Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum your piano vs the teacher's piano, action and warmup

Yes, you are right!
I've never played a concert grand. Now I have something (else) to aspire to.

Yes, it would be nice, but not at all possible while being able to the same low price as before. Since the action part of a DP is just as mechanical as the action part of an AP, it's really not a digital action vs acoustic action debate there, but it's really a low-cost action vs high-cost action debate. If any improvement causes the DP action to cost as much as the AP action, the manufacturers might as well adopt the AP action in the instrument to be used with the DP sound. Even the AP action doesn't have such a 1-touch adjustment, and it's been around for hundreds of years already. This just goes to show how unfeasible something like that can be. There's been a recent solution on the acoustic action to modify the touch rail to change the action weight, a solution that's cheap and easy and reversible and doesn't require messing around with the actual action itself. But that's still a mechanical solution only applicable on an acoustic action anyway.

I'm not exactly an "adult" yet...

I only have a digital piano, 88 weighted keys and everything else, but it still feels different from pretty much all acoustic pianos I've played.
I enjoy playing on my teacher's piano more than in mine, it's more... "realistic", it's also easier to hear mistakes on it. It feels better to me, even though it needs to be regulated.

I've also had problems with different key weight actions, I believe the best way to solve it is to regularly play on differently weighted actions.

I know that I'm coming across as being much more of a worthless idiot than I really am, because of this issue (the diff piano and no warmup time) and because I'm working on advanced repertoire that I can't just sight-read and it takes me longer to memorize it now than it did when I was 16. Furthermore, I have terrible stage fright when someone is staring at my hands and leaning over my shoulder like a buzzard. I know this is what they want to do, but heck, it makes me flub up constantly. She'll be humming (this part is kind of funny, I'll admit) and say, "B flat," which just messes me up because I know the note I missed already. Then she circles all the wrong notes as if I will always play them wrong (which isn't the case--I get nervous and it's just like with typing when you get your fingers on the wrong lwud, I mean keys). SO at home I really don't have a record of what I need to go over except from what I know myself. It's frustrating!! Maybe Internet lessons are the answer--I don't get as nervous on a video conference. If they could see the MIDI of what you are playing . . . and analyze that . . . hmm. What an iphone app that could be!

LOL, Shalanna, that sounds like one of my lessons!

I think it depends on the piano. If it's your teacher's piano then it should be in tune and that advice makes sense. If on the other hand it's an old upright that a non piano playing friend has you have to rely on touch because on an out of tune piano a right note can sound wrong and some keys may not make any sound at all.

Shalanna,

I appreciate that it might feel awkward but do you think it would be possible to have a quiet talk with your teacher to discuss things with her? So much depends on communication.

My piano teacher solves the "warming up" problem by having two pianos. When you arrive, you can warm up in the front studio, while she is finishing up lessons with whoever she is with at the time. When she dismisses the current student, she comes to get you to go to the vack studio. The piano she has in the front is a large studio upright with very light touch -- too light for my preferences, but awesome sound. The piano in the back studio is a Chickering grand with a medium action, which is probably the nicest action I have ever played on. Since my pianos action is a bit heavier than the Chickering, when I play on the Chickering, things I really have to work on at home seem to flow more effortlessly. So, I have the opportunity to play at least 3 nice pianos every week.

I do think it's easier to go from a firmer action to a lighter action, but ultra-light is no good for me. I guess I'm like Goldie Locks... Not too hard, not too soft... but just right.

Interesting note... the Chickering was my piano previously. I gave it to my teacher when I bought my Knabe.

"Furthermore, I have terrible stage fright when someone is staring at my hands and leaning over my shoulder like a buzzard."

Well, this is a classic.

I never got to very much care for my former teacher's piano--- not the sound, not the touch. And yes, the lighting was more dim that I am used to (and also backlighted from the windows).

In turn, she complained loudly about my piano, and wanted me to have my tech call her to get her instructions on how to mutilate the action. (This did not happen; I bought it because I like the action THE WAY IT IS.)

And no, there was no warming up.

My new teacher comes to my house and teaches on my piano. Well, there goes that excuse.

