What to do with a new-to-us upright piano?

June 25, 2018 8:15 AM

We are the recipients of a piano from a friend's mother's estate. My wife's family is musical but not handy. I'm handy but not musical. What should we do, both physical (upkeep of finish, etc) and mental (lessons for wide range of skills/age from 4 year old daughter to 30ish year old me) as a best practice or thing-that-worked-for-you?

Background:

Some good friends called us and offered us a piano as it was needing to be moved out of the home where it has sat since it was purchased. They already had movers in place for other reasons, ditto a truck, so I scooted over to both help them around the house as I could (turns out I got hooked into moving furniture, including the piano in question out as well as helping move a baby grand IN, whew, never again) and to inspect the piano per the wife's family tips. Since they are quite musical, including a professional level of playing from both her mom and dad, they gave good tips which I'll relate more on below.

Piano Physical Phact Sheet:

Everett in, at least we were told, Mahogany and Cherry. Upright. Similar to one pictured here but taller, less ornate, same coloring. Top lid was bolted shut with factory flanges so no view of inside from top as of yet. Keys seem responsive with all but one rating 'just fine' to my wife and that one is near the far end of the board and is still ok, just not as nimble to rebound as the others. Needs a tune, as we knew it would, after being moved (and probably before). Stool included.

Finish is a bit scuffed here and there but veneer is intact in all but one spot on the front column bottom so no worries there. Deeper scratches are minimal but one place does have some letters scratched deeper into the woodwork than paste will help with. I plan on, unless you advise otherwise, hitting it with some paste wax in an attempt to clean/preserve it. Ditto for the stool.

No view of fact sheet for serial number yet. But hope to age/date it soon.

Rollers function and served well to move it about. Keys (two locks, two keys) for the tray cover seem to work fine.

Cord exiting the top seems to be for an electrical device in the depths of the body. A dehumidifier perhaps? We plugged it in and didn't smell burning and/or fire after a few hours but appreciate input here.

Costs:

Cost to us was zero, excluding a tip to the delivery driver and some sweat equity for the friends.

Expectations:

I guess my wife might have plans of her own, and she's welcome to them since my family is far less musical than hers, doubly so for piano knowledge. I'd like input from y'all as to what I can do to keep it up, get it tuned, and (maybe, if we're lucky) get/keep my 4 year old interested and maybe get less unmusical myself. Electronic options are welcome, I'd gladly devote a tablet/iPad to the task of being an aid in learning if there's tools out there that do wonders. Ditto for finding/hiring a teacher.

Thanks!

posted by RolandOfEld to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (12 answers total)

Best answer: Get someone in to tune it first. That person will probably have enough piano knowledge to tell you what you should do with it. They probably also know a piano tech or two.

If the piano tuner can't help you, look around on-line for piano techs in your area. I'm sure you could pay to get someone out to give it a good evaluation and possibly do minor repairs on-site. If there are any schools in your area that offer piano technology you might call them and see if they have any alumni or students who would be willing to look at it.

Yes, the cord is most likely for a humidifier. There will probably be a fill hose somewhere as well. Check under the keyboard, that's where ours is. In our case the humidifier was installed after a restoration. You'll need distilled water and probably some sort of cleaner to add to it occasionally. The piano tuner might have a decent idea of how it works. You should probably keep it unplugged until you know how to fill it. Ours has a little red light that comes on when it needs to be filled.

Edit: Given your location, perhaps it's a dehumidifier and instead of filling it you'll need to empty it.

Getting a piano restored isn't an inexpensive project, but could be worth it if it's a really nice piano and you plan to use it.
posted by bondcliff at 8:26 AM on June 25, 2018 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Ive been using the app Yousician to learn ukulele and guitar. They have a piano mode too. The free version lets you practice for about 20-30 min a day.

It’s been fun and they gamify the learning process which I found helpful at the beginning when there’s not much audible progress. An instructor and real lessons would be better but it’s been a decent place to start.
posted by unix at 8:27 AM on June 25, 2018 [5 favorites]

Best answer: Cord exiting the top seems to be for an electrical device in the depths of the body. A dehumidifier perhaps?
I think so, yes.

I'd like input from y'all as to what I can do to keep it up, get it tuned
I think pianos almost always need tuning after you move them, so hiring a piano tuner is probably your next step.

I'd gladly devote a tablet/iPad to the task of being an aid in learning if there's tools out there that do wonders.
The delightful Nahre Sol demonstrates her use of iPad software for scores. Her whole channel is awesome.
posted by thelonius at 8:28 AM on June 25, 2018

Best answer: As others said, get a professional tuner/piano tech to take care/look at it. Be wary if said person offers too far-reaching repairs, though: then it's time for a second opinion. If every note plays and all the dampers work like they should, have it tuned first and foremost.

