Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Problems playing on teacher's piano

I am an advanced beginner who practices for several hours each day on a Roland DP990F digital piano. It is 2011 year model with touch sensitivity, weighted grand piano action (PHA II), and it does all the latest string resonances, etc. I get all of my pieces to sound nearly perfect on the DP990F, but have trouble when I go for my weekly lesson and play on the teacher's Steinway B grand. The Steinway keys feel extremely heavy and even clunky. It feels so different I get nervous and start to make mistakes on what was a perfectly polished piece at home. And, not only that, the whole time the teacher's in the background yelling "play harder" FORTE, LOUDER, etc. which then causes me to get more nervous and make even more mistakes on that piano. The teacher also keeps suggesting I go buy an upright, but that's not very practical or affordable right now. Why is this happening and what should I do ? Even if I did go finance an upright, wouldn't there still be some problems adjusting back and forth between the upright piano and the Steinway B ? I thought that modern digitals were perfectly acceptable for learning on ? Please share any experience, insights, or recommendations you have about this problem. It will be greatly appreciated.

Not good behaviour. If that was me I'd get another teacher. One with an upright.

Seriously, have you told your teacher?

it is normal to have issues moving from any instrument to another - like driving a car where the pedals have different biting points. You do get used to it after a while, and playing lots of different pianos helps.

My first piano has been un upright with heavy action, but I don't like that. Now I have a roland RD700NX with PHA III and I'm very happy with the action.

For a short periode I've had two teachers. One with a Petrov upright with heavy action and one with a grand with very light action.

For me it is a problem to adjust to a heavy action like you, when I switched to a DP. When I play the upright, I have a feeling of OMG, what an awful piano. Everytime this feeling gets stronger.

But I have no problem whatsoever with the grand. It is even much better than the action of my Roland. It has light play and the keys vibrate alot. I love to play the grand.

The PHA II and PHA III action are both good to learn on and it imitates a grand very good. It has even the same resistence curve of a key press of a grand.

Regarding your teacher, I would say there are two reasons why you should switch teachers.

First, you pay for lessons. So you would like to play a piano at your teachers that you like much better than the piano at home.

Second, your teacher should not distract you when you play. That's bad teaching.

That's like when you play pool. And when you are focussing for a shot, your friend is talking to you, hoping you would miss, lol.

Hi. My teacher has the same brand of piano I do, although I believe it is taller than mine. I still struggle with the different feel of her piano vs. mine. I believe hers is a bit smoother/lighter than mine.

Also, I find it louder. It is in a smaller room than mine is and the other day playing with the damper pedal I was stunned how loud the piano sounded. I don't think I noticed it much before that day. I find her piano and mine different even though they are the same brand and both uprights. I find I still can't control dynamics at all. At home I feel it's the problem of my piano, but then I've heard her play wonderfully on her piano with all sorts of dynamics so I know the instrument is more than capable. In other words more capable than me.

I only play on these 2 pianos and still struggle getting used to hers. As I play more and progress I am finding the transition easier. I have it on my to do list to see if it is possible to get practice time with a different piano (perhaps at the local conservatory) to see if this helps.

Getting used to a 'real' piano is not a bad thing. In the time I've been testing digitals I find I can play much smoother and better than when I play my home piano or other acoustics (grands or uprights). This tells me I have a long way to go in controlling my touch and the resulting sound.

P.S. I do agree your teacher shouldn't yell at you while you play. Perhaps talk with them and ask them to refrain from comments until you're done the piece. Yelling and teaching do not belong in the same sentence if you ask me.

I gotta add to this.

I practice mostly on a Casio AP-45 console DP, and I must say that when I play at lessons on my teacher's Steinway grand, I don't notice a difference. My acoustic upright, on the other hand, is a lot of work.

Thank you all for sharing your experiences and advice. I think I will mention it at the next lesson because the last few lessons were not good because of this issue. I will also see if there is some way I can play on different pianos.

Also, what about changing the touch sensitivity from N to H1 on the digital ? I know it doesn't change the actual weight of the keys, but will it make me play harder to get the same sound level and will that make the playing on the lesson piano a little better ?

Although I have an acoustic, I have a similar problem with one of the pianos in the studio - a grand with very heavy action. Today I went in with the attitude of "just mash it hard" and it worked much better

Seriously, I've been focussed on trying to make sure that I make each keystroke count all the way to the keybed. On my lighter action piano it doesn't matter much but feeling that on the heavier keyboard works better. But really you have to just get used to it.

