Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum What is the worst piano you've every played?

I know of, and have played, a fair number of terrible pianos. I think the one that takes the cake is at an apartment building owned by my grandparents, which is empty and therefore poorly heated most of the time. It hasn't been played, much less tuned, in at least ten years. As a result, it sounds predictably terrible. It also has a fair number of sticky keys.

The piano was bought for me by my other pair of grandparents when I was about six years old. I got some lessons from a nun with rheumatoid arthritis (read: terrible piano technique), and played my first tunes by ear on that piano (as I recall, the very first one was 'Te Deum'). It was probably the cheapest piano money could buy at the time, and it had had at least four previous owners. I imagine its former life was that of a honky-tonk in some smokey working class bar of the thirties.

I played on that thing for about six months before the nun with rheumatoid arthritis decided she couldn't teach anymore. Had another go at ten years old, with a teacher who didn't try very hard to challenge me, because my mother had written him a letter that said I was a child with 'limited potential'. Stopped again when she sent me to a boarding school for disabled kids a few months after that.

My final (and, probably, first 'serious') attempt at learning to play while still vaguely young enough to foster hopeless aspirations of becoming a famous pianist some day was at age fifteen. At that point, I decided that the old honky-tonk (even after a few tunings) just wouldn't do anymore. With my first summer job money, I bought a Roland digital which, in comparison to its predecessor, sounded heavenly to me. Sadly, I had to stop again at sixteen, due to several prolonged hospitalizations, and other drama in my life.

The honky-tonk was banished to the empty apartment building, where it still stands today. Its condition has only gotten worse. But it was and will always be my first piano. I have a soft spot for it somewhere in my heart.

Interestingly, I've been playing a piano of a make and model very similar to the honky-tonk's these past few days, as I went around Brussels looking for places to practice, now that I don't have a piano at home anymore. It is tuned and in reasonable condition, and doesn't sound half-bad to my ears.

With regards to the 'any acoustic sounds better than any digital' meme, though, I have to say this: I've been spoiled by my Roland RD-150, which is a 'mere' entry-level digital stage piano, but sounds way better than many other digitals I've played, and, as I discovered recently, has soured me on the sound of most acoustic uprights, even when brand-new and well-tuned. The RD-150 was sampled on a concert grand, and when I visited the piano store last week, I noticed that the jumble of sounds locked inside the cabinet of an upright just doesn't do it for me anymore.

I'm guessing that..it is at least a hundred years old, over damped and not been tuned in ages. Poor thing might have been exposed to damp as well.

But oddly....I like it as I love this Chopin impromptu- for me it brings up images of the poor and suffering of the C 19th ( probably because the first time I heard it I was reading about Victorian slums/life in those hard times etc)and the piano almost sounds like a ghost from the past ( not in a bad way either).

But then...I am probably wrong as I have recollections of you posting a before tuning and after tuning of your piano a few months ago?

Worst pianos I've played? Seen a few poor old neglected pianos- the worst one was left in a garden ( having been "rescued" from the road) and had keys falling off, warped and cracked lid, sodden strings etc. The woman who found it thought it might be able to be repaired. !!!

Sure, if you replace every single piece, every string, all the felt, the frame, the soundboard...

My worst was at the church where they have the local elections. No-name spinet with the tops of many of the black keys broken off. I tried pressing the keys that usually result in something like Porter's "Night and Day", but that's not what came out, even from the ones that worked.

Sorry I've reminded you of your ex
I think you'll be surprised at what it is...



Ha! You remembered! I posted this here because it's amazing what neglect can make a piano sound like. This is a Yamaha C3 from the early 90s. I recorded this after I had it brought home a few months ago. The first owners had never tuned the thing, in almost 20 years of ownership. When I played it at their house, they were sitting around listening as if it sounded good! I was trying to ignore the sound and imagine what it would sound like when tuned and regulated. And oh BOY, is it lovely now

Moral of the story: take care of your piano! A good piano that's neglected will sound awful, just like this one did.

Wow... I never would have guessed that this was such a young piano! Can we hear an "after" for comparison?

a ha I`ve played a few o` those in pubs wi the band; mic stuffed down the back . . .Actually that piano wouldn`t sound bad tuned up. And it`s a nice compact size; love the styling!

Worst in tune piano this side o` the pond was a Danneman . . my wife`s music teacher had one. I played it, and lied through me teeth to her face . . . it was dull and lifeless.

Definitely... a great story, and well delivered.

The worst "piano" I ever played was a very small electronic keyboard about 2 or 3 octaves long with smaller and closer than standard keys.

Other than that a broken sustain pedal is the most difficult thing for me to adjust to on bad pianos.

Great story, Peyton! Life can be a sharp poke in the eye. Perhaps, you should have hung in there a bit longer. Get rid of Wayne, find a decent piano, and I am sure things would have turned out better. But, then again maybe not. Who knows?

At least you have this great story.

Hey! I heard that piano, but didn't play it as I was passing through Red's Meadow on my Pacific Crest Trail trek. I don't recall it sounding that bad, so it must get at least some attention.

There are a few pianos in the practice rooms at my university that are terrible. The worst have the lower few octaves that continue to sustain after playing the keys, and I'm sure all of them have spit on the keys from the other wind instrumentalists playing over them.


And, this is OT, but does anyone else think that acoustics sound weird after playing a lot on a digital? This Christmas break I played on my dad's digital piano for a couple weeks. And then the first 10 minutes or so that I resumed playing on an acoustic piano I thought there was a lot of extra resonance/noise coming from the piano. After those first few minutes I didn't notice it anymore and kind of thought my my brain started filtering out those extra sounds.

I heard a quote once that I like. "God made man because he likes a good story." If that's true He sure gets his share....

Well, I guess it depends how you look at it. If you have no piano to play, you have nothing. If the only piano you have to play has missing keys, out of tune, then you make due with what you have.

A certain establishment in downtown New Orleans had a smaller grand sitting outside in November-December a year back, and they had it painted with one of their logos. It sounded atrocious. I passed it every day on my way to and from work, and it made me so sad that they would be so mean to that poor piano.
They were also trying to promote an upscale event they were holding, and it gave me insight about that company's appearances and their actual reality

Indeed Derulux- she is an eccentric, bit spacey artist who likes to rescue old pianos in the hope they can just be "tuned" and work again. I took a piano tech to meet her- to give her the sad news- she in fact had 2 of them- at least one was in an old coach house and not in the garden! I think she knew the one in the garden had had it but the one in the garage she still had hopes for. We told her to use it as an art installation. It's sad when pianos come to the end of their lives.

Pianos should be cared for!

In my Winter Recital, I had to play in a electric piano whose support was not very good and the whole piano shook :S It was horrible and to make the things worse I was super nervous =/

Yes I do- I remember you posted a link to playing your piano after tuning- cannot remember where the post is- can you point me to it?

Interesting how it sounded very old even though it isn't!

I'm glad it has a happy home with you!

I hope piano keeps its tuning and settles in!