Buying a piano is like buying a car: it’s a major investment, and choosing the right one takes time, research, legwork, and budgeting. And as an educator, you’re not just buying a piano for your personal use; you’re buying for dozens, if not hundreds, of eager students. But which one do you choose? There are stately grand pianos, tried-and-true verticals, or digital pianos and keyboards. Acoustic pianos have mostly stayed within the bounds of decades-long, perfected blueprints while their digital brethren continue to see technological innovation that makes them modern educational powerhouses. Choosing the right tool for the job can prove tricky. As an educator, you put your students’ educations at the forefront. Sweetwater shares that passion for teaching, so we created this helpful guide. Now, let’s find your students their next piano!
- Key Points to Consider Beforehand
- Acoustic vs. Digital: Which Do You Choose?
- A Note for When Buying Used
Key Points to Consider Beforehand
Before you set sail on the search for your newest educational instruments, there’s a range of questions to consider. Once you go through this checklist, you’ll be poised to look at each possibility with a discerning eye.
What’s Your Budget? What Do You Want from the Instrument?
When buying a piano or keyboard, it’s best to consider its price from various perspectives. Consider how much money you want to spend, the estimated cost of tuning, maintenance and repairs, the resale value, the highest and lowest quality of instrument you would accept, and how long the instrument would serve your students.
When purchasing an acoustic piano, consider the cost of the instrument throughout its entire working life. Sometimes, a new piano with a larger initial price tag will cost less in the long run compared to the upkeep cost of a cheap, used piano that may have significant overlooked problems. A digital piano/keyboard can circumvent the need for tuning and mechanical repairs. But it’s also good to know that acoustic pianos, when treated with care, will hold their value for years to come in a way that digital pianos will not. When looking for an instrument, make sure to factor travel and piano moving expenses into your budget, too. While most stores will deliver your new piano for free, it’s best to ask and, if needed, account for that possible (and potentially substantial) expense.
When working with a tight budget, you’ll be thrilled to learn that there’s a multitude of full-featured, well-playing, and gorgeous-sounding digital pianos and keyboards out there that will meet your students’ educational needs. With digital pianos, sacrificing the piano feel for a technologically equipped keyboard hardly seems like a sacrifice. Digital pianos can last upwards of 10 years, and most will still be functional when the budget for the next generation of instruments has accrued. At the same time, digital pianos don’t hold their value as well as acoustic pianos, so reselling will be a different game.
What Kind of Musical Applications Will It Be Used For?
The kind of instrument you purchase hinges on the musical applications you will use it for. A college-level classical piano student will need a different instrument than a high school jazz band. And a tutor who provides private lessons will need a different instrument than a general music-class educator. Choose a grand when uncompromised tonality, responsiveness, and sound quality are paramount, such as for college piano majors and school performances. For private lessons, choir rooms, general music classes, or musical institutions, you can’t go wrong with an upright piano, a grand piano where budget allows, and sometimes, a digital piano. For more contemporary musical genres, high school jazz bands, beginner students, or university-level labs, digital pianos/keyboards are best. Does your school teach only classical music? Or do you have students that play several different styles? There are no hard-and-fast rules here, so think about your precise applications, and go from there.
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A young student at a Kawai vertical piano — a great choice for private lessons!
What Room Dimensions Are You Working In?
One of the most critical aspects to consider when choosing the right piano is understanding the space it will inhabit. Having too much piano for a room is just as true as having too little piano for a room. These considerations come to bear on acoustic pianos far more than on digital instruments with adjustable volume control. Regarding room suitability, you should first measure the space where the instrument will stay for most of its life. In this measurement, make sure to leave room for the pianist and bench. Even laying down painter’s tape or a cutout of piano sizes will help give you the best impression in terms of physical size.
A high school auditorium with a Yamaha C6 — a great choice for performances of advanced literature.
Next, think of the room in terms of reverberation and sound treatment. Students will inadvertently attack the keys of quiet pianos and gingerly press the keys of overloud ones. Matching a piano to a room will help your students develop correct playing techniques and sensitivities. Here’s a good rule of thumb: the combined length of the room’s walls should be around 10 times the length of a grand piano or the height of a vertical. Despite how a piano sounds in a demo room, it will not sound the same in your lesson room or classroom. Luckily, some piano manufacturers and music stores allow you to demo the piano in the space it will live. Make sure to ask about this, especially for concert grands.
How Often Will It Be Played?
Consider the amount of everyday usage. Is the piano needed for concert performances in a music school, or will it serve as a music-class piano for grade-schoolers? Acoustic pianos, even if undergoing sustained daily usage, will last upward of 20 years, while high-end uprights and grands could last around 50. Conversely, digital pianos last around 10 to 20 years. When buying an acoustic upright piano for sustained use, it’s best to look out for sturdy construction, toe-block legs, adequate space (both lengthwise and widthwise) for sheet music, and a locking lid and fallboard. A piano with those earmarks, made by a reputable manufacturer, is built like a tank and musically sound. A digital piano with weighted keys, heft to its body, and a slim control design is great as an everyday student instrument, but you can find a lot of value in almost any weighted-key keyboard.
