Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Digital - Practicing at low volume, dangerous?

I'm interested to know wether any of you have encountered the same problems I have.

I live in a flat in London and have to be wary of upsetting the neighbours with loud music, I also try not to drive my wife crazy with loud piano practice. I invariably play at quite low volume compared to that of an acoustic piano.

When I had my first piano lesson for 27 years I got quite a shock. What I thought was quiet controlled playing was a clangorous, lumpen mess. I should have expected this as I had noticed some bad things when I practiced at higher volume on my speakers or on headphones.

I have definitely been lulled into a false sense of my progress. I think the physical clunking of the keys also helps hide a multitude of sins.

• Touch/Dynamic - I think I'm playing pianissimo when I'm not.

• Pedal - I don't notice how lazily I let my foot just sit on the sustain pedal on various sequences.

• Rhythm - what I have heard as reasonably smooth is jerky in timing and inconsistent in dynamic.

.......the list goes on.

I will try to solve the problem , more time on headphones ( not always comfortable or practical ) and more time at higher volume on the speakers. I'll also try to be a litle more critical full stop.

Chris

I had a similar issue with my synth. Soon after getting it I noticed a 'special button' that made the piano sound like it was in a concert hall. A slight far-away echo and a touch of sustain. I loved the effect and always used it. Then one day I played without it and realised it was covering up lots of mistakes so I never used it again. Although my synth is over 20 years old it was the first keyboard to use digitally recorded sounds from real instruments so the plain grand piano sound is nice enough without any effects anyway but the fancy button clouded that.


The manual says to take full advantage of the after touch and velocity sensitive features the volume on the keyboard should always be at maximum. I play it through an amplifier so although the keyboard volume is on max I can lower the volume via the speaker volume control when using headphones which I do most of the time.

I forgot to add that the keys are unweighted and to ensure my fingers are excercised for when I get a real piano I've been playing at full force all the time which throws any dynamics out the window. I only noticed this when I recorded myself and played it back. I now make an effort to vary the strength which has made the music sound more individual and will make the keys last longer.

Chris,

I have to agree that if you want more control of the dynamics of your digital then you should be practicing at a higher volume level.

Rich

Hi toucanjunky.

I practice daily on a digital piano. It's perfect for learning the notes and structure of a piece and for being able to practice at all hours. That's where I feel the real benefit of a digital piano ends. To really get the pieces to sound musical, I feel that the only thing for it is to get to my acoustic piano when I can, or any piano I can get my hands on for the finer touches and real world feel of playing a real piano. I'm only interested in playing what people call 'classical music' so the touch and variety of tone I'm looking for can't really be squeezed out of a digital piano.

So to answer your question "Digital - Practicing at low volume, dangerous?" .....I think yes if that's all you do as you've noticed. If you want a musical, pianistisc sound you need to vary your practice time up, by turning it up when you can, avoiding the fancy effects they have to distract you from what you should be focussing on and getting to a real piano as often as you can.

Whilst the headphones do cut out the clunky sound of the action, you'll still want to keep the volume down and limit the time on them to avoid damaging your hearing.

Good luck and keep practicing.

Maybe you could work out a compromise where you play at louder volumes while your neighbor/wife is at work or out or otherwise wouldn't be bothered, supplemented by low-volume work other times.

It really depends what you want to play. If you want to play and program pop/ hip-hop music, then what you have is perfect. If you are looking to play intermediate to advanced music on a real piano down the track, unfortunately the only thing for it in the digital world is hammer action weighted keys. Apart from learning the notes, there is no benefit for your finger strength from playing a synth. To me it's kinda like learning to walk in zero gravity. But each to their own as they say...it's great that you love playing and want to progress, so who knows where you'll be in the future. Any practice is better than no practice.

From my experience, many teachers refuse to teach students who practice on un-weighted keybaords from about grade2 and above, some earlier.

Good luck and keep practicing!

I have a digital at home and it definitely is different and requires 'different' practice. I save my scales, sightreading, noodling, learning notes and fingering of new pieces etc. for home practice. Working on dynamics and touch is really only effective on an acoustic - which I am fortunate enough to be able to practice on for a couple of hours most days.

Pedaling is the worst. I can leave the pedal down on my digital with out even realizing it!! Can't do THAT on an acoustic. I have weighted keys though and set to the hardest is very comparable to the acoustics I practice on so that hasn't been a problem.

I haven't noticed a volume issue. I keep it low because I find that, on my piano, forte when it is set louder really sounds 'digital'.... Of course even with headphones on, the silent 'thumping' when I'm playing fast or forte measures annoys the TV viewers in my house so I don't do too much of that at home anyway.