Piano Video Lesson: Where are Pianos Most Popular?

Hi, this is Robert Estrin at livingpianos.com and virtualsheetmusic.com. I've got a very special presentation for you today. In fact, I just got back last week from Music China, the huge tradeshow in Shanghai. And, wow, what an eye-opener that was. Now, you know, I've known for years that you see Chinese pianos in stores in this country, and you might think that this is representative of what's there. But this is literally a speck of what they're doing in the piano industry.

Consider a few amazing facts just so you can get your head around this. There are more companies making pianos in China than there are piano stores in the United States. That's right. More than that, the largest of them, Pearl River, has three factories, any one of which produces more pianos than new pianos are sold in this country each year, just one company of 350, perhaps more.

It's actually an exploding market, the education market also, pianos with touchscreens and all sorts of fascinating software, because they have taken to the piano in a way that is reminiscent from what happened in this country 100 years ago. In fact, they buy more than 10 times more pianos than we do in this country, which is why the export market is only a very, very small sampling of what they have.

Naturally, like most parts of the world other than the United States, they're mostly upright pianos. But indeed, there are many companies making grands, even concert grands. In fact, there are some fascinating pianos, lots of Plexiglas pianos you can see through. There are butterfly pianos where the lid opens on both sides. And there are even duo pianos, grands that have keys on both ends, one piano, but two players can play together duet style on one instrument.

It's really interesting what's going on there. And it warms my heart to see that the piano had a resurgence in the world today. In fact, walking around the show, which is enormous...to give some perspective on this, the NAMM Show, which is the big tradeshow in North America, right here in Orange County, California, has just one room for the pianos upstairs. You're gonna walk through in about 20 minutes and pretty much see everything there. I wasn't able to see all the pianos walking one day, looking at everything. I couldn't even possibly even just see everything. At the end of the show, I was walking through several different field houses that I never got to it. There were a whole room of digital pianos I never even got to. It's unbelievable.

Now, here's something fascinating for you. Walking around, you see little tiny kids playing on a very high level again and again. But because the cultural revolution in China didn't occur until the 1970s, there's virtually no one from my generation or even considerably younger than me who plays the piano. So every time they sat down at a piano anywhere, big crowds of people would gather, professional videographers. It was a spectacle to them.

So I will say this. I'm definitely going back to China. I already have things in the work to do performing there and other type of showcases. So if you wanna see where the center of the piano universe is, it is in China. And I'm doing everything in my power to remake a resurgence right here in North America as well as the rest of the world.

Thanks so much for joining me. Robert Estrin here at livingpianos.com and virtualsheetmusic.com.

Automatic video-to-text transcription by DaDaScribe.com

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