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Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 387
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Posts: 387 |
yea, a grand is grand alright, but some of us are too busy looking at the music to notice the wall.
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Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 16,105
Yikes! 10000 Post Club Member
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Yikes! 10000 Post Club Member
Joined: Mar 2006
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I have a grand and two uprights (and a digital  ). I love the grand best of all… but I like the uprights too. The uprights sound good and play nicely (though not as good as the grand) and are pleasant to look at. If you can afford a grand and have room for a grand I highly recommend a grand/baby grand piano. If you do not have room for a grand, a nice upright is still a wonderful musical instrument. Just my .02… Rick
Piano enthusiast and amateur musician: "Treat others the way you would like to be treated". Yamaha C7. YouTube Channel
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Joined: Jul 2009
Posts: 85
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When this thread was first started the trend was to really hate on small grands. This may have been in part due to the comments in the Larry Fine book which seems to
have become (deservedly) a popular piano bible. Lately, the idea is that the small grand has improved and makers are doing a better job with them. I got my small grand in the days before the Piano Book and it never occured to me to think of it as an inferior or faulty instrument. I knew it didn't sound the same as a larger grand. Why should I expect that it would? It's small. I never thought of the sound as bad. Was it inferior because it didn't have a duplex scale, slow close fallboard etc.? I didn't know my piano was inferior until I read it in a book and by then it was too late because I loved it. In fact, many of the grands I have played over the years in restraunts, churches, lounges and homes have been of the under 5 foot variety. I always prefered them over any vertical piano. It may be simply a matter of taste. I don't buy into the suggestion that they should not be purchased. I've played so many of them that were very decent and pianists have been buying them for years and been satisfied with them. I should think any average piano player would love one. If you are going on (or practicing for) a concert stage that would be a different matter entirely.
Schumann Grand by Samick (1990)
Howard Grand by Baldwin (1941)
Yamaha Clavanova Digital
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Joined: Jul 2011
Posts: 448
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Joined: Jul 2011
Posts: 448 |
I owned an upright most of my life and then last year I purchased a grand piano. I have improved in my playing more in the last year than the last 10 years. Surmise the reasons for yourself, but for some reason just sitting down at the grand inspries me to be better.
Quid est veritas et mendacium, cum orbis terrarum.
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Joined: Mar 2010
Posts: 1,112
1000 Post Club Member
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1000 Post Club Member
Joined: Mar 2010
Posts: 1,112 |
I owned an upright most of my life and then last year I purchased a grand piano. I have improved in my playing more in the last year than the last 10 years. Surmise the reasons for yourself, but for some reason just sitting down at the grand inspries me to be better. Ah, so it's not just me then. I agree completely. I take my piano playing much more seriously since I moved up to a grand.
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Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 175
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Posts: 175 |
I take my piano playing much more seriously since I moved up to a grand.
Well... You need to justify the investment 
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Joined: May 2007
Posts: 1,278
1000 Post Club Member
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1000 Post Club Member
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I think I have commented on this topic every year that I've been here at PW. I tend to agree with most contributors that in the main the grand tends to inspire you to make better music, and the in fact size matters. With a piano with longer strings and that fabulous sustain and timbre found in large pianos, you tend to experiment more with time and decay. You just tend to relax more and enjoy hearing music and making music. I have been practicing the A flat polonaise of late to play at my students yearly recital, and there is no doubt whatsoever that this piece handily exploits the instrument which is a Knabe concert grand.
That said, I logged a lot of practice hours in college playing Steinway uprights in practice rooms. From that I learned one thing...uprights are fine for learning the notes, but that's where it ends for me. At that point I was looking for a practice room with a grand, preferably a large one. After graduating I NEVER pondered an upright for any reason. I bought a small grand in grad school for woodshedding at the apartment and eventually traded up for the concert grand and have never looked back. I know of no one that I went to school with, and we all got masters in performance that bought uprights. As far as that goes, none of our profs had uprights. Steinway B's and concert grands were popular with them as well.
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Joined: Jul 2012
Posts: 8
Junior Member
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Here is what I say ( this is an article from my website comparing grands to uprights) Now one of the most common questions you ask when buying a piano is should I get an upright or a baby grand.
If you do your research, you will find out that uprights have a bigger soundboard and that uprights are cheaper and take up less space. I have a bias towards the baby grand.
There are only two great reasons to buy an upright, limited space, and a small budget. There are many more reasons to buy a baby grand. For one, baby grands have a sonic benefit over uprights. Uprights, looking ugly from the back, are almost placed against a wall. The sound comes out from the back so where is all that sound going? All that sound goes into the wall. In a grand piano, the sound comes out from the bottom, and the top. All the sound is projected into the room not into a wall.