Keep the instrument out of direct sunlight, don't put drinks on it, not much other care required in my experience. Humidifier necessary at outside temps below freezing; dehumidifier in (sub)tropical summer conditions.
posted by Namlit at 8:49 AM on June 25, 2018

FYI, if that's picture is close to correct, this isn't an upright. That might matter if you're getting an estimate on cost for tuning or repairing. Uprights tend to be really old. See info on piano types here.
posted by FencingGal at 9:04 AM on June 25, 2018

Response by poster: Good point on talking to the tech who comes out, that's easy mode so, perfect.

Thanks for the digital recommendations, I'll dig into those soon, short of a teacher (which I think we may end up getting regardless...) it could help, doubly so for me.

(sub)tropical summer conditions.

Florida. Bingo.

Given your location, perhaps it's a dehumidifier and instead of filling it you'll need to empty it.

I wonder if the dehumidifiers are simply resistors/gentle heating elements. I'll ask the tech and unplug it in the meantime. No lights anywhere, that's for sure.

FYI, if that's picture is close to correct, this isn't an upright.

Sorry, that comparison was a bit off the cuff.

I'll attach a picture I took here. Here's one from the link you posted. A match maybe? I'll know more maybe once I figure out how that lid opens up, which the previous owners said should open as they recall it doing so. I took this to be an upright but I'm happy to be corrected.
posted by RolandOfEld at 9:13 AM on June 25, 2018

Best answer: and (maybe, if we're lucky) get/keep my 4 year old interested

I got my four-year-old interested in piano by playing the piano. She saw me playing and she wanted to learn. When she expressed an interest, I signed her up with a Suzuki teacher. She took lessons for years. She's an adult now, and her kids who are old enough play.

I'll attach a picture I took here. Here's one from the link you posted. A match maybe?

It's hard to say, and I'm no expert. I noticed a few weeks OK that some younger people I know were using "upright" to mean "not a grand," so it's been on my mind. I thought it might be because they didn't have memories of the giant upright pianos that people my grandparents' age had. And it seemed that tuning and repairing one of those would be a whole different ball of wax. (Some of them were even converted player pianos, which is what my grandmother had.)
posted by FencingGal at 9:24 AM on June 25, 2018

Response by poster: I got my four-year-old interested in piano by playing the piano.

Yup. This is how my wife's father (later to be a professional trombone player) got into music, via his father playing piano in front of him.

She took lessons for years. She's an adult now

Yup. This is how my wife's mother (later to be a professional-when-she-wants-to-be) piano player via lessons her mother signed her up for.

Whereas I bounced hard on musical stuff, in retrospect I wonder if it wasn't because a non-diagnosed vision condition requiring prism correction made reading music notes a method in futility, despite having a fair shot, if not as good as the wife's exposure.

So, we're stuck with my wife, who is mostly a french horn player, being able to play a bit of piano but having less free time than I do and me being far behind the learning curve and very insecure about being able to learn anything better than rote snippets, well based upon past history at least.

Thanks for the help by the way, I'm just taking it all in in hopes of getting them off on the right foot. If I learn a bit along the way then all the better.
posted by RolandOfEld at 9:32 AM on June 25, 2018

Best answer: If a reputable piano tech strongly suggests you have the action regulated (or says anything with the word "action" in it) and you're willing to pay what they ask, do have it done. or at least have it done in a few months when the new piano excitement wears off and you're experienced enough to be critical. if they're horrified by something and you really don't see why, go to a piano showroom and play a nice new one to see if the comparison changes your mind. if you only ever play one piano, it'll feel normal to you, but that doesn't mean it's as good as it could be.

do follow up every recommendation with "what will happen if I don't have this done until next year?" and if they don't convince you it's urgent, you can probably let it go. but playability is a lot more than just all the keys making a noise, and as you/your kid progresses it's nice to have no unnecessary physical impediments in the way of learning.

and you can usually go for significantly longer between tunings than tuners suggest, if necessary, but it's not a great idea.
posted by queenofbithynia at 10:11 AM on June 25, 2018 [1 favorite]

Best answer: As a rule of thumb, my piano tuner/tech suggested tunings every 6 months. With installing the humidity-control element, we could do a tuning every year. The humidity-control is supposed to maintain a stable level of humidity (adding some when it's needed and dehumidifying when not) which keeps the bridge in shape.

My piano tuner also mentioned that my piano has real ivory keys, and along with suggestions for care tipped me off that I won't be allowed to sell it across state lines. I don't know if that's true but I suppose I'll have to research when the time comes. (I am so sorry for the poor elephants, but gosh those ivory keys feel marvelous under my fingers!) If yours turn out to be ivory as well, have a spin through your state laws to see if you have any particular restrictions.
posted by Liesl at 10:29 AM on June 25, 2018

Best answer: Roughly, measured from the floor to the top of the lid:
Spinet = less than 40 inches tall
Console = between 40 and 43 inches tall
Studio = between 44 and 48 inches tall
Upright = greater than 49 inches tall

1, 2

Learning to play piano as an adult (previous AskMes)
posted by Iris Gambol at 11:34 AM on June 25, 2018 [6 favorites]

Response by poster: Just measured: 46 inches.
posted by RolandOfEld at 2:32 PM on June 25, 2018