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Teachers quake in their boots at the prospect of a student not having a quality musical home front ... a Mum with a good ear for music ... without this vital commodity, the likelihood of good keyboard progress is severely blighted.

As the old cliche goes ... money doesn’t buy happiness.

Wholeheartedly agree!

I apply the small compensation I receive for a referral as payment for lesson fees. It goes a long way in the good will department.

Thank you everyone for your inputs. Greatly appreciated.

A quick update. long story short, we end up getting a new kawai RX2, a floor model prepped/tuned in the store.

Our piano teacher prefers yamaha, he had made that pretty clear. He said Kawai is a good piano, but just not as good as yamaha. yamaha will last your a life time, whereas kawai will not. (Even after we had bough the piano, he still said that. I guess it is hard to keep how you really feel to yourself.) But for about the same size, kawai is much cheaper, and my husband is just not convinced that yamaha is better than kawai after what we have researched. I was very tored. So I ask the teacher if he can try the kawai for us, I was hoping that he will be impressed. He said yes. So I phone the store, and the manager even got the piano tuned again. But on the day that teacher is supposed to go try/play the rx2, he called me and told me that he got busy, did not have time to go to the store, but he talked to the manager who he knows for many years. After hearing from the manager, he said rx2 sounded like a fine piano, he does not need to go and play it. He even said, if I am still considering yamaha C2, he does not need to play it either. This is quite different from what he said to me many times previously. The next day, he called again, and said if I want, he can go to the store and play the piano for me. I said it is okay.

I have figured, people will have their personal preference, I do not need to win him over.

I still value him taking his time calling the two consultants for me. So I got him a bottle of nice wine, I have yet to give it to him at my daughter's next lesson.

Thanks for the update. Sorry your purchase was so fraught with concerns about a piano teacher who sounds to me like a jerk. You will love your Kawai! Hope the wine was on sale.

I checked out a piano last week at a student's request - at no charge and with no anticipation of finders' fee. Surprisingly, it turned out to be an old clanger of a Bernstein out on a naturestrip (sidewalk)- for free. I advised against getting that piano.... I'm hoping my students might raise her sights a little.
Having said that, I do appreciate a good ruined piano (for art purposes, rather than student practice, of course).

Well my "kickbacks" if that is what anyone would call them that. I was in my early 20's and newly married .We stayed a tiny apartment. Apart from teaching music in a small
school .( piano, recorder and choir practice) I relied on teaching music at home.
After my selling the piano in the store by "accident.and being sent cheque for a surprising
amount of money. I was in the store again buying sheet music.
The dealer said to me if I reffered music pupils to the store I would go on a list of recommended teachers. I of course was thrilled ! There were no special arrangements about me getting anything If I came with a family to buy a piano.
However when I did go with the family and tried one or two pianos which I suggested. I did receive my ( OK here goes) "kickback" If they bought the piano
Apart from the "accidental" selling a piano, this happened about few more times.I do not believe there was any law against it. I was never pressured to sell any brands. Most of his pianos were used ones.I think he was authorized to sell Yamaha, Otto Bach, and and possibly Steinway.
I was in my early twenties and it was the 70's. There were other small dealers around as well and we would go there as well. I had no idea I was involved in a life of crime. 😅

I think it was “ok” back then lol!?

I take a course for work every year telling us we can’t take kickbacks, bribes, fancy dinners, blah blah blah. I doubt they’re intended for small potatoes though.

Larry Fine's books are what I call, "The Proper Care and Feeding of Pianos"

Parents are surprised not to keep it by a window or tv, that they need settling and tuning, that there are different kinds of pianos, etc...

I guess at that time it did not seem like small potatoes, it was a fair sum the dealer would send.( difficult say translate into CAD) However it did not feel right, and then I decided I would look at a few pianos on my own and never go with the family when they actually chose a piano.

NOT taking kickbacks/ bribes is illogical.