What Are the Ages & Skill Levels of Your Students?
Your students’ ages and skill levels will dictate the relative level of instrument required. If you’re a music educator for K–12 classes, high school choirs, or musical institutions for young learners, then look for an acoustic piano with a locking lid and fallboard. This keeps inquisitive children from accidentally damaging the piano’s internal mechanisms. The newer a student is to the instrument, the less a top-tier grand piano is needed. However, it’s a good idea to start beginners out on weighted keys. That way, they can graduate to a better instrument while bringing their correct finger and pedal techniques to a more advanced instrument. College-level students and learners with advanced repertoires will need a grand piano that’s more than five-and-a-half feet long or an upright that exceeds 48 inches in length for the best sound quality.
How Portable Does It Need to Be?
Will the instrument live in one room, or will it get moved to other rooms? Will it need to get packed up and perform with a band at another school/performance hall? These questions will help narrow your choice to an acoustic or digital piano/keyboard. Even an acoustic grand can be moved with a piano truck (dolly), but consider how much you want to go through the effort of such a maneuver. If you purchase an upright piano that will need to change rooms often, then sturdy rubber casters and toe-block leg construction are must-haves. Conversely, digital pianos/keyboards are liberated from weight constraints and pack easily into padded cases.
Acoustic vs. Digital: Which Do You Choose?
In our modern age, why buy an expensive acoustic piano instead of a digital model anyway? Digitals sport tons of features, sounds, and even weighted keys. But truthfully, there is simply no substitute for an authentic acoustic instrument. With an acoustic upright or grand piano, the player can coax an incredible range of expression — from fast fortissimo to slow pianissimo. These instruments function via real mechanical pieces, and while today’s digital pianos and keyboards are adept at reproducing an acoustic’s characteristics, they cannot fully re-create the key feel, expression, sound, and intimacy of a real acoustic piano. Serious students will need a true acoustic somewhere down the line, as the instrument will help them advance in skill, encourage correct finger strength, and improve techniques in ways that a digital piano ultimately will not. That being said, digital pianos have become favorites for teaching labs, private lessons, school bands, and more. What they lack in acoustical resonance, they make up for in reproduced sound and educational features.
Vertical Pianos
When purchasing a vertical piano for piano lessons and music education, first check that the piano is structurally sturdy. The best pianos for educational institutions will have toe-block leg construction, robust framing and bracing, a full-width sheet-music rest, full-size keys, and a locking fallboard. As a rule, look for a piano in the range of 44 inches to 52 inches in height — anything smaller will have a compromised action and subpar sound capabilities. A piano with these attributes can last 25 to 50 years in an educational environment. The Yamaha P22 upright professional piano checks all these boxes, for example, making it a favored educational piano for schools and music educators across the globe. Other upright options, like this Roland LX708 digital piano bundle, capture the best of both worlds between the mass, functionality, and modeling of an acoustic piano and the benefits of digital aspects like Bluetooth, MIDI, and more.
Grand Pianos
Grand pianos are required for college piano majors, performing students, choir rooms, and other musical institutions where uncompromised responsiveness, sound quality, and key function are necessary. Because the soundboard of a grand piano lays vertically, a length of at least five-and-a-half feet to six feet will adequately provide the required expression, tone, and output. Anything longer will excellently suit concert spaces. It’s important to buy a long enough grand so that the key action and mechanisms are uncompromised. A grand piano can really fill a room with sound, so make sure that your teaching area has enough space or sound treatment to accommodate the voluminous output. The Yamaha C2X and the Yamaha C3XPE make perfect acoustic grand pianos for college-level pianists, choir rooms, and musical institutions teaching advanced literature and technical proficiency.
Digital Pianos & Keyboards
While vertical and grand pianos have the upper hand in responsiveness and sound quality, digital pianos and keyboards absolutely have a place in musical education. When the budget doesn’t allow for the purchase of an acoustic, it’s easy to come close in quality with a digital. As excellent starter instruments for new learners, digitals are useful for school bands and excel in university classrooms. Their portability makes them favorites for students and educators on the move. Free from the mechanical plagues that damage acoustic instruments, digital pianos and keyboards need less maintenance during their lifetimes. They’re also great choices for lesson rooms that don’t have reliable climates. Plus, full 88-weighted-key digital pianos can easily be purchased for under $1,000, with higher-end models tapping out at around $5,000.
