Hi everyone,

I'm looking to buy my first piano. Until recently, I had resigned myself to going digital because I know that my husband and I will have a least a couple moves ahead of us before we will be able to buy a home. But then I realized that the cost of a digital piano that would be even remotely satisfying to play would be only slightly less than getting a very decent acoustic. This just makes getting a digital even harder to stomach.

My main concern about getting an acoustic piano is that we will probably have to be in an apartment/condo type situation in the future. Right now we live in military base housing and have a pretty decent situation for a piano - ground level and the only shared living room wall is against the neighbor's garage. We will be here for the next 3 years, but after that we will be getting out of the military and will probably be moving into some type of apartment for at least a few years before we can purchase a home.

My signature will give you an idea of my skill level. Another consideration is that I taught private lessons before we moved here, and I would like to get a studio up and running again. Thoughts anyone? Thanks!

Anna T.
North Carolina

If you want to teach out of your home, you will need to abide by the rules for a home business. Those could be zoning regulations or condo rules or any manner of other restrictions. If you can abide by them, chances are you should have no trouble with the piano.

I think you would have to find a place that will tolerate piano playing, as well as teaching. Since you are still on the base you have that option right now. You might look into renting a townhouse, the economy is in your favor for renting.

Finding a place that will tolerate piano playing will be easier than finding an association that will allow piano lessons.

Your problem is not a problem yet, you have not moved.

You can also look into renting a house, as a veteran myself, sometimes military families rent there homes due to overseas assignments. This would probably be your best option for your two requests, 1. Acoustic Piano 2. Teaching.

Pianos (acoustic) and apartments are very difficult, but not impossible.

I'd rent a home. A teacher I used to know got kicked out of his apartment when neighbors complained. I had a digital in an apartment once, and the downstairs neighbor could hear the key thumping though the floor as I played - so sometimes even headphones don't do the trick.

In the long run your going to want one of each. So by a decent digital now, and then later, after your housing changes, you can get an acoustic piano too. Most pianist (keyboarders) I know have both digital and acoustic. And many studios use digital's for lessons.

It just dawned on me what the world needs: Apartment and condo buildings just for musicians only. Everybody plays, you have to audition to get in....

But then I realized that the cost of a digital piano that would be even remotely satisfying to play would be only slightly less than getting a very decent acoustic. This just makes getting a digital even harder to stomach.

Are you aware of the AvantGrand series from Yamaha? You'd have a digitally sampled grand with the action from a very slightly modified C3 - a grand piano action. When you factor in the savings of never spending one cent on tunings, it makes the decision to buy easier.

By the way, I spent 20 years in the military as a musician and I know full well the army has rules and regulations for when you can practice. Fortunately, where I was stationed they placed the band in its own housing area. Some called it Bandland, others Peyton Place.

Grand and apartment here.

1) check your contract and talk with the property manager.
double check the law (max decibel admitted in the confining property and hours... Houston is 68db between 7am to 10pm and 65 10pm to 7am... and that is pretty damn quiet), this property is piano "friendly" with 2 teacher already and multiple piano players.

2) be on the first floor... makes everything easier.

3) on a corner helps... bottom line reduce the number of direct confining neighbor as much as you can.

4) if it's a vertical... don't aim the soundboard to another apartment, if it's a grand keep it closed, at least most of the time... keep the music stand over the piano completely closed.

5) common sense.

I have a small appartment and am in the same boat. Well probably even worse than you, I have 4 neighbours, three of which directly connecting to the room with the piano.

I played all DPs (yes, including all AvantGrands that some are so lyrical about and that are just as expensive as a pretty good acoustic grand) and even a moderate acoustic upright sounded way better. Then I looked further and found that even a moderate ground outplayed the acoustic. I ended up with a mid-size grand...

Oh and I forgot, IMHO a grand has to be fully open to sound good. Otherwise it will sound nasal...

if your set on an apartment, i think newer construction would be the way to go...they're built better than older apartments and thus giving you better sound dampening through out the building. I would only worry though, if you were looking to buy a grand. There are some very loud uprights out there, but I feel they're only loud because the sound is projected right back into your face when you play, and not so much projected outward as if from a grand.

Will you have a choice of apartment when you move?

Then don't move into a lightly-constructed apartment house, say hello to your neighbors before moving in, tell them what you're going to do so they are disturbed as little as possible, and check the house and state rules to make sure they allow for pianos.

If you do all that and your current place allows a piano too, I see no major troubles...

Hi,

I play an upright one hour/day in an apartment with neigbours below, above and on one side, and I've not get any complains yet, and you can be sure that my playing is not specially good: I am a beginner .

One thing I did when I got the piano is to purchase Piattino caster cups... not sure how effective they are but they are supposed to help to avoid vibrations going through building structure... I also got some acoustic foam and put it in the wall just at the back of the piano (directly in front of the soundboard)... that is supposed to absorb part of the vibrations from the soundboard.

I know my neighbours can hear me, but I guess that the sound level they hear is not loud enough to feel annoyed by my playing. The building is very important when talking about sound transmission: some buildings are more sound-proof than others. And also the tolerance level of your neigbours is very important: intolerant ones must be avoided.

Regards,
Kurt.-

I also live in an apartment. I absolutely recommend Yamaha Avantgrand series. I own an N2 model, I replaced an acoustic Yamaha C1 with this one, and I'm happy.

Thanks to all who responded! I have decided to go acoustic. I talked with a friend from college who has been in two different apartments in the past few years,and has been playing AND teaching on an upright(along with her husband). She stressed getting a feel for the landlord/property manager before deciding to move in, and also getting things written in to the lease. And of course, trying to get ground level or end unit, or both.

It seems that careful planning can eliminate a lot of the potential problems, but of course, if something does come up you just have to be prepared for that. Maybe we will be able to rent a house, too. Now, to find the right piano!

I'm moving to an apartment building converted to condos, so I share your dilemma. To my ears, the latest Yamaha higher-end digital technology sounds fairly decent when played through fancy headphones (e.g., Bose noise cancelling phones). However, once the headphones are unplugged, the sound coming through the speakers of even Yamaha's best digital has been very disappointing to my ear, even though it keeps getting better with each new model.

I figured the answer was to get a Yamaha "Silent Piano" (U3SG) that is a combination of a very nice 52" upright with a sound that may not be to every classical player's liking but seems just right for many jazz players (I'm among them), plus an upscale digital component in the same piano. Turn the knob, plug in the headphones, and the real piano shuts off and the digital plays through the phones.

But used U3SGs were impossible for me to find. Even a NEW one was not to be found but instead had to be ordered. (Apparently it's rarely bought in the U.S.) It's taken Hamamatsu 5 months to make one up for me! Circumstances keep me from getting home for a couple of months but I can hardly wait!!!!

The piano dealer sells pianos arguably better than what I'm buying (Mason & Hamlin, Charles Walter, etc.) but told me the would very strongly recommend against ordering one of those without playing it first. Then they said what you hear so often--only Yamaha can make pianos that, at least when new, all sound exactly the same. They had me play a new U3, which I loved. They then said, "If you love that one, you'll love the one you're ordering." Indeed, my experience is the only U3s that sound different from each other are the old ones (affected by wear, the ultimate need for voicing, etc.). The problem with the new one is the cost: a whopping $13,300! Ouch.