A good instrument can teach how to play?

[Sydney]

I have been with Japanese grand and upright pianos in my life. YAMAHAs (U2, G2, C7)and Kawai(NX-40).

The other day I had an opportunity to talk to a dealer and a technician from Steinway who told me that "a good piano can teach you how to play".

It sounds to make sense because I have heard some violinists have said the same kind of things.

However, on the other hand, I have heard too that not a few prize winners pianists at Chopin, Thaikovsky competitions etc had not been practicing with those so called "great pianos" at home.

Is there anyone who has this experience? - "used better piano and then got better quality of playing style - technically and musically" 

[chickering9]

The syntax of the idea as expressed is a little misleading, since no piano can actually teach you to play.  But a more capable piano can lead you to explore things that are only possible if the piano itself makes it possible.  If a piano has a limited dynamic range or an action that does not respond to finer variations in your exertion of energy due to a poorly balanced action or excess friction--or even total slop of no friction and loose action centers--it certainly hinders exploration of very refined performance.

My first piano, a mediocre upright, was reliable, but limited--good enough to learn getting the notes right and to suggest within its limited dynamic range what I was after.  But skills in reliably executing the same pieces with technique that uses a much wider dynamic range from soft to loud and many levels of gradation between was only possible once I got a much better piano with a broad dynamic range and a very refined, uniform and predictable touch and reliably quick repetition.   Something as fundamental as keystick length, which typically increases with piano size, makes a great deal of difference in responsiveness of one piano compared to another--even when both are in good condition and functioning optimally within their design.

And beyond even that, since I changed the hammers to an ideal type for that piano, I have been able to further refine my playing to take advantage of differences in tone achieveable from varied touch and now I am able to get just the tone I am after almost effortlessly, where before such control was inflexible and unforgiving.

A piano with a limited dynamic range or an action that plays "like a truck" and perhaps offers only a couple of levels of volume and little control over tone is going to confine your playing to simply what makes it respond.  A better piano will instead respond to your touch in proportion to the energy you put in--everything from a soft carress of the keys to firmer and firmer pounding--and give you the many shadings your hands know how to make that just might not make themselves heard in a lesser piano that doesn't respond to fine variation. 

So, yes, a piano with good range and an action that keeps the keys "under your fingers" with that just right feeling of weight and inertia, feeling/knowing just where the hammer is amid its cycle of movement, with a predictable and controllable next movement in response to *your* next exertion, makes all the difference in the world.  I only wish I'd moved up to a better piano at least 15 years earlier.  The difference it makes in what I can achieve has certainly excelerated my learning and skill development and if I had those 15 years of experience, I can hardly imagine where I might be today in my playing if the frustration of a limited instrument hadn't dampened my enthusiasm.  The enthusiasm of a responsive instrument keeps me practicing hours every day and I see constant improvement in my technique and control of tone.

If you feel your piano limits your playing or does not respond well to your touch, have it carefully tuned and carefully regulated, and perhaps voiced.  Those steps can make almost any piano dramatically more responsive and predictable and can even make many "lesser" pianos quite nice.  If good regulation doesn't get you the control and range your mind wants and your hands are trying to get but your ears just don't hear--you might go the route of different hammers--if the piano is close--accompanied by another major regulation.  Otherwise, shop.

And when you do shop, tune out the sales talk and just play as many pianos as you can and listen to how it responds--or doesn't-- to your touch.  If the piano doesn't deliver on your touch in a way to please both your ears and fingers--keep looking. 

Some makes have lived off of their reputations far beyond corporate willingness to consistently ship a piano prepped and regulated to deliver on its design potential.  Even some of the most expensive pianos in the world can play like the proverbial truck if they are not properly regulated--and many simply aren't--or won't be--unless you insist on it before purchase and delivery.  So the technical work that has been done to a given piano have as much to do with how refined a touch and tone a piano has as its design, more so than price or pedigree.  And while no spinet will ever play or sound like a good concert grand, some concert grands might play as badly and limit your playing as fully, if they are not well prepped and maintained.  I've played some $100K concert grands some makers should have been ashamed to let out the loading dock.  And some "lowly" Chinese makes that made me think, "Hmmm...I *could* live with this".  Prep, not price.