Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Teachers Forum How much does the teacher's piano matter?

What type of piano do you teach on? How many different pianos/keyboards are in your studio?

And does it "look bad" if a teacher teaches on a good quality, in-tune upright rather than a baby grand or a grand? Do you expect a teacher to teach on a Steinway?

For 90% of the students out there, the piano does not matter a slick. Heck, you can teach these kids on a digital keyboard and they'll still sound exactly the same.

I teach on a grand piano. It's been great for the good students, but for the rest of the kids I might as well have them play on my keyboard.

You'd only expect a teacher to teach on a Steinway if you are paying more than $140/hour, and the teacher is REALLY good.

Most garden-variety amateur piano students and/or their parents are impressed to see a grand piano in a teacher's studio. It looks professional and expensive. In the US, if the name on the fallboard is Steinway, the teacher gets some bonus points in the elitism department.

But teaching outcomes don't dictate using a grand piano at all, as AZN has colorfully put it.

A good quality upright, in tune, or a good quality digital piano, will be equally good. The two together side by side would be great. And likely less expensive than many a grand.

Hi Peter
Are you suggesting a teacher could have only a hood wuality digital?
Maybe, it’s just me, but I want my lessons on an acoustic

I have my lessons on a Kawai grand and I have an Essex grand at home. I agree with dogperson that I would not want lessons on a digital. I upgraded my piano at home when I started playing Chopin Nocturnes and could not tolerate the sound on my old piano.

Wow, I’m getting a bargain. I have a really good teacher and I get to play on a Steinway every week!

Even better, I get to hear my teacher play on the Steinway.

If it were a digital keyboard, I don’t think I would stick with lessons, to be honest. To hear that Steinway played by my teacher or an advanced student is a little bit of aural heaven for me. To be able to produce a beautiful phrase, once in a while, when I play, is something I live for.

What matters to me above all is good teaching. No problems with a decent digital. It's the teacher that matters. Fwiw,I have also heard heavenly music played on a quality digital, and dismal music played on a grand. I don't take lessons to be entertained, but to learn.

Quality instruments matter, and they inspire. I have yet to hear a digital piano that inspires me. It’s not about being entertained, it’s about seeing the potential in a high quality piano, and my teacher shows me that potential when she plays my simple pieces on her grand. After I hear how they can sound, I try to approach that ideal when I play the same pieces.

But you have to remember that, for the great majority of students, they can't tell the difference.

My friend has a grand, an upright, and a digital in her house. Guess which one the students take lessons on? And she has a LONG waiting list of students. Meanwhile, my other friend with two Steinway D pianos can't ever fill her hours.

Sometimes I wonder if grand pianos actually scare clients away.

You are all committed adult players who care about sound and nuance, unlike the vast majority of piano students, who are beginner kids who study for 1 or 2 years before quitting. For the first year or two of children's piano study, a digital is fine, and likely what they have at home. Plus they get to push buttons on it to get different sound effects.

I'm not a big fan of digital pianos - and I would never choose one as my principal or sole teaching instrument - but they have become pretty good and pretty cheap over the last 10-15 years.

Really? I'm guessing that the kids are running to the digital keyboard and that the adults are not. I'd run the other way if I saw a digital keyboard. After hearing my teacher call my keyboard a "gadget" week after week, I couldn't get rid of it soon enough, and I am happy I did. I dragged my teacher into the rental place to pick out an upright. Now, I no longer hear about my gadget, and we're both happy.

Ugh, not all digital pianos are "gadgets." In fact, some of those "gadgets" are so advanced, they cost more than an upright piano AND they sound and feel much better than a typical upright.

I actually disagree with this--at a point. If a student has a really crappy instrument to practice on, they have less motivation to practice. I have seen it happen over and over. And when the parents upgrade, even a little, interest in piano often improves.

I wouldn't want to teach on a digital either.

I asked because I had the opportunity to buy an older baby grand and get rid of my beloved upright and wasn't sure whether it mattered from a teaching point of view. I decided against the purchase, ultimately.

I prefer the sound and feel of real hammers hitting real strings. Let’s just say that most $1000-$1500 keyboards are gadgets, at least, that’s how my Yamaha P-515 felt to me. I never felt connected to the instrument. It just felt like a simulation, which is what it is, honestly.

If I could play a Steinway D every week, I’d wake up with a smile on my face every morning. How could I not be inspired by the opportunity to play a mighty grand like the Steinway D? No digital piano can compare to that.

I’m breaking my own personal bank by ordering a Yamaha DYUS1, an acoustic YUS1 with Disklavier/Enspire player system to help with my practice, but sure, I wish I had the space and money for a Steinway D.

Trying to turn this issue into a one-size-fits-all question is bound to generate some nonsense.

