COMPONENTES O LINEAMIENTOS PEDAGÓGICOS Y DIDÁCTICOS 36

Buying digital pianos is simple, whereas buying acoustics (acoustics) can be a nightmare. For

digitals, all you need to know is your price range, the desired features, and perhaps the manufacturer. Useful internet reviews are available for comparison. You don't need a piano technician to evaluate the piano. All established manufacturers, such as Yamaha, Roland, Korg, Technic, Kawai, Kurzweil, and Casio produce

digitals of uniformly good quality. The quality is so consistent that you can buy them online and assemble them yourself. The main disadvantage of digitals at this writing is that they are not equipped with sufficiently good audio systems, but this can be remedied by also buying a good audio system because its price has become affordable.

Purchasing a acoustic piano: Buying a acoustic piano can be a trying experience whether you are

knowledgeable about pianos or not, and whether buying new or used. Many piano stores will rent the piano with an agreement to apply the rental to the purchase price if it is eventually purchased. In that case, make sure that to negotiate for the best purchase price before discussing the rental. After agreeing to a rental, there will be little negotiating power on price. At most dealers, it is difficult to test the piano by playing it because it is too expensive to keep every model properly tuned and regulated all the time. Thus buying a acoustic piano is a hit-or-miss proposition and a stressful and time-consuming experience. For mass produced pianos such as Yamaha or Kawai, the quality of their new pianos is more uniform because most of the "prep" is done at the factory. The sound quality of the more expensive "hand made" pianos can vary considerably so that buying these pianos is more difficult.

"Hand made" does not mean good. It has come to mean "more expensive" and they have a wider distribution of quality: good ones are very good, and bad ones are terrible. Thus the prices of the few good ones are bid up excessively, which tends to raise the prices of even the bad ones because many customers do not know how to test a piano and just pay by brand name. This has started a death spiral of ever fewer good acoustics at ever increasing prices on the one hand, and a healthy competition among rapidly improving digitals at lower and lower prices. So few acoustics are sold now that the number of piano making specialists keeps decreasing, making the acoustics less affordable, resulting in fewer sales. Already, uprights are starting to go extinct. The numbers of piano restorers and tuners have been decreasing at alarming rates for decades. Because the average age of the remaining workers is increasing, this trend is expected to continue. The most telling sign of this death spiral is the difficulty of finding exact prices of any new quality acoustic, whereas the prices of the digitals are mostly advertised everywhere. A few digital manufacturers, such as Yamaha, have kept their prices higher by using exclusive distributors, but this practice will not be sustainable. The list prices of the acoustics are artificially jacked up and the true sale price is always bargained down, which adds to the difficulty of buying one.

Good used acoustic pianos are difficult to find in piano stores or even at piano restorers because playable pianos sell first and most stores are left with inventories of inferior ones. Obviously, the best acoustics are to be found among the private sales and where the prices are lower. The uninitiated will need to hire a piano tuner/technician to evaluate the used pianos in private sales, especially because you will need a tuner even after the purchase; however, this can get expensive if the locations are far away or if you need to test many pianos. The best place to find bargains is the classified section of newspapers at large metropolitan areas. Most such advertisements are placed on Friday, Saturday, and especially on Sunday. You will also need a lot of patience because good private sales are not always there when you need them. However, the wait can be worthwhile because the same piano will cost half as much (or less) at a private sale compared to the store or restorer. Their costs are high because of the high cost of selling each piano and the small number of sales. There is a steady demand for good, reasonably priced pianos. This means that it is not easy to find bargains at widely accessible sites, such as the internet piano markets, because good pianos sell quickly. Conversely, such sites are excellent places to sell, especially if you have a good piano.

The price of pianos can be roughly classified according to whether they are worth rebuilding. Those worth rebuilding cost at least twice as much when new. Practically all uprights and all mass produced grands (Yamaha, Kawai, etc), are not rebuilt because it is impossible: the rebuilding trade and necessary parts are non-existent. However, their qualities are very consistent so that you don't have to worry about getting a lemon. Pianos worth rebuilding are Steinway, Bösendorfer, Bechstein, Mason and Hamlin, Knabe, and a few others.

Only a few name brand pianos "hold their value" when kept for many years. The rest quickly lose their value so that trying to sell them years after purchase (new) is not worthwhile. "Hold value" means that their resale value will keep up with inflation; it does not mean that you can sell them for a profit. Thus if you bought a piano for $1,000 and sold it 30 years later for $10,000, you have made no profit if inflation is 10X during those 30 years. In addition, you will incur the cost of tuning and maintenance of $2000 to $6000 for this example. It is cheaper to buy a brand new 7 ft Yamaha grand every 30-40 years than to buy a new Steinway M and completely restore it every 30-40 years; therefore, the choice of which piano to buy does not

depend on economics but on what type of piano you want.

