Jaz Pianist - what a beautiful arrangement. How much of that sound-proofing stuff do you have to spread around to make a difference? I'm scared to death my new piano is going to blow my husband right out of the house! Also - do you guys think I should go with a 5X8 rug or a 8X10. My room is rectangular - 13X20 but one end is narrower because the fireplace juts into it (I don't use the fireplace - never fear!) I plan on putting the keyboard in the 9' wide section and the tail heading towards the 13 foot wide - piano going the long way of the room. Does that make sense? I just got rid of all my carpet and put down wood laminate and I don't want the dust and allergen problems of carpet with too many rugs, but am wondering if 5X8 is going to be enough to help reduce sound. ALso - should I put it directly under the piano or what?

Backside's fine, thanks for asking, Ed. How have you been? Zero-gravitied (or whatever it's called) in any airplanes lately?

Jodi

ok how do you add pic on here of thing you like to show people

pianolady: First, you need to find someplace to host your photo. If you have a website set up, that's a good place to do it. After you've uploaded your photo, copy the link address. Next start a new post on this thread and paste the link address. If you want to make the image appear when the thread is viewed then you have to add [IMG] before the link and [/IMG] after. Make sure to include the brackets. Try it and see what happens.
Jon

Hi teachum,
I'm no acoustics expert, but I do know a small rectangular shaped room is not ideal from an acoustics standpoint. (Mine is 16x36 with an 8' ceiling and a half-wall separating the two spaces).
I think things like furniture, drapes, bookcases, and area rugs are probably the best for a living-room type space, partially because they are easily changeable. There have been some recent discussions about the floor material, and people seem to have different experiences. Should be easy to experiment with rugs under the piano, though. Probably hard to know until you get the piano there and listen to it.
My situation is probably a little unique since I record my piano all the time, but didn't want to close-mic it, and didn't want the poor acoustics of a small room, so I was going more for a deadening effect, and have a fair amount of sound-absorbing material around - probably more than most folks would want.

JazPianist - one other thing - I have a cathedral ceiling'd room - 12 foot or so with that acoustical stuff on it. That should help I would think. Let's hope so.

PianoGirl - People here sent me to photobucket.com to put my pix on. It was a piece of cake!

Teachum,
I think a cathedral ceiling will be a big advantage!

Jaz - Whew - I think so too. I told my hubbie he can just wear those ear protector thingies!

What part of Idaho are you in Jaz?

You're going to have a sweet setup when you get your new piano. Must be hard to wait. I had to wait about two weeks for my Samick and that was hard enough, even though it was just replacing a baby grand.

You are right about that. Idaho Falls is a whole 'nother world than NI.

JazPianist/Teachum,

I too am getting a room ready for my grand. Today was my first day - got the splash tiles removed with a hammer and chisel. We will hire someone to break apart the pool and tile floor. I'm looking for a nice light mossy green color to paint the walls - something calming. I also need to talk to my husband's friend who does windows about soundproof windows since there's a neighbor not too far from that room - and since I like to practice at night. Then, I may possibly get that UV filtering film for the skylights and one window where the sun shines directly in, and install those up-down windows shades. That is, after we get new flooring with the soundproof material. We'll probably end up installing carpet in that room, but not too plushy. I'll have to call the Homasote company in NJ about their soundproof flooring - whether it actually absorbs the sound, or reflects it back into the room. They were already closed when I just called.

Although not perfectly rectangular, the room is about 21' x 14', and part of it has a 9' ceiling, and part has a 14' angled ceiling with 2 skylights. There's a bay window also so I'll have to have a cushioned bench made there for the cats to sleep.

I hadn't planned on getting a grand so soon, but now that it's coming in November, my husband wants to get the room ready right away. Sounds good to me!

Teachum, it's exciting isn't it, to prepare a piano room?

Sleepingcats,
That should be a great (grand) piano room. I hope you'll keep us posted with your progress.

Yes - it is! But I am exhausted. We ended up doing the drywall finishing ourselves in our new room - what a job that is! Texturizer everywhere! I was up at 6:00 this morning painting. The windows went in today and hopefully we can start putting in the flooring on Wednesday. I have to go back to school on Wednesday so I can't spend all day working on it anymore. The piano room is actually ready - it's just got living room furniture in it! But I think I can get it in no more than two weeks. I'm playing my spinet on an enclosed back porch right now. I had some young bucks muscle it out there for us so that we can get all the new flooring in. Poor thing - demoted to the dog/cat porch/bedroom. It started life with me in a garage while we remodeled and now it's sort of come full circle - living in a porch while it awaits moving to my classroom! Sleeping cats - your room sounds great. I don't have to worry about neighbors as we live on 10 acres - I just have to worry about my husband's ears!

Well I finally took some pictures last week and got them uploaded so here is my piano room. Please don't look at the dark spots on the carpet next to the pedals (I need to get a little rug for under there). Last weekend I also got a little 4 track recorder and a couple mikes so those are missing from the photos.
The thing I really noticed after taking the photos is how much I need some artwork on the painted wall; it just looks so big and empty, well eventually we'll get there. You actually have to click on the photobucket album link to see the room from an angle which gets that wall.

