Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum Are there ever any giveaway contests for pianos

If you know how to play a piano then you must know what reasonable piano sounds like ? Why not shop around the used piano market: they are by no means all duds.

Check out your local newspapers, kijiji and craigslist. The first time I started piano (11 years ago) my piano teacher knew someone whom was getting rid of her piano simply because of space. So I got a free piano, just the cost of moving it. It was over 100 years old and the most beautiful piano Id seen!! I couldnt have asked for a better piano. I did sell it several years ago to a fellow who was starting a piano museum and offered me $1000 for it.

I regularly check kijiji in my city and there is usually 3< pianos for free at a time. Mind you some are quite scratched up, but really who cares as long as it plays well right? If I had the space, and didnt live in an apartment, Id take one!

I live in a smaller area and my husband refuses to help move pianos, which means that if I buy one (or get one for free), I still have to pay the piano movers. An out of town piano costs even more. I help out a piano technician and have learned a bit about pianos and what to look at on the inside. (I have also taken pictures to send to my tech to look at for me.) I've gone to check out several in town that were offered for very cheap, but they've all been duds. (The last was an 1850s Emerson that needed a new pin block, new pins, new strings, new straps, new felts, new hammers, a few pieces of the action rebuilt, and the soundboard cracks fixed.) My tech friend tells me that my son needs a piano with 1.5 repetitions, which seems to be a little harder to find cheap. He is on the lookout for me for a good piano that he can fix for me for a bargain, but he hasn't found one yet.

Maybe the right one will come up.

Moving pianos is tricky so I can understand your husband's hesitance. Ask some gullible friends to help you move?

Why is it that someone who cannot afford a piano cannot win a competition? There are several examples in this thread of competitions that give pianos as prizes. Is it merely that people of a certain economic class should be the only ones capable of winning these competitions? Or is that an entirely separate interpretation from what you actually meant?

Also, is it the correct answer when that child who cannot afford a piano could be the next Liszt, Chopin, or Mozart? At some point, is it possible that the high cost of entry prohibits truly diverse new talent, and that that prohibition has led to the slow dwindling of the size of audience of the genre?

No, the idea is the chances of winning anything is usually small.

But if you are really hard off, you should remember that you are responsible for income taxes on what you win. The full retail value will become part of your income.