Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum Big or small grand for a small room?

Dear all, I have a small room with low ceiling.
My main concern is if it would be too loud to have a big Grand Piano.
Which is wiser?
A = consider getting your largest grand ever possible then have the small room acoustic treated

B = getting a small one hoping no need to do acoustic treatment and hoping it wont be too loud.

Any suggestions are welcome.

It would help to know the size of your room, including the ceiling height, and any openings to other rooms.

Thank you so much. Will update here again.

Larger grand, acoustic treatment, play with the lid closed. You will enjoy the depth of tone in the larger piano more than the smaller one. For extra sparkle, open the fly lid and put your music rest down. Will sound awesome yet not hurt your ears.

If you know how to do acoustic treatment, then get the biggest piano you can and treat away.

@emery wang: Make sense~
@SonatanfSharp: I can't, i have to leave it for the pros to do it. ^^

I'm back with one of my rooms measurement which I would like to place my future grand.
Height: 252cm / 8 feet 3 / 99 inches
Length: 280cm / 9 feet 2 / 110.2 inches
Width: 355cm / 11 feet 7 / 139.7 inches

I have a larget closet near to one end of the room which i did not count then 'depth' as I may not want to remove it.

One unopened window, a wooden door and the flooring are ceramic tiles.

Anyone may advise also please.

This one might be tricky. This is a indeed a small room.

Most likely you will have to play with the lid closed and do extensive acoustic treatment to the room.

Even then, the room is almost a cube, not ideal for a (grand) piano

Depending on how long you will be there a nice vertical piano might be a better choice for now.

I am by far an expert on this subject so take my advice for what it is.

That is a small room indeed. You might look at this article. It states that for a 8ft ceiling the max. length of piano is preferably room perimeter divided by 10. In your case it is 4 ft.
There are other factors though such as whether your room has an opening to another room etc.

https://www.pianobuyer.com/article/how-to-make-a-piano-room-sound-grand/

Thanks for all above sharing. It seem like i really need to place it in my living room instead. /bow

If you have that option (and presumably the living room is bigger than the dimensions you posted above) then definitely try to get the piano in the living room.

Good luck!

Hi, my living is definitely larger but not by much though. Thanks everyone~

I once had a friend who lived in a very small house. Her 6 foot grand piano took up half the space in her tiny living room. She didn't mind at all.

A small room with complete freedom to become a music room may be much better than a big room with a lot of comrpomises on positioning and optical requirements. If you chose the grand that you love the most, that one that keeps you away from sleeping and makes you feel like your first love is the right one, I guess. If it were a 7" you still have enough space to sit comfortably in the room. Acoustic treatments are relatively easy if you use a wider acoustic curtain, a carpet, some diffusers and some absorption where necessary. The room is not very high, so that closing the lid might be a good choice. But the sound produced by an incredible piano will always be better than the sound of a compromised piano I guess. Not to forget the mechanics...

Of course an upright would be better suited for the room. But my personal preference would be to fit the piano to your dreams and not your room. Almost everything is possible. Lots of us don´t give a second thought about the piano buyer´s proposals...

Hmm that's about the size of our living room. No chance of getting a grand in here!

It's it too loud for her?

To be practical (within my spending power), the biggest is possibly 6", else 5"5. Really not looking for anything smaller.
I still like the idea of having it in my small room.
My upright is in my living room.

HA!

My 7' grand is in a 9x15 room with a 7' ceiling and I'm with Emery on this one. Do what you can with the room (starting with covering the tile floor), close the lid, use a string cover, or wear musician's earplugs. It's far from ideal, but not as far as a vertical or a runt grand.

She didn't have a problem with it. Plus she lived alone, so she didn't have to worry about bothering anyone else in the house.

Put the piano in the small room first. If it's too overwhelming it only costs a few hundred bucks to have movers come and put it in the living room.