Aspects of digital pianos and keyboards, such as built-in MIDI connections and Bluetooth capabilities, allow educators and students to interface like never before. Most digital instruments can connect to notation and music software, educational applications, and more to create rich, modern-day learning environments and teaching labs. For classes with many students, headphone output jacks for digital pianos and keyboards prove invaluable in teaching labs — the educator monitors through a lab controller, and the students can practice silently. Lastly, features like split keyboards, metronomes, interactive functions, pedal connections, and more make these sharp tools for students of any age and skill level.
When purchasing a digital instrument, weighted keys are king, and the quality of sound and playability is more important than the bells and whistles. Even for young learners, starting with weighted keys will set them up for success when transitioning to an acoustic instrument. A full 88-key keyboard is best. This way, your student has the same key range as a standard acoustic piano, allowing them to play any repertoire of an acoustic on the digital instrument. The more responsive the keybed, the better — graded hammer-action, weighted keys will get you as close to the response of an acoustic as possible. After that, look for the educational features mentioned above — MIDI, a metronome, etc. For educators running piano and key labs, keep your eyes peeled for deals that bundle the whole system, including controllers, keyboards, headphones, and other accessories. An instrument chosen with these criteria in mind is an instrument your students will love! The best news is that you can easily find such an instrument with a small budget.
A Note for When Buying Used
When the funds aren’t in the coffers for a brand-new instrument, it’s possible to secure a good instrument on the used market. When going the used route, the piano will need an inspection because there’s no manufacturer warranty, and they have shorter life expectancies. On a positive note, they can usually be resold for almost the same price you purchased them for due to minute depreciation. Keep your eyes on the lookout for green and red flags.
The first rule of thumb when buying a used instrument is to always take a piano technician with you. You can easily find techs near you through the Piano Technicians Guild, or you can give Sweetwater a call at (800) 222-4700 for recommendations. Secondly, don’t be taken in by low prices or free pianos — these instruments often hide compromised structural issues under the surface that can cost more than a new piano in the long run. If you find a piano from a respectable maker in good outward condition, then the piano tech can inspect the working parts to estimate any needed repair costs. Earmarks of a compromised piano can include buzzing, rattles, single keys that sound like two notes, deeply grooved hammer felt, cracked pin blocks, and so on.
If buying new or used still doesn’t fit the budget, and you know your students need an acoustic piano, then renting is also an option. Through renting, you aren’t tied down to a purchase and can even decide to rent or purchase a different instrument further down the road. Although, if you decide to purchase a piano you’re leasing, then the sum paid during the lease can count toward the total price of the piano. So, make sure you rent a piano that you, and your students, feel great about!
Piano Buying Tips
Here are a few tips to keep in mind while hunting for that next educational instrument:
- Steer clear of spinets and console pianos. These are vertical pianos 44 inches in height and under. Due to their shortened action, they are musically compromised. Spinets and consoles serve more as furniture than musical instruments.
- Studio pianos (44–47 inches) and upright pianos (48–52 inches) are best for lessons.
- When testing a piano, play several pieces from your students’ repertoires (as well as from your own) to check the responsiveness and sound.
- Check each pedal. If your digital piano/keyboard doesn’t come with pedals, then invest in a 3-pedal unit to go with the instrument.
- Always take a piano technician with you when buying used pianos.
- Take your time. Piano buying will not happen in a day. Consult the experts around you, and do plenty of research! After all, this piano will teach the next generation.
- Try several pianos of the same make and model. Each will play differently and have a slightly different tonality from the other. You can then choose the best one for your purposes.
- Be ready to negotiate the price. Again, piano buying is like car buying. There are usually discounts for institutional purchases (purchases of several pianos).
- The best-sounding and best-playing digital piano or keyboard trumps the one with the most sounds and other extraneous features.
- The more time you have to look, and the wider you cast your net, the better pianos and keyboards you will find.
Come Visit Sweetwater’s Piano Showroom
Have questions about the piano-buying experience? Sweetwater’s here to help along the way! In fact, you can visit our on-site Piano Showroom right here in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Our showroom is populated with grands, uprights, Clavinovas, digital pianos, and keyboards as far as the eye can see. We even sell used pianos. In the Piano Showroom, you can inspect, play, and explore the instruments to inform your choice. Our knowledgeable Sweetwater Sales Engineers and Showroom staff are on standby to field any questions you have. Also, don’t forget to check out Sweetwater’s Gear Exchange. Here, you’ll find tons of used digital pianos, keyboards, and other audio goodies. You can also sell your gear through the Gear Exchange.
The best part? It’s all sold through Sweetwater. That means you get dedicated service throughout the purchasing process and an instrument approved by our professionals. Plus, after purchasing a piano from Sweetwater, we’ll send a qualified piano technician 30 to 90 days after delivery to tune and address any tonal or mechanical differences. After this initial visit, you can retain the technician for future tunings and services or hire your own. It’s as easy as visiting our store or calling (800) 222-4700 to speak to one of our knowledgeable Sweetwater Sales Engineers.