How To Learn The Piano

There’s an old joke around music circles that comes in the form of a question.

QUESTION: How do you get to Carnegie Hall?

ANSWER: Practice, Practice, PRACTICE!

Yeah, I know it’s trite and probably not something you needed or wanted to hear if you’re looking for a ‘snap your fingers’ answer a question on how to learn the piano. That being said I can, for REAL, back it up. My kids participated in the World Piano Competition, a classical music competition for young artists who all started out to find out how to learn the piano. They participated for several years. The prize for winning was a trip to New York for an appearance in Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall. The kids played there 3 times. I say that as a proud ‘poppa’ for one reason but more pertinent to this article I say it because it was an absolute necessity in getting there.

You can take private face-to-face lessons and accomplish your goals. Depending on what your goals are you can also take lessons from an online source.

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Whichever you choose I can promise you one thing for certain. If you don’t have fun while you’re doing it you won’t stick with it. I say that because I’ve been a music educator for decades and I’ve seen ‘em’ come and I’ve seen ‘em’ go in their quest of how to learn the piano. The VAST majority of the ones who go do so because they were B-O-R-E-D. When that happens the mind wanders and in music, with all the multi-tasking that is required to perform, that spells FAILURE…with a capitol “F”.

What’s that got to do with the Carnegie Hall question, you ask? Well, the answer is simple. If you get bored you won’t practice and if you don’t practice you WILL eventually quit. So the key on how to learn the piano is to make it fun so that the boredom factor doesn’t become fatal.

Ok, we got THAT out of the way. Let’s talk a bit about the how to learn the piano type articles you’ll find on this site. This particular article is basically an introduction on how to learn piano so we won’t be going into depth here on the HOW part. However, we have several other articles and reviews on this site that DO get into the HOW. We invite you to peruse the site and read up on our collection articles on the best way to go about how to learn the piano both online and in private study.

Let’s assume that, as a beginner, your first question is about what type piano you should get to learn on. The answer is, well, it depends. If you are limited in space or you want to take your playing on the road then an electronic model is probably in line. How to learn the piano obviously is easily translated to keyboards and we discuss electronic keyboards in depth in the article Learn To Play The Keyboard so we won’t rehash it here. We invite you to take a look at that article if you’re leaning toward the electronic medium.

If you’re not limited on space and want a more traditional approach then your interest is likely to lie with an acoustic piano. Let’s talk basics about acoustic pianos here since we cover their electronic ‘cousins’ in the other article.

Acoustic pianos come in two models, types or ‘flavors’ as I jokingly call them at times:

Vertical/Upright Grand

Vertical or Upright: There are 4 types of vertical/upright acoustic pianos:

Spinet…………………………………………. 36″ - 40″ high
Console……………………………………….. 40″ - 44″ high
Studio…………………………………………. 42″ – 47″ high
Full-size or Professional Upright………….. 47″ – 60″ high

Acoustic upright or vertical pianos are the choice of those on the how to learn the piano quest by a large majority as they are the ones acquiring pianos today. The primary reason is that the cost is significantly lower in comparison to a grand. The trade off is that, unless you’re comparing a top of the line upright with a smallish baby grand, the sound quality is better with the grand. Also key action and touch are superior on a grand. The touch issue is not that noticeable to a beginner who has yet to develop a ‘fine touch’ but it is a big deal to those who are more advanced players.

Another reason is space. A grand ‘eats’ up a lot of room space where an upright is much more compact.

Part of the journey of how to learn the piano is to get acquainted with the types so let’s take a closer look at the uprights and see what the differences are. Here’s a hint: Think SOUND quality.

Spinet: A spinet is short which requires that the strings be very short. This impacts tone quality in a negative way, especially the bass notes. Spinets also have a reputation for maintenance issues.

Console: The console is favorite choice of the uprights because they are still not very large and the price is still quite low compared with the grands. They sound better than the spinets which gives a bit of an upgrade option.

Studio: Studio pianos have a better sound quality than either a console or spinet because of the length of the strings and sound board which has better resonance. The touch is also better and more advanced players appreciate that aspect. Since these pianos begin to get into a better sound quality area the manufacturers begin to upgrade the quality of their products here.

Upright: If you have made it to the point in your how to learn the piano ‘mission’ and you’re ready for some serious sound and don’t have room for a grand but want that great sound at a lower price the Upright is the way to go. Typically a good upright will sound better than a baby grand because of the length of the strings and soundboard.

Grand: There are 5 types (predicated on size) of acoustic grand pianos:

Baby Grand piano: less than or equal to 5’4″
Medium Grand piano: from 5’4″ to 5’11″.
True Grand piano: 6′ or longer.
Small Concert grand piano also known as an Artist Grand piano: begin at around 7’
Concert Grand Piano: approximately 9′ and greater

We won’t go into the differences between the grands on our how to learn the piano tour priamrily for two reasons:

The primary difference is the lenght of the strings. (General rule: longer string length=better sound)…..and higher price.
Most beginners simply don’t start at the top. Most start with an upright.
The only other consideration to bring up is space. Do you really have room in your home for a 9 foot concert grand? Remember, baby grand’s no matter how cute they look and how impressive it might be to say you have a GRAND PIANO still have short strings and soundboards!

Below is a relational diagram to give you an idea of the difference in size between types.

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