You may have heard of a square grand piano, but I wouldn’t be surprised if you haven’t. Square grand pianos are an interesting side note in the development of the piano. They have a unique design that looks like a coffin when closed. But are they good instruments?

With President’s Day around the corner, I thought I would share with you the rich history of pianos in the White House!

From the very beginning there were pianos in the White House starting with George Washington. Early presidents had fortepianos like Mozart played and harpsichords in the White House.

Square Grand Pianos were popular with 6 presidents! These monstrously large pianos have been relegated to the footnotes of piano history.

Upright pianos have also been popular with 6 presidents owning uprights.

4 piano companies stand out for being very popular in the White House:

– Steinway: including one given to the White House by Steinway in 1938
– Baldwin
– Chickering
– Knabe

Below is an outline of what pianos were owned by presidents.

HARPSICHORDS:

– George Washington
– Rutherford Hayes (& upright)
– Grover Cleveland (& piano)

FORTEPIANOS:

– George Washington
– Thomas Jefferson

SQUARE GRANDS: 6 presidents

UPRIGHT PIANOS: 6 presidents

CHICKERING PIANOS:

– Franklin Pierce
– James Buchanan
– Abraham Lincoln (square & upright)
– Theodore Roosevelt (& Steinway)

STEINWAY:

Steinway grand piano with gilt American eagle supports. It was designed by Eric Gugler with gilt stenciling by Dunbar Beck (with help from Franklin Roosevelt) and was given to the White House in 1938 by the manufacturer.

Theodore Roosevelt (& Chickering)

Lyndon B. Johnson (& Knabe)

Ronald Reagan

KNABE:

– Woodrow Wilson
– Herbert Hoover
– Lyndon B. Johnson (& Steinway)

BALDWIN:

– William Taft
– Harry Truman
– Richard Nixon – accompanied singer Pearl Bailey in a performance in the East Room

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!

In the first installment of this series, we talked about the evolution of the piano in terms of traditional pianos and the new design elements being implemented. The use of synthetic materials in traditional pianos is an incredibly interesting development in piano design and production. I received a number of comments from all of you and I really appreciate the conversation and insight you all provided.

In this next installment, I would like to discuss the advancement of pianos when it comes to digital and hybrid pianos. They have come a long way, so long that they are actually becoming a preferred format for certain musicians and venues.

Many years ago the first attempts at making electric pianos emerged. In truth, they sounded nothing like actual pianos. The Wurlitzer and the Fender Rhodes pianos had traditional piano keyboards but they produced bell-like sounds. It wasn’t until the late 1970’s and early 1980’s with the invention of digital sampling that digital pianos could actually sound like a real piano! They achieved this by having little recordings for each note and then looping them – the technology wasn’t available to record the entire length of each note so only a small sample of the attack portion of the note was used. The decay of the notes was achieved by looping a portion of the sound and fading it out. I actually owned a Kurzweil K250 – an 88 note digital wooden key piano, one of the first instruments capable of replicating the sound and feel of a piano. I enjoyed producing many soundtracks in my studio since the Kurzweil offered hundreds of strikingly realistic instrument replications.

Since that time, digital sampling has evolved tremendously. Now digital pianos most often have several recordings of each note at different velocity levels. The realism of these instruments is simply astounding. There is actually a newer technology called physical modeling which takes into account the attack of the keys and the hammers hitting the string and many other aspects of the sound we never thought possible when digital pianos were first invented. This technology makes it possible to replicate pianos that couldn’t exist in the real world – twelve and twenty-foot pianos, aluminum strings – the possibilities are endless.

Some of the best digital pianos today are software based, which is why a lot of professionals utilize something called keyboard controllers. These don’t produce sounds but they actually transmit key information via MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) to a laptop, computer, or sound module which allows the player to use the latest in technology without having to buy new keyboards every year.

Digital pianos generally fall into two categories: portable and home units. Portable digital pianos are generally used by professionals. They usually have no speakers or very small speakers on board. They are hooked into sound systems for performance and recording. These are like portable pianos except they produce sound digitally and have a much simpler type of action mechanism. The other type of digital piano can actually look like a real piano but they have no strings or soundboard. They also produce the sound digitally but have substantial sound systems built into sometimes extravagant furniture.