Baby grands are often much easier to place than uprights. You might be saying "What "or "But uprights take up less space.†The fact is uprights take up a certain amount of wall space. In my house there is a painting of decoration on almost ever wall in the house. So an upright would be hard to place. Also, due to the fact they take up wall space, you have to have a 49 inch wall that is empty in you house. Grands or baby grands can fit into corners, parts where there is not straight wall. Anywhere. Still thinking of buying an upright? Ok then, I have to tell you that uprights are ugly, in my eye. The look bulk and very heavy, while grands or baby grands do not.
The next reason is very important. It has to do with pedals. On upright and grand pianos, the damper pedal does its job. Raising the dampers allowing the strings to vibrate. When you press the soft pedal on a grand piano, it does different things compared to when you press the soft pedal on an upright. The pedals true name is the "una corda pedal" which means one string in Italian. When you press the una corda on a grand, it moves the whole action, so that instead of the hammers striking three strings, the hammers strike two strings and the third one gently. This gives a change of tonal color. On uprights the soft pedal moves hammers closer to the strings to make it hard to play loudly.
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Joined: Mar 2010
Posts: 1,112
1000 Post Club Member
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1000 Post Club Member
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Posts: 1,112 |
I take my piano playing much more seriously since I moved up to a grand.
Well... You need to justify the investment Well I know how that could be possible but it is not at all the case with me. I don't need to justify anything really. (No wife or kids and definitely NO "guilt" about spending the money at all). It looks absolutely amazing and it sounds absolutely amazing which makes it much more fun to play and simply makes me enjoy it much more. That's all I really mean by "taking it more seriously".
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Joined: May 2006
Posts: 1,760
1000 Post Club Member
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1000 Post Club Member
Joined: May 2006
Posts: 1,760 |
Here is what I say ( this is an article from my website comparing grands to uprights) Now one of the most common questions you ask when buying a piano is should I get an upright or a baby grand.
If you do your research, you will find out that uprights have a bigger soundboard and that uprights are cheaper and take up less space. I have a bias towards the baby grand.
There are only two great reasons to buy an upright, limited space, and a small budget. There are many more reasons to buy a baby grand. For one, baby grands have a sonic benefit over uprights. Uprights, looking ugly from the back, are almost placed against a wall. The sound comes out from the back so where is all that sound going? All that sound goes into the wall. In a grand piano, the sound comes out from the bottom, and the top. All the sound is projected into the room not into a wall.
Baby grands are often much easier to place than uprights. You might be saying "What "or "But uprights take up less space.†The fact is uprights take up a certain amount of wall space. In my house there is a painting of decoration on almost ever wall in the house. So an upright would be hard to place. Also, due to the fact they take up wall space, you have to have a 49 inch wall that is empty in you house. Grands or baby grands can fit into corners, parts where there is not straight wall. Anywhere. Still thinking of buying an upright? Ok then, I have to tell you that uprights are ugly, in my eye. The look bulk and very heavy, while grands or baby grands do not.
The next reason is very important. It has to do with pedals. On upright and grand pianos, the damper pedal does its job. Raising the dampers allowing the strings to vibrate. When you press the soft pedal on a grand piano, it does different things compared to when you press the soft pedal on an upright. The pedals true name is the "una corda pedal" which means one string in Italian. When you press the una corda on a grand, it moves the whole action, so that instead of the hammers striking three strings, the hammers strike two strings and the third one gently. This gives a change of tonal color. On uprights the soft pedal moves hammers closer to the strings to make it hard to play loudly. There are a lot of generalizations going on here. There are too many factors involved in the individual designs of various uprights and grands to make these generalizations. Your comments might apply to an upright and a grand by the same maker (although that's even stretching it considering many companies make various lines according to price point) but when considering uprights versus grands from various makers your comments seem a little 'basic'. I'm not attacking your comments, I'm just scrutinizing them considering you opened your post by informing us that you are quoting an "article" from your website. From what I've read, I'm not sure your energy is best spent writing articles comparing uprights and grands IMO...
Jazz/Improvising Pianist, Composer, University Prof.
At home: C. Bechstein Concert 8, Roland RD88
At work: Kawai GX2, Dave Smith Prophet Rev2 16-voice
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Joined: Mar 2012
Posts: 18
Junior Member
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Junior Member
Joined: Mar 2012
Posts: 18 |
All the comment here about technique etc improving vastly on a grand as opposed to an upright just don't wash look on YT at some playing on uprights with tremendous technique far better than some of the commenteers i don't doubt
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Joined: Sep 2008
Posts: 325
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Full Member
Joined: Sep 2008
Posts: 325 |
I went from a very fine Steinway L to a Kawai K3 (and ten piano-less years in between).
Every single day, every single time I sit down at my Kawai, my heart aches for a good grand.
Everything is more difficult on my K3.
It beats the heck out of no piano at all (and a lot of icky grands that I've seen--unfortunately I've seen a lot of ick factor lately) but I long for something better.
I can afford something better now (finally) but I'm still looking for that deal that I have chemistry with. I am reluctant to part with my K3, which is perfectly utile but not much more than that, until I find it.
I don't think anyone who can afford a decent grand should settle for an upright unless there is absolutely no other choice.
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