It's probably true that "most" young students can't tell the difference. But many can, especially in studios that cater to more serious students. And many of the students who can't (especially because they are young and new to playing) can still be taught better on an instrument that allows them to learn pianistic control. Does that make a grand piano "necessary?" Of course not.

I have seen many a studio in my area with a Steinway grand in it. Is that some mark of quality? Well ... That Steinway is often 50-100 years old and pretty beaten up!

And those "Steinway" studios are often part of the home of amateur, and often much older than average, teachers who noodle around with a small number of beginners. The presence of a worn Steinway may enhance the image of quality, but ... that really says much more about the experience of the people who are so gullible.

I've also seen local teachers who have really top notch pianos (Bosie, Grotrian, newish Steinway) for their personal use, and an older grand for lessons. And many excellent professional teachers "get by" just fine using the standard well-maintained Yamaha or Kawai grand.

I do think it helps to have two instruments of some sort in a serious studio. That adds a lot of flexibility for easy demonstration, and for working on two-piano material (including accompaniment).

Well, I can't draw any generalities. I have had students who started learning piano on a grand (of various qualities), and their piano achievements are all over the place. Some are playing extremely advanced repertoire, and some never got past the 1B method book.

But I must admit that NO student was able to get past mid-intermediate level music without buying at least a decent upright. And students who practice on terrible digital "gadgets" most likely don't get anywhere. I have yet to have a student who bought one of those fancy digital pianos, though. I know for a fact that some of those $15,000 digital pianos are much better than the junk acoustics (upright OR grand) out there.

The quality of instrument is sometimes directly reflecting the attitude of the parents. If they are unwilling to shell out $7,000 to buy a decent, used upright, then they are probably not taking piano very seriously, and that attitude is transmitted to their children, whether they want to or not. I taught this wealthy family living in an exclusive gated community, and their $2,000 stencil "piano" is even worse than the cheap digital gadgets. And that woman never bothered to tune the piano. Guess how much her kids hated piano????


It really depends on how far you want to take your students. If you teach advanced repertoire that requires the sostenuto pedal, then you'd have to go find one of those rare uprights that does that. I've taught pieces that require the use of all three pedals.

It has been 8 weeks of hourly lessons now with my teachers Petrof upright piano and though I can deal with it better, but that is more to do with what I expect than anything else.

Its dynamic range is very limited, the bass is just loud no matter how I try and control the volume. My teacher has me using the quiet/una corda pedal which of itself is a good thing, as I wouldn't have bothered adding another limb to think about doing something with while playing. But because it feels to me anyway impossible to play quietly without using the pedal I compensate for bringing out the melody by just belting it out so it sounds over the bass and if I need the sound to be quiet I use the quiet pedal.

This is at odds with 2 of the 3 grands I've played where I've been able to quickly adjust my playing to take advantage of the dynamic range and to be able to bring out the melody above the accompaniment. The third grand has a very light action and I did not get enough time with it to see if I could tame it properly.

My digital piano using VSTs has a larger dynamic range and variation in timbre than my teachers Petrof.

The sound of the Petrof is really nice and rich, but it doesn't vary all that much since the dynamic range is so limited. It is frustrating, a rich sound is lovely but my expectation is to be able to provide dynamics that highlights the timbre a piano provides.

This was seen by my colleague who once had the occasion to go to a particular family's house. The older sibling was determined to overcome the crappy piano, but the younger sibling had no such drive and was not surprisingly not achieving much.

I was at the home of some not-piano students, who have a decent upright. But I had to say, get this tuned ASAP!!! And move these stuffed animals! I suppose a good digital is better than an out of tune acoustic. (Maybe hearing themselves play out of tune piano contributes to intonation troubles on their string instruments.)

Across instruments, the following is true: if the instrument is not capable of a certain thing, you won't be able to learn (teacher won't be able to teach) that thing - until/unless you are using an instrument that is capable. A good quality teacher can overcome a middling piano or digital to the extent that you don't need what is offered by a better piano, but a top piano can't overcome a mediocre teacher.

My classical guitar ensemble teacher was complaining to me the other day about how he had students who were trying to get through their studies on $500 factory built guitars. Their parents are paying $50k a year in tuition fees at a top music school! It doesn’t make sense for someone who is studying an instrument seriously to play on a substandard instrument. I started on a $900 guitar, then went to $2k, then $6k, then $10k, and I have arrived, the guitar is better than I am and it is a joy to play.

Parents can be really cheap in terms of buying instruments, because, after all, they’re not playing them.

Piano lessons are probably around $5k a year, not cheap, so I don’t feel any hesitation in paying the big bucks for a quality piano.

If I need the sostenuto pedal at some point, I’ll sell the DYUS1 and buy a D3SX ENPRO grand.

I wouldn’t assume that it is only cheap parents who don’t buy a better instrument: am I wrong, or couldn’t some of these cases be scholarship students without significant external financial support? ? $2000 may be over the parents’ or students’ financial means.