All posts by Robert Estrin

When Was the Piano Invented? The History of the Piano

This is a very interesting question that doesn’t have a simple answer. The origin of the piano goes back centuries, and while there is some widely held beliefs on the subject, the story of the piano is a lot more complex than you might think.

Undoubtedly the name you will hear most when it comes to the creation of the first piano would be Bartolomeo Cristofori. Cristofori was an Italian harpsichord builder. At the tail end of the 1600’s he tried his hand at making a Harpsichord that could play both loud and soft from touch. He called his instrument, “Cimbalo di Piano e Forte” which translates, “Harpsichord with Soft and Loud”. Eventually, the name was shortened to “The Piano”. If you were to see one of these early instruments built by Cristofori, you would discover that it has more in common with a harpsichord than a modern piano!

Image Courtesy of The New York Metropolitan Museum of Art

So what separates this instrument from other harpsichords he produced? What makes it a piano?

For anyone familiar with the Harpsichord, you know that it lacks dynamic range from touch alone. You can play a key hard or soft and it will produce the same volume. This has to do with how the instrument plays a string: The harpsichord plucks the strings as opposed to a piano action which has hammers striking strings.

Harpsichord Plucking a String

Piano Hammer Striking a String

In order to create the dynamics needed, Cristofori invented a primitive piano action. A hammer would strike the string and you would be able to play dynamically – thus creating a range of expression birthing the idea behind the instrument we know today as the piano.

As time went on there were many advancements to piano design. New technologies were created and implemented. The birth of the modern piano is much more of an amalgamation over time than a single instrument created on a specific date.

It wasn’t until the mid 19th century that we saw the origins of the piano we know today. And even composers in the mid-19th century like Chopin and Liszt were writing pieces that we play on modern pianos that were written for instruments that were somewhat more primitive than the pianos we have today. The development of cross stringing hadn’t been adopted widely yet. Piano actions also continued with many refinements of technology. There were hundreds of improvements that came about throughout centuries.

Around the end of the 19th century is when we really began to see the modern piano as we know today. By the 1870’s and 1880’s Steinway was producing fully modern pianos. The models of Steinway pianos produced during the 1880’s have the same basic scale design as pianos they are building today with a number of technical refinements.

To sum up this incredibly deep and complex topic:

The original instrument considered to be a piano was created at the very end of the 1600’s.

The modern piano was available from select manufactures towards the end of the 1800’s.

If you have any questions about this topic or any others, please contact us at: Info@LivingPianos.com (949) 244-3729

Can a Piano be Too Old?

It’s sad to think that a piano can simply age to the point where it needs to be thrown away. Sadly, this is sometimes the case. But is it really the age that is the determining factor in getting rid of a piano or is it something else? Today we are going to discuss this topic in-depth and decide whether or not the age of a piano can determine it’s fate.

The age of a piano has much more to do with its upkeep, environment, and use than the date of manufacture. We have had pianos here in the showroom from the 1880s that have been restored and are in better condition than most 10-15-year-old pianos!

I recently had a conversation with a technician who found a 1906 Knabe upright – all original – from an estate where it had virtually never been played. He told me that not only do the strings (the original strings!) sound vibrant and young but the tuning is incredibly stable and you would never have known it was a piano from over 100 years ago. This is a very rare occurrence but it does happen and with the right environment the date of manufacture may be superfluous.

I’ve also run across a different issue with the age of pianos. Some Viennese piano companies were actually producing “period” type pianos well after the development of the modern piano action. While Steinway and other major manufacturers were producing pianos similar to pianos being made today, these companies were still making older style pianos. In this scenario, the age of the piano doesn’t even tell you how modern the piano is!

Ultimately, the factors that determine the age of the piano beyond just a manufacture date are:

– How much the piano has been played

– The environment the piano has been in

– The upkeep of the piano

Now we can go extremely in-depth on each of these factors above, but these are general guidelines for determining the true age of a piano – not just when it was built. Just like anything else, if you take care of your piano and keep it in a safe place it will last a long time unless you play it a lot since parts of pianos wear out. You shouldn’t be discouraged from looking at a piano just because of the date is was made – that is only a small portion of deciding whether or not the piano is a good instrument.

Thanks again for joining us, if you have any questions or comments about this subject or any subject at all please contact us directly: info@LivingPianos.com (949) 244-3729

Is it Okay to Fake at the Piano?

Is it okay to fake at the piano? Many teachers would say that you must not fake on the piano. I would tend to agree with them. But is this all-encompassing?

Let me give you some examples where faking or not playing totally accurately might actually be necessary.

Everything we strive for in practice and in teaching is geared to ensure that you know the score faithfully and can perform accurately. So, why would you want to ever play sloppily?

