Cardinal rule of piano shopping (with photos of a cardinal’s nest and eggs)

I've started looking in earnest and for real for a piano. My Yamaha P-70, which I purchased in 2007, is dying. The keys grow less and less responsive. The sounds generate more and more buzz and occasional weird harmonics that are glaring and disturbing to my ears. After all, I bought the piano because of its true-feeling Yamaha action and clarity of the grand piano sound, spending “only” around $700 because I was afraid I wouldn't stick to playing the piano. Now that I have stuck, it’s time to get a serious piano.

Looking into our flower bed, due east from our back porch...

I've been telling Mrs. S that I need my next piano to be my last. I just can’t see spending a couple grand on a nice upright, only to have to move that out and spend a couple more grand on a grand (sorry) at some later date. I might as well spend the big money now and just get the piano that I plan to own and play into old age (since I’m pretty much there already).

Little closer to the bush in the middle of the first picture...

There are plenty of cheap grands on the internet. Ebay is covered in them. But seriously, am I going to spend $10K (or more) on a piano without touching it, without listening to it, without seeing if it does what I expect and sounds how I expect? No way. The cardinal rule of buying a piano is: buy a piano that’s right for you. That means, playing it and listening to it. So I narrowed my search to places I can get to in a few hours. So far I’ve found one I might be interested in. I asked some questions about it, but the seller hasn’t responded.

West edge of the bush...see it?

So I took advantage of me going to a seminar in Nashville last week to stop off at the Steinway Gallery. Nice place. Loads of pianos. I looked at a couple that were completely out of my price range, then played, and kind of liked one, a Samick, that was well within my budget. The sales guy knocked it down from $17K and change to $11K. Of course, I’m not impulsive about this purchase at all, so I came home without a piano. Then I started doing some research.

  

Future cardinals, maybe, hopefully... (Yes, the parents have been back since this photo was taken.)

I went straight to Piano Buyer, which is one helluva site. I found out the Samick I was interested in is made in Indonesia and called “consumer grade”, hardly what I would consider a “last” piano. I’ve made up my mind that I have to read everything there is to read about pianos before I buy one, or to at least read the entire manual available on Piano Buyer.  I also need to try again to unload my partially restored square grand, or else our house is going to be overrun by pianos.

I've been playing “Little Sunflower” everyday since I heard it twice while driving back and forth to Nashville last week. I’ve also changed up my learning routine (again), which I will write about before long, no doubt.