Piano Video Lesson: Upright VS Grand - Can You Hear the Difference?

Welcome to livingpianos.com. Robert Estrin here for another listening test for you. Can you hear the difference between an upright and a grand piano? Now, I had a video that came out recently, Can you hear the difference between a Steinway and a Chinese piano? and I got a big reaction to it. People really enjoyed that little test of the hearing. Can you really tell the difference? What is the difference and preconceived notions about these pianos? I thought I would do another one.

I dug through the archives of Living Pianos recordings and found an upright piano and a grand piano playing the same movement of Schumann's Carnaval, the Chiarina movement. I did take the second repeat in one of them but not the other but other than that, it's the same... Not only the same piece, but it was recorded in the same place, the same microphones, exactly the same recording, which is really a great test. I'm going to reveal what those instruments are after you get a chance to listen.

And as I said before on the Steinway versus China piano, Chinese piano, that I want you to write down your answer so that you don't fool yourself. Because of course, we all want to be right and think we can tell the difference, but if you write it down then you'll commit which one you think is the upright and which one you think is the grand. Here we go. Happy listening.

So those are the performances. 11 years ago, I made a video about uprights versus grands and you can check out on livingpianos.com and YouTube. I discussed the differences. There are some substantial differences, primarily in the actions. But what about these two pianos? What are they? Well, I chose a large grand. As a matter of fact, the grand piano is a seven-foot 1998 Baldwin SF-10. It's a semi-concert grand. The upright is also a Baldwin, kind of make it fair, and that's a 1987 Baldwin Hamilton, which is just a 45-inch. 45 inches compared to seven feet, you would think there'd be an astounding difference in sound. Yet they both sound quite beautiful, don't they?

So which one was which? Well, the first one indeed was the seven-foot Baldwin SF-10. The second one was the studio Baldwin Hamilton upright. How many of you got that right? I'm really interested.

Now, I know my perspective playing these instruments and making the allowances to get the best sound out of each piano, which is the job of a pianist. Because after all, unlike almost all instrumentalists who take their instruments with them, as pianists, we have to play whatever is there and instantly adjust. I've had the good fortune of being around so many pianos. I've learned how to make those adjustments. So the question is, how did you feel about the sound of these two pianos? And more than that, did you get the choice right? In the comments below and on livingpianos.com, love to hear from all of you. Thanks again for joining me. I'm Robert Estrin here at livingpianos.com, your online piano resource. Ring the bell, subscribe and spread the word if you love piano. Bye-bye. See you next time.

Find the original source of this video at this link: https://livingpianos.com/upright-vs-grand-can-you-hear-the-difference/

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