Does the number of keys matter?

[mattdean]

I'm looking to buy a used upright acoustic piano but am a bit confused as some that I've looked at have 88 keys and the others, 85!  The piano I use at home at the moment is a Technics electric 88 key full-size piano, the piano I use when I go for tuition has 85 keys.  Is the number of keys that important?

Thanks,

Matt

[stevebob]

Are you sure you're counting correctly? 

Though I can only speak for my experience in my part of the world, I've never seen a modern acoustic upright pianos with 85 keys.  Actually, I thought that the only 85-key instruments were some grand pianos made in the late 19th century; conventional wisdom here is that a piano of that age may have issues far more serious than its keyboard compass, and that 85 keys suffice for playing all but a miniscule portion of the piano repertoire.

When people speak of instruments with fewer than 88 keys, they're usually referring to digital, electronic and/or portable keyboards with 76 keys, 61 keys and perhaps other configurations as well.  The shorter they are, the less viable they become for use as a traditional piano (at least for classical music)—but even a classical pianist is very unlikely ever to notice the difference between 88 keys and 85 keys.

[perfect_pitch]

Are you sure you're counting correctly? 

Though I can only speak for my experience in my part of the world, I've never seen a modern acoustic upright pianos with 85 keys. 

Sadly enough, I have seen this a bit - usually they do not have the Bb, B and C keys on a standard 88 key piano. But usually they're on older pianos... Since the standard is 88-keys, and most classical music uses everything from A0 to C7... it's worth getting the 88-key piano/keyboard.