This is the fifth in a series of articles offering advice from your Piano Tuner Wilmington DE regarding the importance of choosing a quality piano when you purchase your instrument. This article explains that one common problem of inexpensive pianos is that they generally do not have pleasing tone compared to a quality instrument.
Pleasing tone is an important quality of a piano. You or your child will be practicing long hours at the piano, and a piano with shrill, unpleasant tone will not only grate on your nerves, it will result in less practice time, less enjoyment, and less progress in learning to play. You and/or your child’s investment of time, talent, and resources for lessons will bear less results.
You might wonder why inexpensive pianos have strident tone. The explanation is a little complex. Basically, the resonance of a piano results from the careful design and construction of the piano soundboard, ribs, bridges, plate, and case. If these aspects are not carefully made, the piano will not resonate the way it should. As a result, the maker will need to compensate for the lack of resonance. The typical way to compensate is to make the hammers excessively hard, so that the piano will be loud enough. The down side is that hard hammers result in a strident tone.
Piano showrooms are typically large open areas, and because of this a shrill tone actually sounds good. As a result of this, the problem of experiencing a strident tone that’s harsh to your ear appears after you get the piano home. The hard piano hammers that create this sound can be softened to some extent, but often the tone of an inexpensive piano cannot be improved enough to the point of being pleasing to the ear. The end result can be a piano that is neither pleasant to play or to listen to.
Beautiful music is the reward of hours of practice on the piano. Without that reward, it is less likely that a person will continue to invest the time, energy, and talent to practice.
Feel free to contact us for advice whenever you’re ready to purchase a quality piano. Often a slightly used quality piano is more economical than a new poor quality piano, and it will bring you far greater satisfaction as far as the level of enjoyment of music in your home.
We are your Piano Tuning Wilmington, DE expert. We also provide piano services in the locations of Philadelphia, Eastern Shore MD and Southern New Jersey. We are always available for you.
