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| How To Buy a Piano |
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Pianos - Band - Guitars - Drums - Specials - Print Music - Gifts/Accessories - Service - Lessons - References - Directions - Contact-Us - Links
Tim and Bobbi Paul have owned and operated Piano Trends Music Company since 1990. Bobbi has been teachng Piano since the early seventies and Tim followed in his father's footsteps becoming a Piano Technician again in the early seventies. If you have a piano question or any other music related inquires just ask by sending those questions by email. If we do not have the answer we will find an expert who does have that answer for you. Piano Trends Music Company is your complete source for all Music related questions. We will try to answer many questions with information provided below but Tim loves to talk pianos so don't hesitate to contact him. He knows pianos inside and out and will be glad to assist. Bobbi will be glad to discuss and answer your music education questions.
We have listed below some information and helpful links to help inform and make the piano purchasing process a little bit easier. Take your time and go through the information. Whether you find the best piano to fit your needs with Piano Trends or elsewhere the information provided should be of great assistance to you. And remember don't hesitate to call us with your questions. We are here to help...815.477.4266 |
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| The Blue Book of Pianos does a great job of answering common piano purchasing questions and offers some excellent piano buying tips that will make your piano search just a little bit easier and much more enjoyable! |
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Piano, stringed keyboard musical instrument, derived from the harpsichord and the clavichord. Also called the pianoforte, it differs from its predecessors principally in the introduction of a hammer-and-lever action that allows the player to modify the intensity of sound by the stronger or weaker touch of the fingers. For this reason the earliest known model (1709) was called a gravicembalo col pian e forte (Italian for “harpsichord with soft and loud”). It was built by Bartolomeo Cristofori, a harpsichord maker of Florence, Italy, who is generally credited with inventing the piano. Two of his pianos still exist. The case of one, dated 1720, is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City; the other, dated 1726, is in a museum in Leipzig, Germany.
Early Evolution of the Piano
Beginning about 1725, when the noted German organ maker Gottfried Silbermann of Freiberg adopted Cristofori's action, the next major developments took place in Germany. Perhaps the most important contribution was made by Johann Andreas Stein of Augsburg, who is credited with inventing an improved escapement that became the foundation of the “Viennese” piano praised by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and favored by most German composers of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Twelve masters from central Germany migrated to London about 1760 and established the English school that, under John Broadwood and others, turned to the production of pianos of a stronger build, resembling those of our own day. The French manufacturer Sébastien Erard founded the French school in the 1790s, and in 1823 created the double action that is still in general use. By this time artisans in all Western nations were working to perfect the pianoforte. Numerous improvements were and are still being made in design and construction. Germany and the United States have long been distinguished for fine pianos, notably those of the German firm founded by Karl Bechstein and the American firms of Baldwin, Mason & Hamlin, Steinway, and Chickering. The pianos of the Austrian Bösendorfer firm are also highly respected.
The compass of the early piano was, like that of the harpsichord, only four, or at most, five octaves, but it has gradually increased to a compass of more than seven octaves as structural changes allowed for increases in tension amounting to several tons.
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Modern Structure
of the Piano.
The frame is usually made of iron. At the rear end is attached the string plate, into which the strings are fastened. In the front is the wrest plank, into which the tuning pins are set. Around these is wound the other end of the strings, and by turning these pins the tension of the strings is regulated.
The soundboard, a thin piece of fine-grained spruce placed under the strings, reinforces the tone by means of sympathetic vibration.
The strings, made of steel wire, increase in length and thickness from the treble to the bass. The higher pitches are each given two or three strings tuned alike. The lower ones are single strings made heavier by being overspun—that is, wound around with a coil of thin copper wire.
The action is the entire mechanism required for propelling the hammers against the strings. The most visible part of the action is the keyboard, a row of keys manipulated by the fingers. The keys corresponding to the natural tones are made of ivory or plastic; those corresponding to the chromatically altered tones, of ebony or plastic.
The pedals are levers pressed down by the feet. The damper, or loud pedal, raises all the dampers so that all the strings struck continue to vibrate even after the keys are released. The soft pedal either throws all the hammers nearer to the strings so that the striking distance is diminished by one-half, or shifts the hammers a little to one side so that only a single string instead of the two or three is struck. Some pianos have a third, or sustaining, pedal that does not raise all the dampers, but keeps raised only those already raised by the keys at the moment this pedal is applied. The use of these pedals can produce subtle changes in tone quality. Many upright pianos have been built in which the application of a pedal interposes a strip of felt between the hammers and strings so that only a very faint sound is produced.
According to the shape of the case, pianos are classified as grand, square, and upright. The square form (actually rectangular) is no longer built. For use in private homes it has been entirely superseded by the upright or vertical piano, which takes up far less room. Grand pianos are built in various sizes, from the full concert grand 9 feet long, to the parlor or baby grand, give or take about 5 feet long.
