are meant, unequivocally, to be performed in stereo. If your speakers aren’t good, the piano will not sound good, period – doubly so if you only have one speaker/head.
However, there are very nice acoustic pianos to be had in the 2000-3000 range (used), and I can’t even stand to touch the digital now that I have a better acoustic instrument at hand, not even to take advantage of the dead-on-tuning, the ease with which one may record oneself, and all of the other perks. It’s strictly a live board.
I don’t think you’re going to get what you want for $4k. Unless you get it used.
That said, you can get “control of tone, color, pianissimo,staccato, and the special manipulations of the damper and soft pedals” - mine has it. Mine is also worth considerably more than $4k.
And ditto about the need for a good speaker system for best quality.
I agree, though - there are trade-offs in regards to an electric piano vs. acoustic.
You have to decide whether or not you want a piece of furniture as well as a musical instrument.
For example, Yamaha makes a P250 “Stage Piano” for around $2000 list. It is intended for professional musicians who haul it around to gigs. Although it has the best action and best sound Yamaha makes, it is simply a big slab that requires a stand.
The Yamaha Clavinova lines include digitals that are nice looking uprights and faux-concert grands. The best ones will start at twice the price of the P250.
(By the way, if the P250 interests you, be advised that it is soon to be superseded by newer Yamaha models, so its price should be heavily discounted now.)
I’ve had a digital for years and will never go back to acoustic. People have their prejudices… they sneer at suburb digital sound in preference to an acoustic grand that in reality has a muddy bass or clinky top.
Does your digital “… allow the control of tone, color, pianissimo,staccato, and the special manipulations of the damper and soft pedals” as mentioned in the OP?
If so, what Model do you have (if you don’t mind my asking)?
I’m kind of intent on going digital, but I want an instrument that has all the important features that I can grow into - like the capabilities mentioned above.
I noticed the P250 online but I didn’t pay too close attention. I’ll check them out more closely now, and the Clavinovas, as well.
My model is a Yamaha CLP123: quite old (10+ years).
Chang is, ummm, more sensitive than the rest of us Maybe if you are playing Ravel on a concert grand it might be desirable to take advantage of the pedal mechanisms. However, I understand the recent Yamaha digitals do emulate “half-pedaling”.
Try them out - the proof is in the pudding! I’m looking as well, so keep us all updated.
depends on how serious you are. I switched from piano to electric keyboard several years back. Its hard to switch back and forth, pianists cant get good inflections from keyboards (only end up pounding the keys too hard) and keyboardists cant control volume on pianos (everything come out unneccessarily loud).
If you just want to keep in practice thats one thing, but if you intend to perform on pianos, I wouldn’t recommend it. If you don’t then with practice you can get decent feeling and inflection into your music regardless.
I learned how to play on an upright acoustic and there was always one in the house when I was growing up, but when I moved out I learned that acoustic pianos and apartments don’t always mix (my mom loaned me her piano for a while). Moving a piano is no cheap/simple feat, if the humidity in the apartment is hard to control it can cost a lot to have the piano frequently tuned, and I found that I was often reluctant to play (and especially to practice) because I was worried about disturbing my neighbors. I gave the piano back to my mom, and a few years later I decided to look for a decent digital.
In the fall of 1998 I bought a Kurzweil PC88 for ~$1500: it’s been with me through 3 moves so far, and I still love it. It came with a sustain pedal and has 88 full-size, weighted keys. The only things I’ve purchased separately are its music stand and a bookshelf stereo that acts as an amplifier (via auxiliary input). Of course it’s not the same as an acoustic, but it’s close enough for my needs: I can use it with headphones or not, it never needs to be tuned, it’s not very portable but it’s much easier to move than an acoustic piano, and it sounds/feels pretty good.
I’m a staunch supporter of piano lessons being taken with real pianos: my friends are thinking about getting lessons for their young son someday, and I keep telling them to get an acoustic. I’d be suspicious of a piano teacher who allowed his/her students to practice solely on a digital piano. I also miss playing an acoustic, and if I have the space in the next place I live I’m going to look into renting an upright. That said, I think the author you quoted is nuts to compare digitals to “good” grand pianos: no digital is meant to be able to replace a quality grand. Not even a quality upright can replace a quality grand! I’m not sure what is meant by “control of tone and color,” but I can definitely achieve pianissimo and staccato with my Kurzweil. There is no damper or soft pedal, only sustain, but many upright acoustics only have 2 pedals anyway (damper and sustain) – and only advanced players know how to take advantage of the damper/soft pedals’ “special manipulations.” A separate damper pedal is available for the Kurzweil, but I’ve had no need to purchase one.
Bottom line: If you’re learning how to play the piano, get an acoustic upright – rent one if you can’t afford to buy. If you already know how to play and are just wondering if any decent digitals exist, the answer is “yes.”
My brother-in-law has one. It has earphones! Very good ones, in fact. To me, the advantage that someone can practice without all housemates and neighbours having to grit their teeth and suffer-for-culturealone is worth any real or perceived loss of quality.
The quality of a digital piano is directly related to the number and quality of samples loaded into it. Really what you’re doing with a digital is triggering the playback of a recording of a piano key being struck. Years ago, Keith Emerson pointed out the difference in an interview, comparing the sound of two keys played on an acoustic, where sympathetic vibrations in various strings affect the timbre of the whole sound, to the sound of two notes on a digital being played, which pretty much sounds like two individual recordings of notes.
Some pianos have a different set of samples that is triggered when you strike a key softly as opposed to loudly, because a real piano can sound slightly different. Other models will simply play the regular sample at a lower volume. Some have a range of samples that are spread across different octaves of the keyboard, some don’t. Similarly for reproducing the effects you describe in the OP. And each of those features is going to cost you, as better sensing electronics and more sophisticated programming are required.
Misnomer Quote (my emphasis): That said, I think the author you quoted is nuts to compare digitals to “good” grand pianos: no digital is meant to be able to replace a quality grand. Not even a quality upright can replace a quality grand!
Check out what he told me yesterday:
It is true that acoustics can do some things that digitals cannot do. However, digitals can do a lot more that acoustics can’t (price, recording, using headphones, always in tune, and a zillion other things); net net, digital wins big. Get one. I rarely practice on my Steinway grand anymore.
Maybe if you are playing Ravel on a concert grand it might be desirable to take advantage of the pedal mechanisms. However, I understand the recent Yamaha digitals do emulate “half-pedaling”.