Why Upgrade From A Digital?

The teacher has said “It’s time you start

looking for a real piano and move up from a
keyboard. You’ve outgrown this one”. Really?
How does that happen? Just 2 years ago you
bought this brand new 88 key weighted digital
piano and now you’re being told that it will not
suffice. They both have the same amount of
keys and it has the same touch as a piano.
Why do we need to upgrade? In order to
answer that question, we need to look at the
differences between acoustic piano (traditional
piano with strings and hammers) and digital
piano (electronic keyboard that you plug into
the wall). The two main areas that

substantially divide these two types of

pianos are dynamic touch and dynamic
tone.
The concept of touch for any keyboard is
fairly straightforward: they all have black
and white keys. You push one down, it
makes sound. But in reality, the constructs
of touch are much more complicated.
Remember going to the playground when
you were a kid? The see-saw was one of
my favourites (especially when your brother
or sister is on the other end and you decide
at last moment to let it crash to the ground
seeing them slightly propel off the end in mid air). Anyway, the idea of balance is realized fairly
quickly. We all experimented by
moving closer and farther from
the middle. It took substantial
weight to push down the see-saw
if you were really close to the
center. Piano keys are exactly like
that. When it comes to upgrading
from digital piano to acoustic, one
of the most significant changes is
a better balance point. What do I
mean by that? When you play the
piano, the ideal is to have
consistency moving from one
note to another. But you also
want to achieve consistency from
the front of the key to the back.
Take a look at the diagram with
the two different pressure points
marked in red.
As the demands for piano proficiency increase, you end up using the entire key surface and not
just the fronts. When you look at the cutaway of both digital and acoustic pianos (on the next
diagram), you will see that digital pianos have balance points that are too close to the keyboard. It’s
like the see-saw principle: the closer you move to the center, the more difficult it is to depress a
key. Here’s a test to try: depress a key on a digital piano similar to the red marks on the diagram.
Take note to the variance in touch. Digital pianos, by nature of the balance point placement usually
have significant touch discrepancy. With acoustic pianos, the balance point distance is substantially
further. This creates a more even touch weight from front to back of the key. One sign of a great
piano is low variation between the front and back of the keyboard.

Another significant distinction between acoustic and digital is the idea of dynamic touch weight.
Have you ever gone camping? Good, because it’ll help with this next analogy. Chopping wood
requires rotational inertia. The axe handle pivots in your hand while the weight at the end gathers
momentum and chops the wood. Due to the multiplying effect of the rotation of the axe head, the
power increases substantially. Any seasoned pianist will be able to tell you that acoustic pianos
somehow feel different than any electronic or digital piano. The reason for this is due to this
rotational inertia of the piano hammer causing dynamic touch. Take a look at the side cutaway of
the upright piano. Labelled is the hammer which rotates towards the string. This rotational inertia,
similar to a hammer or an axe – gives a very different sensation than the static weight of a digital
piano. A digital piano simply raises or lowers lead
weight up and down. It doesn’t have a multiplied force
when played louder and subsequently, there is no
dynamic force on a digital piano.
There are many other subtle differences that we could
consider regarding touch, but the last one we’ll look at
is spring assists. Ever so slight and yet perceptible is
the idea of resistance in part by springs in the action. In
an upright piano, for example, the pivot point of the
hammer we just spoke of not only has rotational inertia
but it’s also spring loaded. The spring resists the
hammer and at low pressure, low volume, you can feel
the spring engaged. As the hammer moves closer to
the piano strings, the tension of the spring also
increases, causing more pressure to return the hammer
to reset.
So why upgrade? Longer keys mean better balance
from front to back of the piano keys. The rotational
inertia gives dynamic touch changing the feel as you
play soft to loud. And finally, the spring loaded joints aid
the reset. All of these work collectively to define the
touch of a piano. When you compare that to a digital
piano where the touch weight is simply raising or
lowering a lead weight on a see-saw, the difference is
significant. In addition to these touch elements,
traditional pianos also have adjustable parts to refine
the touch components as well.
Final considerations regarding touch: dexterity and injury. After nearly 30 years of teaching, I could
tell as soon as I heard a student who had been practicing on a digital piano. How? They have not
developed anywhere near the right amount of finger dexterity. You can “hear” that their technique
is weak. Dynamic touch brings about correct dexterity. You can especially hear it on quick staccato
passages. But the more important consideration is injury. Extended practice time on digital pianos
have the propensity towards injury. I’m not a kinesiologist but I think it has something to do with
repetitive loud playing on the digital piano. I believe that the force is somehow not absorbed the
same way because digital pianos do not have dynamic key weight. When you come crashing down
on the keys, if the static weight doesn’t change, the next absorption point is the hands and arms.
The dynamic nature of the acoustic piano changes the resistance when you play and for whatever
reason, I find it more forgiving.

