Piano Video Lesson: Are There Different Pianos Made for Different Types of Music?

Welcome to livingspianos.com. Robert Estrin here with a question. Are there are rock pianos, classical pianos, jazz pianos, new age, pianos, rag time pianos? Are there different pianos made for different types of music? Sometimes you'll talk to people and say, "Oh, I want a Yamaha piano for rock to be able to get that. Get that bright sound that cuts through. Yeah.

And can you do that on a Steinway? Well, I just played that on the same piano I always play, that you've heard me play. A beautiful, slow mood of Beethoven's Pathitique Sonata. Same piano, same sound. So it can be done.

Let me give you a parallel. Computers. Are there computers made for business, computers made for photography, computers made for music, computers made for video? To some degree, yes. However, any high powered computer can accomplish any of those. Sure, a gaming computer might have a beefier graphics card, but any computer can do any job. Some might be a little bit better suited and some types of applications require more processing power of one sort or another.

Well, to a certain degree, the same is true with pianos. However, a great deal depends upon the voicing and regulation of the instrument. So you could take a piano like a Steinway, which you think of having a rich warm sound that maybe gets a little bit of that growl when you really lay into it? Well, harden those hammers, and guess what? You're going to have a really aggressive sounding piano, which might be appropriate for some classical pieces. You want brilliant treble and list, but it also could be great for rag time or rock.

So there aren't necessarily pianos that are built for different styles of music. I will say, however, the voicing of a piano has a lot to do with how appropriate they may be for a certain style or a certain player. For example, Vladimir Horowitz played on a super bright piano and, of course, he was a classical pianist. You might wonder why did he want to a bright piano? Well, his unique technique sitting low and playing very delicately, he could control that very bright piano and get all different colors from warm to bright, just from the amazing control he had, whereas other people might prefer a piano. My father, for example, always liked to have his piano's voiced on the warm side so that he could play powerfully and never overdrive the piano into a harsh sound, and yet get that beautiful, warm tone in his playing when he was playing delicate pianissimo.

So any piano can be voiced one way or another. There could be some pianos that are more appropriate for certain styles. For example, sometimes European pianos with their bell-like clear tone can be just wonderful for a Mozart concerto, a nice, clear, crisp sound, where an American piano like a Mason Allen, or even a Steinway, may be a bit thick for that sort of music. If you've ever heard, the original piano fortes or forte pianos from Mozart's era, it's a dramatically different sound from a modern piano, particularly a fat sound of a Steinway. So there is some validity to choosing pianos for certain styles of music, but the voicing and more importantly, the playing will determine which pianos will be appropriate for your music.

Thanks again for joining me. Robert Estrin here, livingpianos.com, your online piano resource. Thanks for subscribing. Spread the word about piano if you love piano as much as I do. See you next time.

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