Hammond Music

Posts Tagged ‘Digital keyboards’

When most of us think about a piano, we think of a concert pianist playing a grand piano, but there are two or three types of piano, here we will discuss them, from the grand piano, to the upright piano to the digital keyboard.

Lets first look at the piano we’ve already mentioned-the grand piano. What helps to give the grand piano its huge sound are the longer strings, which help to reduce the lower frequencies and harmonics. The smaller grand pianos, such as the baby grand and the boudoir have thickers strings on them to allow for string tension, keeping clarity in the sound. Tension in the strings would be lowered if they used a concert grand’s strings, giving it an unplayable and muddy sound. The sizes of the grand piano range from 2-3 meteres for a concert piano, to 1-2 meteres for a boudoir grand piano to the baby grand piano, which is just slightly smaller than the boudoir.

An ‘upright’ piano is what most people mean when they say they own a piano. Called the upright because the frame and strings are packed in horizontally as opposed to vertically, allowing it to be smaller in size, but still can stand at 45 inches taller and more.

Often (and rather naively) mistaken for another keyboard, the electronic piano has the food pedals to control frequency and pitch that they piano has that the keyboard doesnt. But they honestly dont sound as good as an acoustic piano, even with the ‘wonders of modern technology’.

And as for those digital keyboards…..

Much smaller, cheaper, easier to carry around than a piano, the keyboard is the closest most of us will come to owning anything like a piano. Digital technology has allowed the keyboard to carry hundreds of different sound in it, from a church organ, to piano to steel drum, which gives it some versitility and humour factor that the piano lacks.

For those who’re considering which instrument they should buy, but dont know the differences bewteen a grand piano and a keyboard, heres a list of pros and cons- starting with the keyboard.

The piano. There are 3 main types of paino. grands, uprights, and electric pianos. Grand pianos range from 2m-3m for parlor grands, to 1m-2m for the boudoir grand to smaller sized baby pianos. Which makes size the first problem with owning a piano. Got a manson and a big steaming pile of money? Get a grand piano, otherwise it really is out of reach for most of us. An advantage of the huge size is the equally as huge sound. With lower harmonics and frequencies, the grand piano has its praises sung due to its size, which allows for longer strings that contrbiute to the monsterous sound. A baby grand will have shorter strings inside, but thicker strings to gain back some of the sound lost in size (kind of like a bass guitar). The thicker strings on a smaller instrument give it more tension so the sound clarity remains.

The upright piano, known as the vertical piano has the frame and the strings contained horizontally within the piano, giving it a smaller size. Even at the reduced size its still a size that requires a bit of room for it.

Around since the early 1980’s, the electronic piano uses digital techonology to try and reproduce the sound of an acoustic piano. For all the wonders of modern technology, it cant replicate the sound of an acoustic piano. Not prefered by ’serious’ players.

And the triats of a digital keyboard?

Keyboards can be carried around, take us less room and you get more of a range to choose from for your money- good so far? The sound quality of a keyboard is no-where near as good as a piano, but then both are different ‘animals’ -People forget about the pedals the piano has, that the keyboard doesnt. Money-wise the keybaord is far cheaper, a high grade keyboard costing about the same as a low grade grand piano.

The answer- if you have the money and room, go for the piano, otherwise go for a top end keyboard- why’ll not as great sounding as the piano, you can still get a good sounding one and be content.