In my opinion, some of the inexpensive digital pianos are just as good as units costing much more. When you spend more you are mostly getting better furniture and more substantial sound systems. Some of these high-end digital pianos from Korg, Yamaha, Kurzweil, and others are so advanced they offer the players even more options than ever before. You can plug in microphones to harmonize your voice with the piano; you can record yourself digitally creating full orchestrations! There are music software programs for learning music theory and more.

But are digital pianos really a substitute for traditional pianos? In a pinch, yes. But what’s more impressive about these instruments is the things you can’t do with a traditional piano. As far as recording music, the software available on these pianos is incredibly powerful – you can record multiple lines of music, you can bring up your notes and edit them; the options are endless. It’s like having a word processor for music at your fingertips!

But when it comes to hybrid pianos, things get a little more interesting. Roland and Yamaha have pianos now that are considered hybrids – they are trying to bridge the line between digital and acoustic pianos and they are getting closer.

Some of these hybrid pianos like the Yamaha AvantGrand actually have full piano actions in them and function as normal, but the sound is created digitally.

These pianos can be incredibly useful in certain situations. If you ever had to practice on a practice room piano in a school, you know how hideously out of tune these pianos almost always are. With people playing them constantly they will hardly ever be in tune or voiced to a decent level of performance. Traditional pianos just aren’t capable of withstanding that kind of use. With a hybrid piano – where the action is the same as a real piano but the sound is digital – this can provide a better alternative to an acoustic piano. There are plenty of situations – like hotels or restaurants where hybrid pianos offer an ideal solution.

The question is whether we will ever get to a point where hybrid pianos are actually more common than traditional acoustic pianos? I believe that there is nothing better than an acoustic piano, however, in certain situations, I would much prefer to play on a high-quality hybrid piano than a beaten up acoustic piano.

So What Are the Best Piano Brands?

The country of origin is often the best indicator of the quality of pianos. Since piano production began in Germany and the United States, these represent the very best piano brands.

The United States only has 3 manufacturers left although there used to be hundreds of piano companies building in America. Today we have only:

Steinway

Top 5 Piano Myths

1. Steinway is the best piano in the world.

There are a handful of piano companies which make pianos equal in quality to Steinway. (For example: Bösendorfer, Bechstein, Fazioli, Blüthner and Mason & Hamlin are all top notch pianos with rich histories.) In fact, if you look in the latest supplement to “The Piano Book”, by Larry Fine, New York made Steinway pianos are rated in the 3rd rank of pianos according to manufacturing quality. So why is Steinway recognized as the undisputed leader? In a word: marketing. Just as Microsoft dominates computer software because of aggressive licensing arrangements, John Steinway helped propel Steinway & Sons to its market dominance through exclusive artist contracts and favorable institutional arrangements.

2. When you move a piano it has to be tuned.

This is a half truth. The fact is, a piano that is moved will show up pretty much as it left most of the time. However, after the piano gets acclimated to its new environment, it will require tuning. The piano may not sound bad, but the pitch of the entire instrument may adjust slightly up or down. It is important to keep a piano stable. It is best to wait at least a couple of weeks or even longer after a move before tuning to make sure the piano has settled.

3. Kids banging on a piano may damage the instrument.

While it can grate on your nerves, the force with which kids hit the keys of a piano even with their fists can’t match the power professional pianists inflict upon a piano in concert. Just be sure that the children don’t take sharp or heavy objects to the keyboard since this can damage the instrument.

4. The fall board of a piano must have a slow close feature to avoid injury.

The slow close fall-board feature of a piano is a great marketing tool. The truth is, unless you have some really wild kids, the incidence of being hurt by a falling fall board is quite rare. Most of the best pianos including Steinway do not offer a slow close fall board.

5. You shouldn’t place a piano on an outside wall.

Even in a temperate climate, the insulation of modern homes will keep the temperature fairly stable even on an outside wall. However, it is important to avoid direct sunlight on your piano. This will not only effect tuning stability, but it will fade the finish in a matter of weeks. Also, you should keep your piano closed particularly at night. If you leave your windows open at night, the moist night air will rust the strings. Also, even with the piano closed, the cooler air can make the sound board contract destabilizing the tuning. Use your judgment in balancing the enjoyment of your piano versus its longevity.

I’m interested to hear your opinions and thoughts on these piano myths. Please leave some comments below. Thanks for reading.