I'm sure this is a rather common problem. But one point of view is to ask yourself what is your goal in learning to play? Are you trying to learn to play your teacher's piano or are you trying to learn to play your own piano? Or is your goal to be able to play any piano? I've been taking lessons for four years now and although differences in keyboard touch seemed to be a big deal at first, now it doesn't seem to matter as much. In fact I now enjoy trying different pianos and keyboards just to compare them to what I am used to.

I wouldn't let a teacher try to bully me into buying the piano they think I should have. Their goal is not necessarily your goal, (although it would be good if the two of you were both in agreement as to what your goal is).

Steinway's have some of the heaviest action, so it requires more force to press the keys. It's an adjustment for any piano player, and no, getting an upright isn't the answer, since the actions will still be different. You probably have a teacher that is anti-DP. Actually, every piano (even 2 exact models) will have different action. It's something you get used to. I find DP's to actually be more consistent in action. As to changing the touch settings on your DP, I always have to do this with a new board. Although it's less to change your behaviors and more teaching your keyboard where your dynamics are.

As to your teacher yelling, I agree, that's not helpful. Shouldn't be telling you to play louder. If he thinks dynamics are an issue, he should be SHOWING you how. For me that sounds just as counterproductive as shouting "PLAY IT BETTER!"

Playing on different instruments is a problem for most beginners. Even playing in different rooms can be challenging in the beginning. And playing an acoustic in any room is different from listening to yourself on a digital with or without headphones, particularly in terms of sustain and dynamic response.

I was fortunate that my first two teachers were associated with facilities that had a variety of instruments in a number of different rooms. I moved among different instruments a lot during my early lessons, and I also got to try out different spaces in order to appreciate the differences between small rooms and larger halls.

With practice and experience, it gets easier to move from instrument to instrument and room to room. Even if you don't encounter as much variety as some, keep working at it. If you can buy an upright some day, go for it, but then keep and play your digital too. More variety is better than less in this regard. The upright won't feel the same as you teacher's piano, and it certainly won't feel the same as any digital.

I am also a bit cautious about the critical comments directed toward your teacher here. They arise from very limited knowledge of your situation. Some of my teachers have been more imperious than others, too. But in the end, I appreciated them all and learned much from each one. On the other hand, if your teacher's style is consistently preventing you from learning, then it might indeed be time to move on.

I DIDD IN THE BEGINNING. IT WILL TAKE WHILE TO GET USED TO

I guess it's up to you to decide if your teacher's "style" works for you or not. You are paying the bill after all.

Regarding the teacher's suggestions that you move to an upright I would have to say it certainly helped my wife and I. Below is our experience....

My wife and I decided to take up the piano a bit less than 2 years ago and after playing a few acoustic pianos and a number of digital units we bought a Yamaha digital P155 and signed up for lessons. The practice room had both a higher-end Clavinova and a Yamaha acoustic P22. During the first year or so neither of us liked playing the acoustic and found it difficult to play with much control. This last fall, at the start of this years sessions, our teacher pushed us to use the P22 in the practice room. Shortly after we began noticing that we were having a difficult time getting much expression when practicing at home compared to what we could do during the lessons on the acoustic. I think we were also getting more accustomed to the more complex sound of the acoustic and the digital began sounding a little dull in comparison. We began looking in to an upgrade.

At first we were thinking of a digital upgrade and started trying out the newly released, higher-end Clavinova's as well as a N1 digital grand. They had a P155 at the store as well so we could quickly go from old to potential new piano. Between ourselves, the store staff and our teacher we spent several hours closely comparing about 4 pianos. The end result was that though the Clavinova's were a step up from the P155 it wasn't a convincing upgrade. The N1 has a beautiful key feel -- very much like a real grand that was sitting nearby -- but my wife and I both thought the sound was nothing special, especially for the price. I thought it sounded weak and artificial -- nothing like the acoustic grand. Since a real grand would not fit either the house or budget we began playing some of the uprights.

Long story a little less long -- we bought an upright U1 a month ago and are very happy with the piano. We both do much better playing our pieces during the lesson and find it much easier to repeat and reinforce what we learn at the lessons. I was a complete believer in the digital for the first year or so I don't think I would want to go back. As a salesperson put it -- as good as the digital's get they just don't have the soul of a real piano. Maybe the teacher's yelling is intended to prompt you to get some feeling out of the Steinway.

Good luck whichever route you chose...
Doug

Hi RB I have to play on different pianos constantly due to my crazy business travel schedule. As several people suggested here, each piano is different and takes a while to bring out the tone that you want.

One time I was practicing in a music store in East coast. The piano was one of the worst grand I ever played. When I almost gave up on the piano, a more seasoned pianist came in to the room and asked me if I could let him play the same piece. Of course!! He played the same piece much better than me. Under his fingers, the piano started singing. He told me he was a conductor of local amateur music group. He heard me play the piece he played so many times in his youth. I watched his fingers then something clicked. It's hard to explain. The difference was that he seem to be feeling & engaging the strings behond the keys much better than I.

