1. Sound: Listen to Your Heart
Not even the most gifted poet can quite capture the joy we feel when beautiful music touches our lives. Certainly personal joy is what playing the piano is about. Thus, selecting your own piano becomes as much an emotional event as a rational decision.
The heart of the matter comes down to the sound of a fine piano. Even a very inexperienced student, when striking a chord or two, senses the difference between the dutiful, machine-like response of a mass-produced piano and the sonorous, richly textured sound of an instrument lovingly made by hand.
In the world today there are pianos - and there is Steinway. The reason a Steinway touches emotional chords impossible for other pianos is the quality of materials, the heritage of genius, and the devoted craftsmanship with which each instrument is endowed.
You get more out of a Steinway. Because a great deal more goes into it. So the first step is to play the piano. Listen to the sound. Then listen to your heart.
2. Touch: A Difference You can Sense as well as Feel
A piano is a very tactile creation. One can almost feel the music through the keys. And the superior instrument has both exquisite sensitivity and precision literally built into it.
In the case of a Steinway piano superiority is not a judgment call, but a matter of fact. Touch any key repeatedly, and you will marvel at the quickness with which the notes can be sounded.
You enjoy this crucial advantage because of Steinway's patented Accelerated® action. Each key on a Steinway pivots on a rounded rather than a flat bearing. And each is "weighed-off," or balanced, by hand. The result — the most responsive action in the world.
As you consider which piano to purchase, you owe it to yourself to sit down and test the touch of a Steinway. It will be effortless, noiseless and instantly responsive. You will be able to trill and repeat notes cleanly, as fast as your fingers can move.
Steinway holds 115 patents affecting virtually every one of the 12,000 parts which go into each piano. These innovations have defined the art of piano building for over 140 years — so much so that nine out of ten of all the world's performing artists insist on the touch of a Steinway.
3. Endorsement: Reputation is everything. Ask the advice of those who know
Those people most knowledgeable about pianos are teachers, technicians and performers. There is no reason you should not solicit their guidance and recommendations.
A professional teacher views a piano as an instrument of artistic expression. Will it help you learn quickly and easily? Does it have sufficient capacity so you won't "outgrow" it in a few years? Will it sound as the composer means the music to sound? A revealing question to ask any teacher, however, is which piano fulfills his or her dreams.
The overwhelming reply is "Steinway."
Another wise step is to seek the opinion of the person who will keep your piano in tune. Technicians see pianos as music-making machines. They look for integrity of design and flawless construction. They look for balanced tone and effortless response from all the keys. Invariably they look for the name Steinway.
Performers of course depend on their pianos for their livelihood. But performers are also artists. In their hands the instrument becomes pallet, brush, clay, voice - the medium to interpret and express the gift of music they offer others.
No one is ever paid to play or endorse a Steinway piano. Yet, today it is the instrument of choice for nearly every concert artist in the world.
4. Investment: A Noteworthy Return Right from the Start
An investment is a possession acquired for future benefit, with the expectation it will increase in value.
Once you judge a piano from this perspective, the field is dramatically narrowed. Because Steinway & Sons is the only major piano maker in the world creating instruments of true investment quality.
Invest in a new Steinway and the return you enjoy in musical perfection is limitless. Its appreciation in monetary value, moreover, is not only predictable but very satisfying.
Forbes magazine calculated that over a ten year period the retail value of a Steinway concert grand increased by 200%. Steinways built between 1929 and 1958 now sell for 5.8 times their original prices, while those built from l959 to 1978 are selling for 2.8 times their original value.
Indeed, few things in life — including fine paintings and classic cars — compete with the investment performance of a Steinway piano.
Other piano makers would prefer you not judge their instruments against a benchmark of value. Because the comparison invariably proves a Steinway is, over time, the least expensive piano anyone can buy.
5. Investment: Before It Makes a Sound, it Makes a Statement
When you walk about a piano showroom and survey the makers' names inscribed on the instruments, what impressions come to mind?
The name Steinway on a piano singles it out from every other piano in the room, and every other piano in the world.
It tells you this instrument has been built, piece by piece, by master craftsmen, who take a year in its creation, because it must measure up not only as a technical masterpiece but as a musical masterpiece.
The name tells you this piano is a direct descendent of those which pioneered, then refined, virtually every step forward in the development of the instrument today. Always matching the ideal as stated by Henry E. Steinway in 1853: "Build the best piano possible."
A concert Steinway waiting on stage foretells of a magical musical experience. It announces to the audience that the ultimate means to express ultimate talent is in place, ready to perform.
In a similar way, a Steinway piano in your home speaks of discernment, love of music and the potential to excel. The name alone is an eloquent expression of your artistic and personal values.
6. Workmanship: No machine can properly play a piano, and no machine can properly create one
A hundred years ago the Steinway factory in New York City produced approximately 2,500 pianos a year. It was exacting, measured work. Because when artisans create, by hand, an instrument composed of some 12,000 parts, it requires time as well as diligence and talent.
Today other companies, using mass manufacturing techniques, produce many times more pianos than Steinway. And these pianos satisfy their makers' objective of increased production. They cannot, however, satisfy Steinway, whose abiding goal remains the relentless pursuit of perfection.
Though Steinway uses technology where it improves the piano, its methods remain essentially unchanged. Master craftsmen select only correctly aged and perfectly grained spruce, maple, birch, mahogany and other woods. Avoiding metal to wood connections, they meticulously glue and dowel all wooden parts. So, while the rest of the world rushes to make more pianos, the Steinway factory in New York still creates about 2,500 instruments a year. Every one a handmade work of art.
7. Advancements: Why they will Always Come from One Place
It's difficult to tell merely by looking at various grand pianos how technologically advanced they may be. This is because every piano since 1859, has tried to follow the lead of Steinway.
It was in that year that Steinway & Sons first combined two major innovations: a full cast-iron plate, allowing enormous string tensions, and the patented Steinway over-strung scale, which permits longer bass strings for more volume and better resonance.
By the end of the 19th Century Steinway's technical leadership was unparalleled, refining and improving virtually every aspect of the piano. And the parade of advancements continues to this day, with 115 patents including the following:
The Steinway Diaphragmatic® soundboard which provides freer vibration for rich tonal response.
The patented Accelerated® action, giving the player instant response, as well as the ability to repeat notes as quickly as a key is struck.
The Hexagrip® pinblock assuring precise, longer-lasting tuning.
The finest most advanced pianos in the world today are Steinways. But the finest Steinway of all will be the one we build tomorrow.
8. Your Gift: Give your child a head start. Give yourself your true reward.
The celebrated concert artist Van Cliburn shares this reminiscence and advice: "In my life there has always been a Steinway piano. My earliest memories were of hearing my teacher, who was my mother, making such beautiful sounds on the Steinway. Make a decision to enrich your child's future. Give your child a Steinway piano — with its glorious sound. And create for your child a world of imagination and beauty for a lifetime."
Children instinctively appreciate the quality of a superior instrument. A Steinway can help them learn faster, play longer because they enjoy the sound so much more, and inspire them to stretch to the limit of their talent.
And what is true for young talent is true for those old enough to enrich their own future. There is no finer gift for a child, or one that promises more joy and pleasure for you, than a lifetime of incomparable music.
(This article is an excerpt from Steinway.com)
