Acoustic
About 30 years ago, after not having access to a piano for over 10 years, I was finally able to purchase a Kawai upright. I enjoyed playing for a few years, but after going back to work, it mostly sat under a cover to keep it from getting dusty.
Since I wasn’t playing very much, I decided to pass it on to my daughter when she moved into a house with enough room for a piano.
Her family now live in the apartment across the hall from me, so I have access to it pretty much whenever I want.
Digital
These days, my primary piano is a Yamaha P-515, which I purchased in 2019; I am very happy with it.
For me, there are a number of advantages to having a digital piano:
- It never goes out of tune. I love it!
- Being able to practice with earphones. I live in an apartment, so being able to play with earphones is an absolute necessity. I’m also pretty sure that my husband would never put up with listening to me practice. And, definitely, listening to somebody practice isn’t much fun. I have a rather high tolerance because I grew up listening to my mother practice, but I totally understand that most people really can’t handle hearing the same three notes over and over again.
- Portability. Since I bought it, my piano has resided in three different homes. In our current home, I originally set it up on one floor, but decided to move it to another location early this year, which suits me better. It’s heavy enough that I can’t move it by myself, but it’s pretty easily done with two people.
Sounds – Pianoteq 7
The Yamaha P-515 comes with a pretty nice set of sounds, but I felt that it wasn’t quite realistic enough. I found my solution with a program called Pianoteq. This runs on a laptop which is connected to my piano. Pianoteq offers a number of modelled pianos. I currently have the Steinway Model D (comes in both German and NY versions), the C. Bechstein DG, and the Steingraeber E-272. Pianoteq provides the capabilities to tweak all kinds of settings for each piano, but since I mostly just want to play the piano, I haven’t played around with that too much. You can learn more about Pianoteq here.
Last Updated on July 10, 2022