He did mention that the room acoustic is "dry,' meaning not reverberant. Right again--- I went to a lot of trouble to get it just that way. If you raised a slice of pizza to a thickness of sixteen feet (first taking a bite from the end), that would approximate the shape of my music room... and the reverberant qualities were dreadful.

Since my best excuse is gone, guess I'd better get down there and practice some...

Absolutely.

The problem is though producing what you want to hear in seconds vs the hours/weeks that you had at home. Muscle memory is your enemy when dealing with balancing the voices in a piece.

On your teacher's or anybody's piano everything is different. Some even have no volume-slider

The last piece I had was an etude for switching the melody from the left to the right hand. The melody being mostly in the left hand (which can get lost very easily at first). Pieces like this where the point is to teach you to listen carefully help a lot.

I usually spend somne time with my DP before lessons as it feels more like the Yamaha my teacher uses. Similar touch, mainly. Sounds more like it as well, so I don't get a big surprise when I play the first note!

It is so reassuring to hear everyone has the same problems!
I was totally stunned the first time I played on the school piano (my teacher works in a middle school and I go there for my lessons). The piano is an old clunker, and the keys are really heavy (my digital is a Yamaha NP30, which is actually pretty light).... I also had one lesson at her home on her baby grand, which was lighter than the piano at the school but still heavy - and the music stand was very high as someone else mentioned above.

At my first lesson she told me that getting used to new keyboards is a pianist's bane, and just something to get used to. You can't take your own instrument with you (well, I snickered to myself, *I* can, 'cause it is portable lol.... ), but generally speaking she is certainly right.
I've only been taking lessons since January but I am noticing that it is getting easier to bounce between the two keyboards (I hope I get to play the baby grand again, that was so cool!)

I too notice that I really flub pieces more in front of the teacher. In part it is the keyboard, in part nerves. Not so much because *she* is watching me but because I have an audience. I know I have to get over the stage fright issues.

That's the emotional side of things. Logically, I have no problem with her observing me intently while I play - I really get alot out of her analysis of my errors and the tips she gives me even after I play something very short.

My teacher divides my playing into 2 parts - sometimes I play as the student, and then I play as the performer. I find that because she created these distinctions I feel more comfortable - I can tell her at the beginning of a lesson - ok, I'm still a student on this piece - or ok, I'm playing as a performer for you now!

I'm curious as to how long others who have contributed to this thread have been playing. I'm really new - less than 4 months - I expect to make mistakes .....in six months I will expect to make alot fewer mistakes.

Just one after-thought.

I came back to the piano, after ~45 years away, last December and bought an oldish Technics digital piano on ebay as a cheap way of testing the water. When I found a teacher and started having lessons I was totally, absolutely thrown by the difference in touch - which made the lessons very difficult and totally frustrating. (I sometimes asked for 10-15 mins warm up, which helped a little.)

A couple of weeks ago I bought a Kawai CA63 and now I can very quickly acclimatise to my teacher's piano. The only thing that startles me is how loud it is compared to the way I set my DP. But that is something totally within my own control and now set the DP to a realist volume level for part of my practise time. (Of course, my ambition is to get a real piano in time.)

The nerves and anxiety to do my best is another matter though, but I joke with the teacher and that seems to ease the tension.

That makes it easier. But then I get nervous when my teacher asks me to have a piece "performance-ready" for my next lesson.

Oh, no. You'll still be making a lot of mistakes, just on more difficult pieces!

Yes, of course! That's what I meant lol.

And actually my teacher doesn't stress me too much - I think she sees that I stress myself plenty - more than I should! She's trying to get me to lighten up and develop some realistic expectations. With the pieces she gives me I'd say about half of them I can usually "perform" for her at the end of a week, and the other half I need help with, and they take longer.

I thought i'm the only one having this problem. Yes unlike violinist or etc, they can carry their own instrument for lesson. For us, we have to adapt to it.

I will usually warm up before I go for my lesson like one of the user mention, scale, etc... and hannon.

I usually complain my teacher key is too soft while her other student complain it's too hard.

Haha I guess it's because my piano touch is heavier and crappier (I dunno how to explain but it's a second hand piano)