Best piano to "train" the fingers on

[werbmanchan]

Hi, I am looking at new pianos, and I am wondering whether is it beneficial to one's technique to practice on a piano with a heavier action (where it is more difficult to press the keys down). I would think playing on a piano with such an action would make playing on other lighter actions seem extremely easier, whereas if I had a piano with a super fast action, other pianos would be harder to play on. Any thoughts on this? Or recommendations for specific pianos would be nice as well (between 10-30k).

Thanks!

[thierry13]

It's not exactly good for your technique to play on heavier action, you are simply more habituated to it so that you are not completly destabilized if you come up to play on an heavy one afterwards.

[futureconcertpianist]

Dear Werb,
It is good you ask this question because the choice of practise piano is very important, the weight of the action is least important as the sound quality and variety of tone colour of the piano.
Tobias Matthay gives a great outline to choosing your piano in his book Act Of Touch, which is well worth reading before purchasing your piano.
To answer your question though, even though the heaviness of action is least important in my opinion, I am a perfectionist and like to tackle problems from many angles and I do own a Steinway which I had weighted to such a degree that my piano is the most difficult piano i play on.
And the results? Playing any other piano than my piano feels much easier, and my finger strength has been said to be great. However the problem is, you can get use to your piano and if you do not listen to the other pianos you play with absolute attention, your playing can be overly harsh, you must adjust to every piano, try the piano you will be reciting on before the concert.
Goodluck with choosing your piano.
From Matt.

[richard black]

Practise on an old piano with slightly uneven touch. That'll soon sort out your finger control!

[Bob]

I would say heavier but you never know what you'll end up with for a performance.  Heavier is great then for practice but then again, if you're spending most of your time on that piano and not the performance one, you don't want to be held back by the instrument.  I ran into one professor who was into lighter action and that surprised me.  Some pieces were written for an instrument with lighter action and then you're sitting there attempting to play the piece on a heavier-action instrument?  Doesn't make sense.  Or you're practicing your rear end off on something that really shouldn't be a lot of work.

So I guess I would go for a piano to practice on that sounds good an feels good to you.  Smooth action.  Pleasant to voice on.  Something you sound good on an enjoy playing -- because you're probably spending most of your time there. 

You might be able to have a piano tech change things around on the piano anyway. 

And if you really wanted, why not buy a separte piano or keyboard that does have a really heavy action.  Then practice on that to build up the fingers.  Still having a "normal" piano to actual play on.

[werbmanchan]

Thanks everyone for the responses. A lot of helpful pointers. I went piano searching again today, and it looks like its going to be a 5' 4'' Mason & Hamlin. The action is light enough where I feel I can reach my potential but heavy enough to be a workout. This was my first thread here and I am impressed, so thanks again. 

[daejiny]

Also, if you have the money, the piano action is a separate thing from the piano brand itself, sometimes, and you can have the technician change the weights of the actions for you.

[faulty_damper]

From my experiences, playing on a heavy-touch piano has never been beneficial.  In fact, it has been detrimental in my learning of how to play.  Here's why:

When the touch required more effort to depress than I was capable of producing comfortably, I had to recruit more muscles in order to accomplish the task.  Because recruiting more muscle fibers also meant co-contraction to stabilize the increased forces for control, I was learning something that was severely detrimental in my ability to play.

Recruiting more muscles usually meant that I was building my "strength" more than I was learning how to play.  The "strength" that I built up was only temporary.  This meant that if I did not practice on the heavy-touch piano I would lose that strength.  Once that strength diminished, I again had to build it up again.

Contrary, on keyboards that were not heavy and I could play comfortably on, I did not have to work out my fingers.  I could, instead, actually practice making music instead of muscle-building.

[general disarray]

From my experiences, playing on a heavy-touch piano has never been beneficial.  In fact, it has been detrimental in my learning of how to play.  Here's why:

When the touch required more effort to depress than I was capable of producing comfortably, I had to recruit more muscles in order to accomplish the task.  Because recruiting more muscle fibers also meant co-contraction to stabilize the increased forces for control, I was learning something that was severely detrimental in my ability to play.

Recruiting more muscles usually meant that I was building my "strength" more than I was learning how to play.  The "strength" that I built up was only temporary.  This meant that if I did not practice on the heavy-touch piano I would lose that strength.  Once that strength diminished, I again had to build it up again.

Contrary, on keyboards that were not heavy and I could play comfortably on, I did not have to work out my fingers.  I could, instead, actually practice making music instead of muscle-building.

Phew.  My sentiments, too, faulty.  But I was just going to say heavy actions make me tired as all hell.  Bollox to that.