Hello everyone.

Thinking of learning the piano, again. Properly this time instead of trying to teach myself which resulted in me being able to play things parrot fashion without really understanding things.

1. Do formal gradings help?
2. I’m thinking of getting hold of a second hand piano, to learn on. If I stick with it I’ll buy a nice one. Real off chance question, does anyone in the North West have one they want to get rid of? Or sell nice and cheap?
3. Good weighted keyboards – Any good?
4. I do have a cheap keyboard, 88 keys I think. Would that be good for learning on or is that frowned upon in piano circles?
5. If I buy a proper second hand piano, any idea how much moving costs are from a piano mover (assuming such things exist), or can two men and a van move one? – ground floor to ground floor.

1. Dunno.
2. Dunno.
3. Yes, definitely
4. If you enjoy playing it, who gives?
5. Don’t get an actual piano. They are a royal pain in the tits to move and maintain. If you move it, it’ll need re tuned. Buy an electric piano or a decent keyboard. The best thing I did was to buy a second hand stage piano, a Roland RD170, easy to play, easy to store , sounds great. It lives in the same room as an upright piano which only ever gets played by the piano tuner..

Oh the whole agree with the above.

– I think gradings do help. They force you to learn a variety of skills that improve dexterity etc above what you get from learning sheet music. You don’t even really need to take the tests, just get a teacher that can progress you through similar levels.
– A weighted electronic piano is great if you lack space. If you have room for an upright, I’d go for that as a preference though. You can probably pick up an upright for less than a decent electronic piano as well!
– I’d avoid any un-weighted keyboards, although I’ve not played on any better modern ones, the top synths / kb’s I’ve used before feel totally different. You won’t built up finger strength in the same way and it will make it harder to drop onto a Piano when you get the chance.

I’ve played guitar using TABS for years with no lessons and I’m still rubbish. A few years back I started with the piano (after kids left for Uni). I started from scratch with a teacher and it’s coming along nicely including an understanding of how the different signature keys work, what the various minims dotted crotchets quavers etc mean, timing and other why’s and wherefores. I’m not doing grades but my teacher is helping me with the music reading, pushing me through adult learining programmes and getting the fingering and all those other things right.
I’ve a mate who is doing the self taught route and he’s reaching the limits… and it looks crap – hands all over the place and doesn’t use his pinkies…etc!!

1) Yes

2) Get a Knight K10/K20 they were built for schools and are hard as nails! they don’t go out of tune as easy as other pianos when moved. As a bonus they sound great with a similar bright modern tone to some of the best upright Yamahas. You want Under-damped, over-strung with a full iron frame preferably with a Langer, Schwander or Renner action as a minimum don’t bother with anything else!!

3) Yes some are good and have a similar weighted action to proper pianos

4) If it has good quality weighted keys it would be better than synth action keys

5) 2 strong men with good backs can manage, be warned all pianos are heavy, top quality ones are ball bustlingly heavy.

Awesome. Thanks everyone. I think I’ll try and get hold of a second hand piano to learn on.

Pianos need to be tuned. Get a second hand Yamaha Clavinova. Great sound and will hold its value. We have one and it is 95% as good as a proper piano in sound and as good in feel, with the added advantage of volume controls.

Old pianos are lovely things but often the felts are worn and the tuning pegs slipping. They are then too expensive to fix and often too expensive to fix. With something like 40 million Chinese people learning to play piano (and their factories unable to keep pace with demand) its a real shame that in this part of the world old pianos end up in landfill.
We bought an almost new Kawei recently and whilst it doesn’t have the warm tone of an old piano it has a great action (very flattering to play).
I learned for 6 years as a kid but about 10 years ago decided I wanted to be able play a really tricky piece of Chopin so I just sat down, an hour a day, one hand at a time, all the right fingering till I could do it (almost up to speed). Took about 15 months. I’ve gone rather off the boil since though. The process really has helped my playing in general though.