So do I have one at home? No.
I used to, but I have long since succumbed to the convenience and versatility of digital models.
Acoustic pianos are great if you have the space for them and can afford to keep them in tune. But when you have to move those heavy beasts or want to try to sell them you often encounter a nightmare.
Craigslist postings offering free pianos to anyone willing to pick them up themselves have cropped up in recent years, according to the Financial Post. Often you have to actually pay someone to take them off your hands.
I bought a Yamaha YPP 35 many years ago from a local music store and have been using it for practice and performing ever since. Being primarily a guitar player, I don’t need the biggest and best instrument on the market, and it’s whole lot easier on the back to carry an electronic keyboard around.
My digital piano has only 60 keys, instead of the full 88, but the midrange is about all I usually use anyway. The thing I like about it, besides it portability and the small space it takes up, is the action of the keys, which are touch sensitive. In other words, just like a read acoustic piano, the harder you push the louder the sound.
Other features are several different voices, a metronome and digital recorder so you can record yourself and play along with the track.
They don’t make the YPP 35 anymore. But the newer models have a ton more features at half the price I paid.
I still like to get my fingers on an acoustic keyboard whenever I have the opportunity, although I realize my own consumer choices are contributing to making them obsolete.
The New York Times ran a story a few years ago about dumps filled with grand pianos and uprights. I recoiled in horror at the photos that showed these once-elegant wooden instruments in pieces and heaped upon one another.
Such is progress, I suppose, but it sucks.