There have been times where I was called upon to accompany someone at an audition when their pianist didn’t show up at the last minute. Imagine sight reading the Hindemith Trombone Sonata under such circumstances if you had never played the piece. Hindemith scores are extremely complex pieces of music that are nearly impossible to read accurately at first glance. There may be some parts you can play accurately depending on the level of your reading. But some sections will be impossible to grasp initially up to tempo without working things out.

In this instance, if the trombonist didn’t have an accompanist, they couldn’t even take the audition. In situations like this, I have reluctantly accepted the challenge to rescue the soloist. I have gone in and grabbed as many notes as possible. Most importantly, I stayed with the soloist never allowing any problems to interfere with the fluidity of their performance. This is one instance where faking will be inevitable.

Here is another example. You are playing a concert and you are well prepared and are in great shape. Then you get to a certain part and something happens where you find yourself over the wrong set of keys. This could be due to a number of things such as a mechanical issue with the piano or you simply got distracted by something in the room. There is nothing better than you can do than to fake it until you get back on track because if you stop you will ruin the performance for everyone. Not only that, but people will be very uncomfortable for you. An eerie silence in the middle of a performance is not something you ever want to subject anyone too much less yourself! You are much better off faking your way through a little bit to get back on the right track rather than to correct or go back to the beginning of the section.

So there is a place for faking in some unusual circumstances. But we do everything in our power to avoid doing it. But when the situation comes up, the show must go on!

Thanks for joining me, Robert@LivingPianos.com.

How Much Does it Cost to Tune a Piano?

Tuning a piano cost different amounts in various regions. Some remote places have no piano technicians! So, when tuners come through, they are in incredible demand and command high rates for tuning. In metropolitan areas with lots of tuners, the going rate is usually around $100-150 – some areas are higher than others. And top-notch concert level tuners can cost substantially more.

But this is only half the story! Because it also depends upon several other factors:

– How often the piano is tuned

– How much the piano is played

– Stability of the environment

– Quality of the piano

Pianos that are played a great deal such as in schools or pianos owned by serious players who practice a lot will require much more tuning than pianos that are not played much.
A place that has wide swings of temperature and humidity will cause a piano to become out of tune more readily than in a more stable environment.

A higher quality piano will hold its tuning longer than a lower quality piano. Newer pianos and newly rebuilt pianos will also require more tuning and adjustment as strings stretch and the piano settles.

So, there is much to be considered when servicing your piano. There is almost always at least some additional adjustments necessary when getting your piano tuned. So the cost of having a piano technician visit can vary a great deal. $100-$150 would be an ideal amount to spend if you have a high quality, broken in piano tuned on a regular basis, kept in a stable environment and played minimally. In most instances, the cost will be greater.

Thanks again for joining us here at Living Pianos. If you have any questions about this subject or any subject at all please contact us directly info@livingpianos.com (949) 244-3729

Should You Close the Fallboard on Your Piano?

Nearly every piano has a fallboard and you might assume that if it’s there it should be used. Should you close the fallboard on your piano when you’re not playing it?

There are certain instances when the fallboard can be useful to keep people from playing the instrument. If you have a piano in a restaurant or hotel that you don’t want random people playing, you can close the fallboard and the lid and lock the piano (if your piano has a lock). If you have a piano in your home that you don’t want children playing around with this can also be useful.

When it comes to institutional use, the locks on pianos do very little to protect them because they can be easily pried open. That’s why there are much more secure locks available to prevent people from getting inside pianos

The practical use of fallboards is to prevent dust from collecting on the keys of pianos. Playing a piano with dirty keys feels awful! However, dust will still collect on the fallboard and you will have to dust the fallboard. With delicate satin finishes, this can be more challenging than dusting the keys.

The biggest issue when it comes to closing the fallboard is whether or not you have ivory or plastic key tops.

When I was a child growing up, my father Morton Estrin would always leave his fallboards open on his pianos and I once asked him about this. He explained to me that the ivory keys on pianos will yellow if not exposed to sunlight on a regular basis. So, closing the fallboard will turn ivory keys yellow over time. In this case, you are better off leaving your fallboard open.

When it comes to plastic keys there are no other benefits to keeping fallboards open unless there is direct sunlight on the keys. Plastic can sometimes react to sunlight and degrade over time. If you want to prevent people from playing your piano or prevent dust from getting on the keys, than closing the fallboard is a good choice. However, it doesn’t prolonging the life of your piano or aid its stability.

Thanks again for joining us here at Living Pianos. If you have any questions about this topic or any others, please contact us at: Info@LivingPianos.com (949) 244-3729

How to Sit at the Piano – Best Piano Sitting Position

How you sit at the piano is extremely important for several reasons. It offers you the most ergonomic position for tone production and technical fluency. It also assures that you can practice for long periods without causing injury. Wind players are accustomed to focusing on embouchure (lip position) on their instruments for optimum performance. How you sit at the piano is no different. In this video we will explore ideal sitting position which will benefit your piano playing and enjoyment.