Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Poll (sort of): Will the 'acoustic piano' become a relic?

I think the progress of digitals/hybrids has been astronomically fast. I played a Clavinova in the 90's in countless high school musicals and the the Avant Grand and others are light years beyond that in the space of 20 years or less.

Around thirty years ago the best computer chess programs were very weak. Now some $25 program can beat 99% of chess players and the best computer programs regularly defeat grandmasters. It has gotten to the point where only grandmasters have a chance against the best chess computer programs. In blitz chess, I don't think even the best grandmasters can beat the best computers.

I actually find it hard to believe, based on the exponential improvement in computers and technology, that anyone thinks that non acoustics will not eventually become indistinguishable from acoustics. The only thing that might prevent this is a lack of market for this type of non acoustic piano.

It's getting closer though. Digital pianos tend not to sound as good themselves as standalone software packages which are available separately. But if you put the two together, they can sound pretty good.

If I spent £2800 on an yamaha upright, and then spend £2500 on a Kawai CA-95 and £300 on TrueKeys for my laptop and paired them up, I feel confident that I could get more colour, contrast and subtlety out of the digital setup, especially with the features I mentioned like the inclusion of a wooden soundboard.

The world, as usual is always changing. When I was a kid I grew up in a trailer so a piano was not possible.

Today an 88 keyed weighted keyed piano can be had for 600 dollars Canadian. When I bought my shack it cost 40, 000 and vehicles cost 3 thousand dollars. Today houses on a small lot cost a million dollars and a condo, 400 sq ft. cost a half a million. Today vehicles cost 50,000. Food is interesting. I remember visiting Japan and seeing produce in small boxes. Today lots of fruit and vegtables come in boxes. Everywhere I look, I see lots of baby carriages with 1 or 2 babies. Today, I understand, that 2,000 people a month move to this city.

The cost of housing and what it means if you own a piano - digital you can play 24/7/365 and an acoustic restricted by neighbours. I love my acoustic piano but the future, who knows. When I was 13 I taught myself to type on a manual typewriter. Today, it is difficult to get ribbons for typewriters and manual and electric typewriters aren't seen. Everyhwere you go people of all ages are holding cell phones, etc.

When the personal computer first came out it was around 4,000 dollars and today laptops can be had for 300 dollars.

The good news is that digitals pianos can put a piano everywhere in the reach of almost anyone who want to learn to play a piano like never before.

When I go to music store the digital keyboards department always has lots of people of all ages. When I go to the acoustic piano department there is only one time that I saw a customer there when I went there. Remember what a descent piano costs, new or old, and what a digital piano costs - less than a monthly paycheque.

Yes, absolutely. Surely this is something to be celebrated. If I didn't have a digital when I was a teenager, I wuldnt have had a piano at all. I wouldn't be where I am now.

The future of piano I think probably is just like that of the harpsichord today. When later generations ascustom to the tone color of the electronic piano, the piano now will fade but not diminish.

One thing not mentioned (enough) so far is the organic sound of an acoustic, which I miss terribly now that I only have a digital. I'll probably get pelted with rocks and garbage for saying this, but I used to love how I could hear the weather change in my (acoustic) piano. The instrument was alive to me. I have always loved the differences in the sounds of (acoustic) pianos, what some people complain about to me sounds like the piano's own character. You never get that on a digital.

I had the pleasure of playing a Yamaha Avant Grand for several lessons, and it was very impressive. I would much rather have it than my current wimpy little Yamaha Arius. And given my current living situation (apartment, grad student) I am grateful to have the Arius rather than no piano at all. But these pianos are painfully sterile and their stability is dull. I long for my beloved acoustic and it's personality and warmth. An acoustic piano is organic in a way that a digital one can never be.

Unless you could figure out a way of programming in said organicness. It could be done.

Quick question. On a really good DP, when you hold notes using the sostenuto pedal but don't actually play those notes and then play and release harmonically related chords several octaves higher, do the held notes sing by sympathetic resonance, as in an acoustic piano?

Yes, high end digital pianos now sample sympathetic resonance. The same is true when you lift the sustain pedal. All of the notes resonate, not just the ones you play. I have even tested holding a low C and playing up the harmonic series.

The comparison with harpsichords is interesting, but ultimately I think inaccurate. Pianos superseded harpsichords because they were wholly different instruments. Digital pianos tend to be judged largely on how faithfully they recreate the experience of playing an acoustic, i.e the more indistinguishable they are from real pianos the better they are.

The Avantgrand I own is probably the only reason why I'm able to continue with music right now... it's something that I'm eternally grateful to my family for providing it for me. It's more expensive than a lesser digital, but I don't think I would have able to expand my repertoire to its current state without it.

@Debrucey - LOL, we're playing like the same stuff this year. I also did the 4th ballade and will be performing the Ravel again soon...+ I've fooled around with some Kapustin preludes. Not played at your level however :P.

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I agree. I had never thought of it before as a plus, but yeah. I fight this characteristic of pianos, by working hard to stabilize humidity, temp etc., but I guess I love it too, just as you said.

One of the challenges of performing is feeling out how the piano is at that particular moment and adapting to it. Even if we tried the piano the previous day, or that morning, it'll be a little different when the performance comes around. Just like what I said in the above paragraph, I've viewed this mostly as a 'problem,' but y'know, I also love it. It has become a familiar and wonderful part of the performing routine and helps make each performance a unique moment.

This is an excellent point.

Why should all quality grands be more appropriate for the concert hall than home?

I hope not but...

For professionals it probably won't happen soon, they mostly study on an acoustic and that's what is expected in concerts.

But in homes of the amateurs? I would expect that it might happen for a few reasons: Price, convenience, space.
I was talking to a piano dealer the other day and he said he sells quite a few grands to older people to be more furniture than an instrument
Where will all the grands go after these peole are gone?
And why would anyone want a grand as furniture? No matter how much I want one they are actually pretty ugly things...

For me the digitals don't get more appealing even though they get better and better. The things about the acoustic that draw me into it are the feel of the playing, the effort it takes to be able to get the sound I want and the little differences or imperfections that make the piano an individual and it's sound more living than a perfect digital sound.
I don't know if the young people today would care for this, more like the easier the better so I do think acoustics will become less and less common in households. Especially when the old uprights get dumped and the new good quality uprights are pretty expensive. Why buy a cheap acoustic that is low quality when you can get a really good digital for less...

I agree 100%!

My dream is to own a fortepiano one day, because they have so much more appealing sound than the modern monsters...

Yes - you can purchase a digital for less than an acoustic - but a digital only lasts about 25% as long as an acoustic (at best).

If your power goes out - a digital will be completely useless.

At least you can play an acoustic by candlelight.

I imagine that acoustics will be very popular with future doomsday preppers.

Cher, it's not the sound of a digital I hate (though I'm not wild about it)-it's the feel. I keep one at my elderly parents' home to practice on when I'm down there. Yes, it has weighted keys but it still feels like some sort of toy compared to my not particularly grand acoustic.

Do you remember the film A.I. Artificial Intelligence?

This is from IMDb:

"A highly advanced robotic boy longs to become "real" so that he can regain the love of his human mother."

Didn't Disney do an animated film on the same point some decades earlier?