Are Grand Piano's Hype?

[classicarts]

Do you ever wonder what's going to take to make your private grand piano to sound like the one's you hear and see on televsion, recordings, or concert halls??  Or, is this  nothing more then a deception tactics to lead consumers to buy one piano after another?  We hear all this fancy and technical words to describe the quality of a sound coming from a certain piano, but the reality is, it sounds like a shoe box with strings on them.     Or, do you have to spend hundred thousand on a concert piano and a half million to build a private concert hall in your home, just to get some good sound coming out of a piano.    Sometimes, I just don't get it.  So much time and money on lessions, a dozen pianos, and it still sounds like a shoe box with strings on them.   Share your experiences here.  Give me your comments.

[gfiore]

 I don't understand why you say hype. Any person with ears can hear the difference between a decent vertical and a decent grand.  Then hear the difference again between a decent grand, and and an excellent concert grand.
 I spent close to $100,000 on my Bosie, and it's not in a concert hall, but it certainly sounds better than 80% of the mid priced grands that I tune everyday, and it certainly does'nt sound like a shoe box with strings.
 What's your point?

[donjuan]

Do you ever wonder what's going to take to make your private grand piano to sound like the one's you hear and see on televsion, recordings, or concert halls??  Or, is this  nothing more then a deception tactics to lead consumers to buy one piano after another?  We hear all this fancy and technical words to describe the quality of a sound coming from a certain piano, but the reality is, it sounds like a shoe box with strings on them. 

yeeeeshh... youre more cynical than I am!

keep in mind that pianos you see in television, recordings and concert halls are meticulously maintained, expecially before concerts.  My technician was telling me once how on a concert night in my city's concert hall, he had to tune the 9 foot grand 3 times, to keep it sounding good.  It takes a lot of effort to get a piano to sound right.

So, in other words, yes you have a point - it will take a lot of money to get such a feeling through the instrument.

and if you ever get the chance to play a reputable brand of concert grand, I suggest you take it - once, I had the oppurtunity to play a 9' Petrof, and oh man, I felt the touch of heaven and the wrath of hell at the same time, ...and Im quite the atheist! 

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I think, after seeing what I just typed, I might have missed the point of your post altogether here, so Ill just second fiore and say "Whats your point?"

[c18cont]

Here we go again??

What is the best Bosie supposed to sound like?? Better than all other pianos; better than most....

How bad is an Everett supposed to sound? Worse than which other ones???

How bad to become a sneer and how good so we may stand in awe???

John Cont

[alzado]

I guess your question might be re-phrased as -- "what is 'good enough'?"

I have a 5'8" grand that is at least as good sounding as the average run of mid-priced grands.  I am happy with it.  I don't feel I need the world's best piano.

[andyd]

>>Do you ever wonder what's going to take to make your private grand piano to sound
>>like the one's you hear and see on televsion, recordings, or concert halls?

Two answers:

1. Practice and possibly a bigger room.

2. Hire Elton John this Christmas - he's available to play at your house.  For a fee of 850000, money going to charity.  Imagine him doing the Lady Diana version of Goodbye Norma Jean - would it sound in any way the same in your parlour as when performed at her funeral in Westminster Cathedral?  Be interesting to compare.


Andy  (with an upright that sounds pretty much like the grands you hear...)