For more details on how to buy a piano, consult Fine's book (Fine, Larry,). Even with the most famous brands, a newly purchased piano will immediately lose 20% to 30% of its purchase price upon delivery, and will in general depreciate to half of the price of an equivalent new piano in about 5 years. As a rough "rule of thumb" a used piano will cost about half the price of the new one of the same model in a piano store and about 1/3 at a private sale.

The main problems with buying new acoustic pianos are the proper prep work before delivery and follow-up tunings after delivery. Too often, they are delivered without adequate prep work under the excuse that it can be done after delivery. But work after delivery is expensive, so stores minimize them, even if the new owner is knowledgeable and demands that the work be done. A buyer who knows little about pianos can end up with a piano in unsatisfactory condition. You can't always blame the stores because most of them operate on very thin margins. Even for buying new pianos, it is a good idea to enlist the help of a piano tuner whom you will need anyway after the purchase. The electronic pianos do not have any of these problems.

Steinways are most respected because well made units are very good. Unfortunately, their quality varies widely because they are hand made and picking out a good one is a difficult task. Although you may hear tales of concert pianists testing many units before picking one for it's terrific sound, the process is actually one of picking one with the lowest number of undesirable properties. And the final quality of sound is highly dependent on how the technician adjusted the sound, something about which most concert pianists know very little.

Piano Care: All new acoustic pianos need at least a year of special care and tuning after purchase, in

order for the strings to stop stretching and the action and hammers to equilibrate to the conditions in the house. Most piano dealers will try to minimize the cost of servicing the new pianos as explained above. In this regard, among the less expensive models, Yamaha, Kawai, Petroff, and a few others may be easier to buy because most of the prep work is completed at the factory. A new piano will need about 4 tunings the first year in order to stabilize the stretching of the strings.

All pianos require maintenance in addition to regular tuning. In general, the better the quality of the piano, the easier it is to notice the deterioration caused by normal wear and tear, and therefore the more maintenance it should receive. That is, more expensive pianos are more expensive to maintain. Typical maintenance chores are: leveling the keys, reducing friction (such as polishing the capstans), eliminating extraneous sounds, re-shaping the hammers and voicing them (needling), checking the innumerable bushings, adjusting the jack, back-check and let-off, etc.; they are all lumped into the term "regulation".

Voicing the hammer is probably the most neglected maintenance procedure. Worn, hard, hammers can cause string breakage, loss of musical control, and difficulty in playing softly. It also ruins the tonal quality of the piano, making it harsh and unpleasant. Many tuners do not have sufficient training at voicing; in that case you may have to look for a voicing specialist, such as piano restorers. If the action is sufficiently worn, it may need a general regulation job, which means restoring all parts of the action to their original

specifications; it can be cost effective to simply install a new action.

If the bass wire-wound strings are rusted in old pianos, this can deaden those notes. Replacing these strings is worthwhile if those notes are weak and have no sustain. The upper, non-wound strings generally do not need replacing even if they appear rusted. However, for extremely old pianos, all the strings can be so stretched out that they have lost all elasticity. Such strings are prone to breakage and cannot vibrate properly, produce a tinny sound, and should be replaced.

Acoustic pianos need to be tuned at least once a year and preferably twice, during the fall and spring, when the temperature and humidity are midway between their yearly extremes. Many advanced pianists have them tuned more frequently. In addition to the obvious advantages of being able to create better music and to sharpen your musicality, there are many compelling reasons for keeping the piano tuned. One of the most important is that it can affect your technical development. Compared to an out-of-tune piano, a well-

tuned piano practically plays itself -- you will find it surprisingly easier to play. Thus a well maintained

piano can accelerate technical/musical development. An out-of-tune piano can lead to flubs and memory problems. Many important aspects of expression such as color can be brought out only on well-tuned pianos. Since we must always pay attention to practicing musically, it does not make sense to practice on a piano that cannot produce music. This is one of the reasons why I prefer Well Temperaments (with their crystal clear harmonies) to the Equal Temperament, in which only the octaves are clear. Higher quality pianos have a distinct edge because they not only hold the tuning better, but can also be tuned more accurately. Lower

quality pianos often have extraneous beats and sounds that make accurate tuning impossible.

Pianists who always practice on a piano in tune will have a difficult time playing on one that is out of tune. The music doesn't come out, they make unexpected mistakes, and have memory blackouts. This holds true even if they know nothing about tuning and can't even tell if a particular note is out of tune. For pianists unfamiliar with tuning, the best way to test the tuning is to play a piece of music. Good tuning is like magic to any pianist. By playing a piece of music, most pianists can readily hear the difference between a poor tuning and an excellent one, even if they cannot tell the difference by playing single notes or intervals. Therefore, along with technical development, every pianist must learn the benefits of good tuning. It may be a good idea to play an out-of-tune piano once in a while in order to know what to expect in case you are asked to perform on one with questionable tuning.