How to Have a Piano While Traveling

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. The subject today is about how to have a piano while traveling. Sometimes I go on vacation, and it’s frustrating not having a piano. I finally have time to devote to the piano, but there is no piano to play! What kind of vacation is that? Maybe you feel the same way. You’re busy all the time, and then when you finally have some free time, there’s no piano. Not that you want to spend your whole vacation practicing the piano, but you certainly want a piano you can play. How can you achieve such a thing?

Bring a digital piano with you!

One way you can have a piano on vacation is by doing what I do. I have a high-quality, very lightweight digital piano that I can take with me. It weighs just 24 pounds! If you have a simple folding X-stand, it takes up so little room. If you like, you can even take some headphones with you so you don’t have to disturb anybody. You can just put it in your trunk along with your other stuff. I’ve taken that piano with me to all kinds of places. What about if you’re flying? This is a big problem, but I have some tips for you!

Do you know that you can search Airbnb for places that have pianos?

You’ll find that there are some places you can stay that have pianos in them. There’s even a website that has places you can stay all over the world that have pianos in them. So that’s an ideal situation. Stay in a nice house, apartment, or condo that has a piano. Maybe you want the amenities and convenience of a hotel. Well, a lot of times, bigger hotels have pianos in them. I’m pretty brave in that respect. I will sneak into rooms and find a piano. You might get kicked out, but you might just be able to play for a while. People might even appreciate it! Sometimes there’s a piano in a bar or a restaurant, and you can possibly play it when they are not that busy.

There are different places you can steal time on pianos, if you’re lucky.

If you have any friends in different cities who have pianos, that is obviously a great way to get some time with a piano. Piano stores are probably not the best place to try to play pianos because they have an agenda of selling pianos. If you’re in there practicing or even playing, that’s probably not going to be conducive to their business. Sometimes a school will have pianos, but getting into schools can be tough. So I recommend finding hotels or Airbnbs that have pianos.

There is another option, but it’s not a very good option…Yet!

This is an option I’m hoping will improve over time, which is folding pianos. Yes, there are folding pianos. I have one. There are times when I’m traveling and I still want to do my teaching. If I’m traveling by plane, I obviously can’t take my digital piano with me. The good thing about folding pianos is how compact they are, but the bad part is that they have horrendously bad actions. It’s not possible to do serious playing on folding pianos. For memorization, music theory, composition, and even teaching, where you’re just demonstrating things, these folding pianos get the job done and are very inexpensive. I’m hoping someday somebody comes out with a decent quality folding piano you can fit in the overhead bin on a flight. Wouldn’t that be great? In the meantime, take the little tips I gave you. If you’re traveling by car, get a digital piano to take with you with an X-stand. Look for hotels or Airbnbs that have pianos. In a pinch, you could do some work on a folding piano. If anybody has any other ideas, let me know in the comments! Thanks again for joining me, Robert Estrin, here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Resource.

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