February 27th, 2009 by admin

For those who’re considering which instrument they should buy, but dont know the differences bewteen a grand piano and a keyboard, heres a list of pros and cons- starting with the keyboard.

Piano -There are three main types of piano: The grand piano, upright pianos or the electronic pianos. A grand (or concert) piano’s size ranges from 2m-3m for a parlor grand, to 1m-2m for a boudoir grand and slightly smaller for a baby piano. The size of the piano is an issue you dont get as much of with the keyboard. Sure it can be a hassle, but at least you can pick it up and move it into another room. If you have mountains of money and a helicopter pad to store one, a grand piano isnt really an option, as even a baby grand piano is quite big. An advantage of the huge size is the equally as huge sound. With lower harmonics and frequencies, the grand piano has its praises sung due to its size, which allows for longer strings that contrbiute to the monsterous sound. The baby grand piano may be shorter but will have thicker strings inside to compensate, like a bass guitar to a guitar. Thickers strings benefit a smaller instrument because the thicker strings give more tension, and more clarity.

A smaller instrument because the frame and strings are contained horizontally within the piano, the upright piano is what most families who buy a piano end up with. But even at a reduced size its still quite big and will require some space to put it in.

Around since the early 1980’s, the electronic piano uses digital techonology to try and reproduce the sound of an acoustic piano. Even with modern techonology being so advanced it cant replacate the sound of an acoustic piano. Not favoured by many serious piano players.

And the triats of a digital keyboard?

A keyboard will be much easier to carry around, Set up in your home, and cheaper -pretty good so far eh? The sound quality of a keyboard is no-where near as good as a piano, but then both are different ‘animals’ -People forget about the pedals the piano has, that the keyboard doesnt. Price wise a keyboard is going to be far cheaper than a piano, a high grade keyboard costs the same as a low grade piano.

The answer? The keyboard -unless you have money to burn and a room to put your piano.