Photobucket Album

Very nice, Cathy! I really like your lamp. Does it provide sufficient lighting? The basket with all your scores is another good idea for keeping the area neat.

Thanks Plays - I do like the lamp and couldn't do without it since the only other lamp in the room is a small table lamp the doesn't shed nearly enough light. It sheds plenty of light for the music but when I'm playing at night sometimes I'm distracted by the keys being kind of shadowy. I don't think it's from lamp just not enough overall light in the room. I just got the basket (a whole $3 at PierOne), I just got so tired of having this towering stack of music always on the piano and if it's something I'm working on or I want to keep fresh, I hate having to dig through the cabinet for it. Somehow I just noticed I still seem to have some stacks even with the basket :rolleyes: but they're not as tall as they used to be. Oh well, I'm just destined to be cluttered.

Cathy

Lovely piano Cathy! If it were me though, I think I would move it around so I could see something besides the corner. One of the biggest advantages of a grand, I think, is being able to look over the piano and see your audience or a nice view out the window while playing.

Ditto what Bob said about the corner. And oh yeah - the piano is very pretty! I like your thingy on the wall too!

Cathy,

Beautiful piano! I like the basket idea as well. I'll have to find something like that when I get my grand. With my upright it's easy to pile everything on top of it.

Thanks Bob, Teachum and sleepingcats!
I've been thinking the same thing about the position of the piano but the room is kind of small. Of course I have to convince my husband to help me move it, he's kind of gun shy since when we move heavy things he figures he'll be repositioning more than once before I figure out exactly how I want it .

A friend of mine builds furniture and he made me the sheet music cabinet that is against the wall. Very convenient for storing all the extra music.

Cathy

From what little I can see of your room, it looks like you only have three other options for the piano placement.

1. Against the windows which is probably only feasible if these are north facing windows. It's frequently recommended that the piano not be placed against an outside wall, especially if the wall isn't well insulated. Mine is placed against an outside wall with no insulation at all though.

2. Against the wall with the doorway. This placement would depend on the distance between the doorway and the window wall. Again, sunlight would also possibly play a role.

3. It appears the best position would be against the wall with the music art on it. Possibly with the tail angled away from the wall if there's enough room, to give a better view of the outdoors and the audience. If not, at least the audience isn't staring at your back and you can still occasionally glance out the window.

To try and get the move down to just a single effort, take lots of measurements and move your bench around to see what it's like in each position. (where you can of course )

What a fantastic music cabinet!!!! I'm just taking up woodworking, but it'll probably take me a couple of years before I have that kind of expertise with cabinetry.

Kathy:

Wow your piano is amazing! I love the seat and the music art on the wall. It's a great room.


In fact.... grrrrr .... to everyone who has a grand piano.


p.s. all the pictures I've seen so far are brilliant.

Hey everyone - the room is ready! Now all I have to do is wait for the piano to arrive. They can't deliver until 9/24 so now I have to hurry up and wait! We have done 550 square feet of flooring since Friday night. I am exhausted and school starts tomorrow! Maybe I'll just play with them the first day instead of making them do any work - or maybe we will all take naps! I wish!!

P.S. - Here is room "sans" piano. The picture is actually intended to show the new rug that just arrived. The piano will have it's back (keyboard) to the landing facing out into the part of the room you cannot see.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v369/teachum/PICT0870__2.jpg

Just bumping this to show you guys my new rug that just arrived. I edited last post to add pic of it. 8 days!

Teachum - Nice room I missed it the first time you posted glad it got a bump back up. Nice rug and love the wood floors and the stone work on the fireplace. Can't wait to see the update with the piano in it!!

Cathy

nice rug

Cathy, I love your music cabinet! Wish I had a friend cabinet-maker. I've been looking all over for something exactly like that for my music. And I have the exact same music staff & notes art on my wall too! (It's much heavier than it looks isn't it?) Really heavy metal. Beautiful piano -- very inviting place to play.
Virginia (from Virginia)

Thanks Virginia - I know I looked all over to find a music cabinet and couldn't find what I wanted in the wood/finish I wanted. It was really nice to be able to sit down with my friend and describe what I wanted to do and then have him actually make it a reality.

Bob - BTW Thanks for the pointers I really like the idea of being able to see people and out the window when I play. I think I have my husband convinced but he wants to wait till Thanksgiving when he'll have some folks here that he can convince into helping with the moving.

Teachum,

The room looks lonely - it is just waiting for a piano to fill the space. Anxioux to see it when it finally arrives.

Jennifer

Old Yamaha GC1A
[img]http://us.f2.yahoofs.com/bc/40d91128_1b23/bc/My+Music/panarama.jpg?BCyj2TBBg2CZSzE1[/img]
[img]http://us.f2.yahoofs.com/bc/40d91128_1b23/bc/My+Music/keys_y.jpg?BCyj2TBBFXrxmX0G[/img]

Replaced with Steinway, June '04
[img]http://us.f2.yahoofs.com/bc/40d91128_1b23/bc/My+Music/profile.jpg?BCyj2TBBhFDZiEEl[/img]
[img]http://us.f2.yahoofs.com/bc/40d91128_1b23/bc/My+Music/keys_s.jpg?BCyj2TBBln4AOKbr[/img]

Thanks for looking :-)