Beginner problems... digital to grand

[flukester]

Hi all

Just signed up to this fine forum to say hello and see if anyone can help me

Here is my problem...

After 25 years on not playing the Piano I decided to have lessons and get back into it. First bought a little NP30 digital grand and that was fine to begin with but everytime I went to Piano teachers house and played the practice acoustic it sounded aweful (not used to the keys I guess)

Last month I upgraded to a hammer action Akai MPK 88 controller and learnt Le Onde (einaudi) note for note and can even add some good expression to it... don't even need music but can play from memory, thought I would be great on the acoustic but it all went wrong.

When I arrived at piano trachers house I sat down at baby grand and started playing, it sounded terrible. It's hard to describe, a sort of booming sound with all notes mixed together, it was a nightmare. I tried to play quieter but it seemed to have only one volume setting... LOUD. what shocked me is the action on a grand was super light, my Akai controller is double the weight.

So my question, what can I do to play pieces well when weekly moving from digital to acoustic ?

Also, is there a technique to playing something like a baby grand that makes the piano 'sing' rather than just make a mish mash echoey sound that sounds dreadful, at least form where I was sitting. I know the piano is fine as when teacher plays it it sounds fab.

Cheers

Dan

[jesc]

I have a digital piano, nothing fancy, just a Yamaha mm8. I use it for silent practice.

I played a Yamaha grand piano (I don't know specifically the model) and the way I felt it, it felt very similar to the key-weighted action of my digital piano. This is more of a speculation but maybe it is because the keys of Yamaha digital pianos are made to match their own Yamaha grand pianos.

I also played another grand piano but it is nowhere near the similarity I experienced with the Yamaha products.

Well, my point is, there are digital pianos that closely resemble the real grand piano. Still, IMO it can never be a substitute. I still regularly play my upright (heavy keys) to strengthen my fingers.

[richard black]

Keyboards and pianos are fundamentally different instruments, so you can expect some difference of response when moving from one to another. But then pianos vary plenty amongst makes and models.

The thing that helps most is to think carefully about the _speed_ at which the key goes down. It's generally easier to think about 'how hard one hits' but that's far more dependent on the key's characteristics. Thinking more about speed makes one's technique more readily transferable to other instruments.

[flukester]

Thanks, I'll give it a shot with the speed thing.

I guess problem with Akai MPK is it has a lot of travel and a ton of weight, which when then playing on a grand makes you hit the keys way to fast

Will give it a shot

Cheers

[x jay x]

the pedal is my problem with digital to acoustic. i think u need to pedal more accurately with real pianos.  digital pianos don't resonate as much as acoustic and i've noticed the volume on the resonance with digital pianos is lower than on real pianos.

[richard black]

Cheaper (and older) digital keyboards completely kill the sound the instant you lift the pedal. Better modern ones allow 'half pedalling' and similar effects, which certainly makes the operation of the pedal a lot more like that of a real piano.