Digital Piano for Practice

As much as I would have loved to own a grand Steinway, I only have an upright Yamaha. Even then I feel a huge difference between it and any digital - it is much more unforgiving for uneven touch and can sing much more beautifully when true legato is achieved, so I can somewhat relate to what you are describing. To be honest, I think the reverse can also apply much of the time though- where a decent digital exposes uneveness very clearly (mine is a CLP 370- which is neither cheap, nor a spectacular top of the range model). Even the finest of acoustic pianos will not be truly uniform in response. They all have weaker areas and stronger areas and even individual notes that are a little stronger or weaker than those next to them. Any good pianist needs to be able to adapt to that, but if you do all your practise on the same acoustic, you may not realise that you do it at all. If you do habitual adaptations to your acoustic instruments (which everyone should) practising on a digital is a good way to ensure that you don't end up making the same adaptations on a piano that they do not fit. Sometimes you even get so used to one single stronger or weaker note, that you have no realisation that you are always adapting to play it differently to other keys. The sheer neutrality and eveness of my digital makes you consciously aware of such adaptations and it also exposes imprecision of control a lot better than many acoustics, in my opinion- not that I would ever want to do anything more than a small minority of my work on it. I think this is one of the reasons why you hear a number of nutcases who say that they prefer a digital to even the most expensive upright (or even a Steinway grand, in some cases). If the predictability is all you know then, you have no capability of adapting to the 'flaws' of real instruments. However, those who are always making natural adaptations have plenty to learn from the stark neutrality of the right digital. It's a little like the way a long straight pot on a snooker table always seem harder than one with a little angle. It's a great test. Obviously a pro would need a much bigger repetoire of shots, but whether they can bang the straight ones in with ease is often the biggest test of whether their cue technique is working properly. Practising on a digital is a bit like running through such shots- a fine test of basic essentials but not particularly likely to lead to any century breaks.

By the way, I had the so-called bad fortune to teach a weekend workshop with only a Clavinova available. Much to my surprise, the things I do to make the piano sound better (overholding, dynamic differentiation, structure-supported slaps, etc), also made the Clavinova sound better. It was quite uncanny. It goes to show that if you know what you're doing, you can indeed use an electronic keyboard to your benefit... AFF

By the way, I had the so-called bad fortune to teach a weekend workshop with only a Clavinova available. Much to my surprise, the things I do to make the piano sound better (overholding, dynamic differentiation, structure-supported slaps, etc), also made the Clavinova sound better. It was quite uncanny. It goes to show that if you know what you're doing, you can indeed use an electronic keyboard to your benefit... AFF Yeah, I have to teach at one of my schools on only a digital. Terrible as that is, it's interesting to see what things still make a very notable difference and which things make no difference whatsoever. It's infuriating with the things that make no difference, but it's sometimes surprising what a digital can respond to. Strangely, since I started changing my technique, the digitals are in many ways what it has helped the most on. Before, I found the whole thing totally unsatisfying in every respect and I used to do all kinds of terrible things out of frustration. Trying to get a better sound made me exaggerate all the flaws in my technique even more. These days, feel I can make progress on a digital, rather than make things worse. Interestingly, the standing analogy was recently hugely successful with one student who has unweighted keys to practise on. In lessons, he would really strain downwards against the heavier keys and other notes would fail to sound. However, when I got him to think of lifting the wrist and arm up with the finger (to push everything up away from the keybed, rather than dig into it) he was able to play the real piano with no problems, in the next lesson (despite the week of feather-light keys). I think that the lighter the keys you practise with, the more important it is not to try to force anything in a bid to prepare for heavier keys. If you feel the finger pulling the knuckles and arm slightly upwards (rather than landing hard and abruptly), you give it plenty of training when balanced against the keybeds- regardless of how light the keys are to actually move. I think some of these approaches are even more important, when you have a crap instrument to practise on. I'm finding that feeling the balance between the pulling of the finger and the counterweight (that results from how much you release the rest of the arm) is useful for both heavy and light actions. With light actions, you can feel that the finger is still operating in response to something, when supported at the keybed. This keeps the muscles alive instead of allowing them to do too little work. However, with heavy actions, the very same action makes the resistance of the key far more easy to overcome- without the need to resort to pushing and digging down with the arm. I think you can both reduce the difficulty of overcoming larger resistances and minimise the limitations to muscular training that small resistances can impose.