I am getting better at understanding different pianos and adjusting how I play --- but not quite to the extent of this gentleman.

I have a digital and it took me months to adjust to the teacher's piano. Don't blame the piano too soon, it takes time.

What helped me:
- play "through" the keys, not "on" them (just my mental image). The digital piano has an very reliable and predictable pattern of resistance when you depress a key, and because of that, you can get away with just giving at an initial impulse and not following through. But this doesn't work on a real action. You need to follow through at least to the point of escapement. By using the image of playing "through" the keys, I find my playing is much more resilient when faced with a difficult (or variable) actions. (OK, the PHA mechanism on a digital will also have a point of escapement, but even then, it's so predictable that you don't need to follow through to it.)
- at lessons, be in the mindset that you need to "explore" the piano and use all your senses (touch, hearing) to do so. This keeps me to preoccupied to get nervous.

There may also be other reasons why you don't play as well as you expect at lessons, not connected with the piano.

I had some problems from time to time with my teacher's piano. Most notably, at times it was quite out of tune, which distracted me and made me uncomfortable enough to have real trouble playing. This wasn't neglect on her part - just a good piano that got so much use that even with several-times-a-year tunings it would go out badly sometimes.

She could play it and make it sound remarkable, even when I found it hard to me to play. Over time, I discovered that the problem was me. I think my grasp of what I was supposed to learning was so tenuous that every little thing would throw me off and make me struggle.

Eventually, the problem subsided as I became more confident and (slightly) more skilled.

My first reaction to your post was why is your teacher somewhere in the background and not sitting next to you so she can see you play. If I had a teacher yelling at me from across the room, I'd find another teacher.

It's good practice to play lots of different pianos. Some Steinways have that heavy stiff action which take getting used to. But... find a teacher who won't be yelling at you. Ellen

Teacher issue aside, it is interesting how many people say that Steinways have such heavy action. This is not been my experience, granted I have only ever played on one Steinway (I should say this was a quite old Steinway that is kept in excellent shape and used for recitals in the main hall of the conservatory where I take my lessons). Anyway my experience with this piano is that it has a marvesoully light and controlled action. It, in effect, does what I want it to and doesn't put up a fight.

My instructors piano (the one she lets her students play on) on the other hand, which is a baby grand Yamaha of some kind, has (I would say) moderate action (not heavy nor light) and I have a certain amount of difficulty playing it. I find it near impossible to get the really faint pianissimos. They either sound too loud or not all. The only real remedy I found is to just play everything a bit louder so that, even though I am not really playing a pianissimo as a pianissimo, the relation of the dynamics as a whole is preserved.

My DP, which is a Rolland DP-900, has quite light action and it gives me none of the same grief I get from my instructors piano. It responds very similar to the Steinway but lacks that feeling of rebound you get when the hammer actually strikes a string. Also, my DP has a bit larger key depth which I am not particularly fond of.

One thing worth mentioning here is that some pianists prefer a heavier action. My instructor actually prefers it and says it helps activate the arm. I think it probably does help one activate the arm (perhaps "help" is not the right word, "forces" might be more apt) but I do not share in the preference. I don't believe this kind of Franz Lisztian idea that the piano is some sort of animal that needs to be tamed.

I used to worry about messing up in front of my teacher, now I just enjoy myself and don't worry and I RARELY mess up. Funny how that works huh lol

This might help the OP:

My Roland RD700gx owners' manual says that is has 5 different settings for what they call "Key Touch":

* Super Light
* Light
* Medium (the default standard setting)
* Heavy
* Super Heavy.

Furthermore, there is a "fine Adjustment" that can be made in addition to the above basic settings.

These settings can be changed. Look in your manual for "Setting the Key Touch".

You can try playing the same pieces on harder settings, but also play on as many pianos as you can.

ps...I have read the manual for Casio Privias, and they also have a way of adjusting the touch. Perhaps other digitals do also.

My teacher's piano has a heavy touch, and my old upright had a very light touch. It was very hard for me to play her piano and some other pianos as well. I bought a new piano with a heavy touch and now it's easy for me to play her piano and to transition to other pianos. However I find it weird to play the $3,500 Clavinova at church. The keys on the Clavinova Ensemble doesn't resemble the touch of a real piano. That's just all there is to it. It's like they come back and hit your fingers or something. They keys on my $1000 Kawaii feel better, but it's not like playing a real piano either.

If you don't want her to yell at you (and I wouldn't) just tell her not to.

I would suggest you get out and start playing a variety of pianos every so often.