When it comes to upgrading from a digital

piano to an acoustic piano, there are also 2
sound concepts to be mindful of: The first is
the continuous flow of sound which we
commonly refer to as analog. The second is
dynamic timbre referring to how the sound
quality changes with dynamics and volume.
First, let’s look at the comparison between
acoustic sound and digital sound. The
acoustic piano creates sound by a hammer
striking a string. The subsequent vibration is
amplified by the soundboard into audible
tones. How do digital pianos make sound? Digital pianos don’t actually create sound. They simply
play back a digital recording of a real piano. But digital sound and live string resonance are
different. Digital sound is made up of many frames per second to give the illusion of continuous
sound. Natural vibration of a string is a continuous waveform that we perceive differently. I
remember the first time I used Skype to speak with my parents a thousand miles away. My aging
father found the technology almost baffling. It was great to see their faces and connect but is it the
same as being there in person? No of course not. Both methods communicate effectively but the
live version brings about a closer heart connection. A picture of a garden or being in the garden, a
filmed version of a Shakespearean play or experiencing live theatre, hearing a recorded version of
your favourite artist or seeing them live in concert ~ live is simply more than the digital
representation. And yes I’m well aware of the fact that there are incredible creative moments that
can only be achieved in the digital realm. It’s not that it lacks expression as its own form. My point
is that digital piano will always and only be a facsimile of a real piano. And as it relates to acoustic
analog continuous sound waves versus a digital recording of a piano transmitted through speakers,
natural sound will always be the better choice.
 The second concept of sound is the idea of dynamic timbre.
Just as acoustic piano touch is dynamic and changes with
volume, so too piano tone or timbre changes character with
volume. As the hammer strikes the string at soft to loud volume
levels, the piano hammer felt is compressed differently. The
subsequent tones often go from felty and warm to strident and
bright. Depending on volume, other sympathetic tones of the
piano also ring. An acoustic piano is not a matter of simply
raising or lowering volume but rather, the piano tone changes
color with dynamic touch.
Crayola crayons – remember the new boxes you would get at
the beginning of the school year? Digital pianos are a little like
that small box of 8 colors. In the recordings of digital pianos
(called samples) manufacturers have attempted to capture
these dynamic timbres. What this means is that when you play
from soft to loud on a digital piano, it transitions through the
various colors of samples. But when it comes to upgrading,
advanced students need to move beyond the 8 Crayola colors.
Advanced playing requires shading, nuances and a wider color
palette. You simply cannot hand a student a box of crayons
and say “Paint me a masterpiece”. It’s physically not possible. You think I’m being facetious but
most manufacturers use less than 4 “colors” per note. Conversely, traditional pianos have an
infinite number of colors. And that’s just in one note! When you strike more notes simultaneously,
the color possibilities and frequencies increase exponentially. Quite often I think back to the
famous pianist Glenn Gould. I read that his parents had to lock the piano after 14 hours a day of
playing when he was a child. Obviously he was genius and radical in his approach to piano playing
but in reading about his life, it’s apparent that he was completely smitten by the tone of the piano. I
fear that we don’t give students the capacity to LOVE the piano for its sound. I wonder if we as

parents do a disservice to children by giving them the incorrect tools to begin with. There’s this
common school of thought “Let’s get a keyboard and if they stick with it, we’ll get them a real
piano”. Do children learning the piano ever fall in love with the tone of a keyboard? Have we lost
the connection to analog – this continuous vibration of the strings? Does it resonate with us the
same way? Have we given them a handful of colours and limit the pure enjoyment of limitless
expression?
I believe these are the thoughts and intentions behind teachers wanting more for their students.
When they speak to parents about upgrading, it’s not about some high-brow approach to narrow
minded Classical performance. It’s the desire to connect with a more fundamental, more organic
way of expression in music – one that is beautiful and lovely. So the next time the teacher
encourages you to look at a traditional piano, they’re really saying ‘Let’s go deeper, let’s create
music, and let’s experiment with touch, with tone and experience music to its fullest extent.”

Written by Glen Barkman

Piano Price Point
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