Hi, I just purchased a used Technics piano (don't remember the model number) and it sounds surprisingly good. One of my teacher's comments on my playing was "Don't bang octaves". On my acoustic it's easy to get harsh sound if I bang the octaves to forcefully, but generally digitals are more forgiving for such bad technique. This piano that I bought somewhat immitates the changes of tone that happen at higher velocities, leading to somewhat unpleasant sound on "banged" octaves. So ironically I am actually happy that it is possible to get ugly tone from my digital piano. Another thing I am happy about is that it's touch is more similar to a grand than my upright - so I will have the oppurtunity to always practise 2 different touches and adjust my playing. As Andrew mentioned - playing the same instrument all the time you start getting used to it's quirks (for example, I know my E bellow middle C is always a bit louder than it's neighbours and I always try to be more gentle with it). Looking forward to being able to practise just before bed time Zack

I played an upright yesterday. Wow. So unforgiving and hard to operate. When I was getting back to my Yamaha P-85 I felt like playing keys made of cheese I am thinking about buying one.

I played an upright yesterday. Wow. So unforgiving and hard to operate. When I was getting back to my Yamaha P-85 I felt like playing keys made of cheese I am thinking about buying one. Actually the touch of my digital piano is heavier than my acoustic. Also, when pressing a key on the digital, I feel a force pushing the key back up, and I hardly feel this force on the upright piano. I was told that some grand piano has this same "bounceback" feeling to their keys but I have never experienced it. Even though I could never make the digital piano sound as good as a real one, I did notice that the heavier action of the keys and the "bounciness" (not sure what the correct technical term is) of the digital piano forces me to make sure that I truly connect the fingers in my legato. After playing the digital and going back to the acoustic, I feel that the legato is even more perfect. I definitely feel an improvement in fast trills and ornaments - when they are played truly legato you don't just hear fast notes played in succession- it sounds as if the instrument is making a new kind of sound. It is also really fun to feel how each finger almost touches the string directly and accurately. I hope this experience can help me adjust my touch to different pianos in the future. So far I am quite happy with my purchase. I also think that a quick practise with headphones just before bed time might be helping too - it feels like the information is retained better in the morning.

I think you're the first one I hear saying this. What kind of digital do you have? Theoretically you can't compare the action of a digital not even with an upright...not to mention a grand...just think about all that mechanism....on a digital the key just touches some sensors....I guess....on an acoustic instrument you really have to "play" the sets of strings for that particular note....

I think you're the first one I hear saying this. What kind of digital do you have? Theoretically you can't compare the action of a digital not even with an upright...not to mention a grand...just think about all that mechanism....on a digital the key just touches some sensors....I guess....on an acoustic instrument you really have to "play" the sets of strings for that particular note.... Why can't you compare? Playing a key on my digital piano feels more effortful than playing a key on my acoustic, regardless of what exists bellow the key. I think you yourself made a comparison when you said that playing your digital after an acoustic felt like the keys were "made of cheese". Note that I was not comparing the sound of the two, only the touch, and it does feel different. I don't know if my technics really simulates the touch of a grand correctly. I have played on a few grands, but I don't recall them having this kind of "pull up" in the key - perhaps the digital piano has springs instead of real weights on teh keys, but regardless, what I was trying to say, is that I find the experience of adjusting to 2 different kinds of touch on a daily basis helpful, and that good technique will produce the best results from both instruments. I have technics SP-50 if I remember correctly.