Today we are going to address the question of what is better, a Digital Piano or an Upright Piano. This is a common question here at the store and it’s something worth investigating. While neither an upright or a digital piano is comparable to a good quality baby grand or grand piano, you may wonder which is a better choice.
The big plus to owning a digital piano is that it’s always in tune so you never have to spend time or money maintaining the instrument. Digital pianos can also change their volume as well as be used with headphones so you can practice without disturbing people around you. Most digital pianos allow you to connect to your computer to enhance your experience with programs that can record your playing and aid in learning. Digital pianos also allow you to play with different sounds and effects that simply aren’t possible on a traditional piano. There are a lot of possibilities with a digital piano.
On the other hand there are plenty of reasons that an upright piano is a good choice. If you’ve ever looked inside a piano you see hundreds of parts for each note that make up the piano’s action. Even though an upright piano action is not as responsive as one in a grand piano,
they are much more responsive than even the best digital piano action. There is simply no way to replicate the feel and touch of an actual piano action. This can be incredibly important if you plan on playing anywhere else besides your digital piano since as a pianist you are called upon to play whatever piano is available.
I generally recommend an acoustic piano to any aspiring student, but there are exceptions. If you can’t afford a decent upright piano or you can only get ahold of a shorter spinet piano (which has an inferior indirect blow action) then a digital piano might be a better choice for you. If you want to experiment with different sounds or are severely limited in space, a digital piano might also be the right choice for you.
Acoustic pianos have benefits when it comes to sound. Although digital pianos sample the actual sounds of nine foot concert grand pianos, there are limits to what can be recorded. Even a high end digital piano that has multiple sound samples of each note at different volume levels can’t replicate the range of tones possible on an acoustic piano. An acoustic piano has infinite levels of expression that simply can’t be matched on a digital instrument, although they keep getting better. For an advanced student there is no substitute for the expression possible on an actual acoustic piano.
So, unless you require the features and benefits of a digital piano, you are better off with a good quality acoustic upright piano over a digital piano. There is no substitute to playing an actual piano. Technology keeps advancing and digital pianos continue to get better and better. So, one day in the future this could be a different situation. Until then you are better off practicing on a good upright piano.
Thanks again for joining me Robert Estrin Robert@LivingPianos.com (949) 244-3729