Upright pianos include the late 19th-century cottage piano, of which the upright grand is merely a larger form. The modern spinet and console pianos are small uprights related to the cottage piano. In the upright pianos the strings run vertically, or diagonally, from the top to the bottom of the instrument. Uprights and small grands are sometimes overstrung; that is, the bass strings are stretched diagonally across the shorter treble strings, thereby gaining extra length and improved tone quality. The combined tension of the strings on a concert grand piano is about 30 tons, on an upright about 14.
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1) Keep your piano out of direct sunlight. Direct sunlight will cause a localized area of dry moisture content in the air. In fact, bright direct sun can subject your piano or any other object it falls upon to conditions that equal or surpass that of the Sahara desert.
2) Keep your piano out of drafts of outside air. Just as direct sunlight can cause a dry area, air wafting in through an outside door or window can subject your piano to a sudden moist flow of air. Pianos are made of wood and wood expands and contracts when the moisture content in the air around it changes. The finish material that is on the wood cannot expand and contract as much as the wood can so your finish will degrade if the wood is asked to move too much. Also the glue joints of your piano will eventually fail if subjected to extremes of moist or dry air. In addition the tone of hammers can vary between extremes of humidity and the action can perform differently. Sticking keys is one of the problems that crops up in moist environments. Player pianos can develop leaks if the wood is subjected to extreme swings that cause the air chambers to crack open or the pouches to shrink.
3) Keep the air around the piano clean. Contaminants such as dust or cigarette smoke will build up on the piano in places that are too complex to be able to remove it without rebuilding. After a time the sound board will become ugly with dirt and grime as well as the plate, keys, action, etc if the air in the room is full of these contaminants.
4) Keep your piano tuned at least once a year. Twice is better and if your piano is tuned frequently, the tuner doesn't have to move the tuning pins very much at all. The less the pins and strings have to be moved the more likely they are to stay where you put them. The result of this is that your piano will stay in tune better if tuned at least once a year. |
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5) Have the hammers reshaped and replaced as they become worn. Grooved piano hammers spoil the tone of the piano and can cause premature wear on the shanks and flanges (the hinges that they swing on.) The grooves in a worn hammer mate with the strings like the teeth in a comb. But when you press the una corda pedal these grooves are shifted on a grand. When a badly grooved hammer strikes the strings in the shifted position it puts stress on the flanges as the hammer tries to slide sideways into the grooves. On an upright, if the hammers are badly grooved and the action parts happen to become misaligned with use (not uncommon) then the same problem will develop. In addition, if the hammers are reshaped and revoiced frequently as they wear then the technician is better able to quickly and cheaply restore them to a very good condition. Hammers that have been allowed to get really bad are very hard to bring back, if they can be brought back at all.
6) Have the action regulated about every five years to ten years depending on how much use it gets. For a concert artist who plays his/her piano for eight hours a day, the action may need to be regulated several times a year to keep it performing at its best.
7) A word about humidity control. There is a system for humidity control made by Dampp Chaser that can help to keep the damage described above from occurring to your action, sound board and pin block. These systems are excellent in preserving your piano and are availble through Piano Trends at very reasonable costs. Think of these systems as a good insurance policy. they help keep the right amount of moisture in and out of your piano. The absolute best way to preserve your piano is to maintain a very even humidity in your home. A humidity level of 42% is ideal for pianos. It is also ideal for your other furniture - not to mention how great it is for your sinuses!! By installing good quality humidity control into your home you can ensure that your piano will live long and happily. Also, it is best to keep your piano away from heat sources, sunlight, outside doors, open windows, leaky windows or doors and outside walls that don't have modern vapor barriers built into them.
All you have to do is see a piano that has been kept for fifty years in a room that is very clean and never swings in humidity in the slightest to understand how important humidity and dust control are. Such a piano will look nearly new.
8) One last and very important point to make in the preservation of pianos. Never try to move a piano yourself and never try to restore or refinish one yourself. Pianos should be moved by professionals. They are far too heavy, bulky and expensive to be moved by amateurs safely. Also, piano restoration is a craft that takes years to perfect. A poorly done, amateur refinish or restoration attempt will increase the actual cost of having it done later by a professional and will also reduce the fair market value of the piano |
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| What goes into the making of a fine musical instrument like a piano? The Blue book of pianos can answer that question! For details on this subject go to Piano Construction and Scale Design and see how a piano comes to life! Let us know if you have any questions after you read the material. We are here to assist you. |
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| Museum of Music Making
Just what is the Museum of Music Making What is the Museum of Making Music? Founded in 1998 under NAMM’s organizational umbrella and with its sponsorship, the Museum of Making Music explores the multifaceted history of the American music products industry from its beginnings in the 1890s to today. Housed at NAMM Headquarters in Carlsbad, California (north San Diego county), the Museum tells stories of hard work, challenge, inspiration and pioneering innovation, and reveals the profound relationship between the industry, popular music, and global culture. In addition, it reveals the unique and often unknown story of the music products industry to the general public. |
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