Piano Video Lesson: What is the Right Size Piano for Your Home?

Hello, this is Robert Estrin at livingpianos.com and virtualsheetmusic.com. The question today is, what is the right size piano for your home? You'd think this'd be a very easy thing, like if your room is this size, you need this size piano, but no, there's much more to it. Let's get into this.

Well first of all, there are many factors to consider. One is, is the piano going to be disturbing to people within your household or neighbors? Because as pianos get larger, they generally also produce more volume. More importantly, the acoustics of the room play a big part. You may be able to physically fit a large piano in a room, but if the room is very echoey and loud, it could be too much. Now you can temper the sound. Simply putting a rug underneath the piano will balance the sound down considerably because half the sound of the piano comes from the underneath. But you don't want to overwhelm the space. Conversely, if you have a room with carpeting, drapes, and soft furniture, even a large instrument might get sucked up by all the absorbing material in the room.

So the sound is one factor. Also, you know, you need the physical space when measuring a piano. Piano measurements and grands which I've discussed before, are the total length from the key slip all the way to the end of the lid, but you must also allow an extra couple of feet for when the bench is out. Sometimes uprights could be a good choice, but remember, uprights are about five feet wide and since the back of upright pianos is unfinished, you have to allow that much space, whereas grands and baby grands are very flexible because they look good any way you place them into your room. They can even be tucked into a corner.

So those are the factors you must consider when placing a piano in your home. Not just the size of the room, but the acoustics, as well as your lifestyle, and how it fits in. If you have an open floor plan and the kitchen is contiguous with the living space where the piano is, it could be a problem in some households. Maybe people want to watch TV in a family room, which is also connected in terms of sound, there's no doors to the other room. So think about all these factors when you are placing your piano and the size of the piano you have because the last thing in the world you want is to have a piano that you can't play on a regular basis because it's disturbing to people in your household or to neighbors.

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

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