If you are living life correctly, at some point, there will be a bribe SO HUGE, that you will ignore all previously held notions of morality and take that bribe. Not taking a bribe only means the price of your stern has not been met. Always take every bribe as long as it does not harm mother nature or your own physical health. The only reason to reject any bribe is to accept an even bigger bribe from elsewhere.

Can't speak to his teaching ability, but this guy clearly took a bribe. This is not a bad thing, it only proves your piano teacher is a logical person. This does not conflict with pianism. Think of it this way, Langlang takes bribes from steinway, Horowitz takes bribes from steinway.

More admirable than stealthily pocketing the money, absolutely.

But you do see how the Effect is the same. YOU gained the extra cash, and you INVESTED (SPENT) that cash in the retainment of the student by establishing good will. The Net effect is no different than if you spent that money on 200 ice cream cones to improve your own mental health, which may lead to you becoming a more pleasant teacher.

I disagree with all of this: the bribe means the student is steered to a piano/brand that may be the wrong one for him. In addition, every piano, even the same model and brand is different. They can’t be judged by a manager ‘thumbs up’.

Langlang, Horowitz, Glenn Gould steer millions of buyers towards steinway, which may / may not be right for them. And how do you assign objectively whether a piano is right or wrong for someone ? At the end of the day, I'd rather see teachers with full bellies and carry on teaching than be irrationally stuck up starving, hung on an arbitrary morality tree.

I do not agree that there are not right and wrong pianos for a student. Have you played many? They are all very different. A student’s Relationship with his teacher is personal, and the teacher’s evaluation is much more trusted than Horowitz playing a Steinway. If I ask my teacher to help me choose a piano, I would assume the assistance is unbiased and based on my best interest. I think the only fair thing to do to avoid this problem would be to pay a teacher for his time — and pay him well. I did not need my teacher’s assistance when I bought my piano, but I would have generously paid for his time if I needed it.

There were quality / durability differences in pianos made 30-50 years ago. Modern pianos are highly refined and most bad makers are long out of the game. So, excluding the Gucci tax on premium labels, most pianos are mechanically valued proportionately and there are no hidden pitfalls.
You've yet to come up with an objective criteria of how ANY piano can be wrong for anyone.

The teacher taking a cut is not against the interest of the student. The teacher gets extra bread from the dealer. The teacher eats, he's more alert, teaches better. At what point is there active harm done to the student.

You need to go play a lot of acoustics. Your conclusion that they are equally good for all students is based on your lack of experience with different acoustic pianos.

You keep saying there is a Wrong or Right piano for a certain person. But you haven't produced any technical definition that we can discuss. The piano action has not changed much for 100 years. The inertia of the key travels are all pretty close because the hammers only get so big/small.

What piano short of a broken one is Bad for anyone? Please provide a mechanical example/ explanation.

EinLudov, I can't go to any points that you are trying to get from dogperson and I'm not part of that discussion. But you asked about differences in piano.

Well, one example, a few years ago, when I was hard up in finances in a way that I am not now (poverty is relative) and I had a choice between a digital which still wasn't a good one (my hybrid Kawai is a good one), and an upright that was on sale for almost the same price in the same store. The upright could only be played loud and louder, and the keys were sluggish. In the store there were several pianists, and nobody could do that much with it. You also have the difference between grand pianos and upright pianos, which are literally constructed differently. If going the digital route, you have pianos that have only two contact points for registering travel, so that you have to let the key go all the way down and all the way up again for every note. The habits these form in the hand turns you into a "truck driver" with insensitive hands (I found that when I transition to my CA97). Then pedal: if it sits too high straining the foot, or again if you have to move it big distances before getting an effect - not only is it a physical strain, but it also desensitizes the foot and creates poor habits (again the truck driver analogy).

I would have liked my teacher to have been able to be there to check out pianos when I was selecting mine. Since we are in different locations, I could get "things to test and watch for" but my own playing skills and ear could only bring me so far.

Does this help at all with your question?