Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum What does a big grand do for you in your home?

Well, he says he played a freshly tuned Steingraeber grand without giving the length. I suspect that qualifies as top-tier.

I can't play La Campanella either, but the easier pieces that I play all benefit from the extra bass quality and resonance that a "larger" grand can deliver. By "larger," mine is 192 cm, or approximately 6'3".

We all make our own individual tradeoffs between size and room space, however. Mine is actually in a small room by floor space (maybe 180 square feet). But the ceiling is high (17 feet), so it makes a good music room.


Piano Room

I had an interesting conversation in Steinway London with the salesperson there. The Boston 193 grand piano is/was the same price as the Model K upright. She said that the model K (Hamburg I'm talking about) is an excellent piano with exceptional build quality and tone, and if you don't have the space for a grand and want the finest sounding piano possible, then get a Model K.

She went on to say that at the end of the day, the model K is still an upright, and even with its very good action it still has the limitations of an upright, and that for a serious pianist who had the luxury of space, a 178 or 193 Boston grand would be a better choice then a Steinway Model K upright.

It really does help to play on a grand piano action. There are limitations with the repetition and the tone of an upright, even a very good one. There are many uprights that I really enjoy working on, and the Blüthner Model A is a great piano in its own right. However, any upright is only going to take you so far, and there comes a point where if you really want to fly, in terms of tone production and in terms of technique, you really need to experience a good grand on a regular basis.

The question comes up on a fairly regular basis, is a top-tier upright better than a low-tier grand, or is a top-tier baby grand better than a low-tier semi concert. The question has come up more often with instruments like the Feurich/Hailun 218 being cheaper than some top-tier uprights, and a Yamaha C7 being cheaper than a Steinway M. There isn't one answer to the question really. There's a question of physics in that the longer piano is usually better than the shorter one and the grand is usually better than the upright, but the question of how well designed each individual model is, and how well that design is executed can often become more important than the size of the piano alone.