Teach Yourself to Play Piano : How to Choose Your Piano



Posted: Friday, July 20, 2007

by
http://www.sunshinejewellery.we.bs

How often have you heard some piano music and thought ‘I wish I could play piano’? Well, you can! Perhaps you think you are too old now or have no time. Maybe you can’t afford to pay for lessons and fear you won’t be able to understand the music. Anyone can teach themselves to play the piano, starting at any age.

I only started to learn to play the piano when I was twenty-one and while it may have been easier to learn as a child, I have been able to learn and progress by teaching myself. Here’s how I went about it.

The first thing to do is choose your instrument. These days you don’t have to go for an expensive acoustic piano. Maybe start with a cheaper electric keyboard and see how well you progress before investing in a piano. The only advice I would give about keyboards is get one with full size keys so that the move to the piano is easier. Also try to get one that has dynamic keys. This is means that when you press a key slowly you get a softer note and if you press it quickly a louder note sounds. Not only does this greatly enhance the music you are playing, giving you more confidence, it is one of the fundamental ways music is expressed on the piano and learning to play dynamically early on makes it easier later.

Choosing a piano is a personal decision. Make sure to play many different pianos to learn the sound that you like before making a choice. However, a piano which is overstrung with underdamper action is best. How do you know? Look inside. All the hammers should be visible with their different sizes of felt, this is underdamper action. (If most of the hammers are covered and only the right hand side ones visible this is overdamper action) Underdamper actions are generally more positive in their reactions but obviously this is your personal preference. Next look at the tuning pins, which the strings are attached to. A set of strings will run diagonally to the left then another set to the right, this overlap is overstringing. If there is no overlap it is straight strung. Overstringing improves the sound quality.

The most important thing about choosing your instrument is to get one you are comfortable with and like the sound of. I am assuming you are not aiming to become a concert pianist so my advice is make your musical journey a personal one: the piano is the place you can escape to at the end of a hard day and just be yourself.

This Article has been viewed 99 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
No comments yet.
We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.