Renting a piano long term

There are many situations in which a person or family may prefer to rent a piano instead of buying one.

I frequently see families in which the kids are beginning piano lessons, but mom and dad aren't sure if the kids will stick with it. What if they spend $5,000-$15,000 on a new upright and the kids then quit after six months or a year? In a situation like this it can be far less expensive to just rent an upright piano for $70-$90 per month for a year, until it's clear the child will stick with it.

I also see adults coming back to piano lessons after many years, having played as a kid. They are also not sure of their commitment or how it's going to "work out". They wonder if they'll be continually frustrated. They worry that they may find it just too difficult, or that they may not have enough time or lose interest after a while.

But they also want a decent piano. They know they are not going to just buy a used old upright for $900 off of Craigslist. They want a piano that is delicious to play and beautiful to look at. They even dream of playing a grand piano.

But what if they aren't able to stick with it after a year? They don't want to spend $25,000 - $50,000 on a new small grand, only to find after a year that they've lost motivation, interest, or don't have the time to play.

For adults like this (and there are many like them), renting a piano makes much more sense than buying. Through our innovative grand piano rental program, they can even try out a Steinway grand for a year, at a tiny fraction of what it would cost to own one. They can rent for a while, and if they find they are loving it and still playing regularly after a year or two, they can then think about buying their dream grand piano.

If you're interested in renting a piano for whatever reason, just contact us at www.renaissancepiano.com. We'd be happy to help you figure out what would be a good piano for you.

Happy playing!

I don't have enough space to have a grand piano.

Customers frequently tell me that they dream of owning a grand piano, but that they don't have the room. This is understandable, since many people think of grands as being really quite huge.

What is intriguing is that it's just as common for me to hear, once someone has gone out and bought a grand, that it isn't as big as they thought it would be and doesn't take up as much room as they had imagined.

Over the years I've seen grand pianos in all sorts of tight spaces and small rooms. It seems that if someone wants a grand badly enough, they can always make it fit and look nice in almost any room!

For example, check out the picture above, taken in the bedroom of a friend. The home is a small condo of only about 700 square feet. This Steinway is almost 6 feet long, a decent size in terms of tonal quality, and yet it still works quite well in a tiny room (about 12 x 12 ft) which it has to share with a double bed.

So, if you've been putting off your grand piano dreams because you think you don't have the space, think again, and consider that you probably do have enough room!

Happy piano shopping!

Magic carpets of the soul

Welcome to this blog for piano lovers, piano admirers, piano players and those who wish they were piano players! Pianos. What great friends they can be. How like a magic carpet they can so quickly whisk us off to faraway galaxies of our souls.

I don't remember when I played my first one. Somewhere around Third Grade I started taking lessons. Teachers came and went, and there were long and short gaps, but around Seventh Grade I found a teacher who really got me motivated and I started to really love playing. I continued to play and take lessons through high school and university.

During my last year of high school, my interest in playing dovetailed with my interest in how pianos worked. I studied to become a piano technician, started my own business and paid my way through university tuning and restoring pianos. Twenty years later, I still love playing piano and still love making my customers' pianos sound better! Over the years I've worked on thousands of pianos and had thousands of conversations with folks about pianos. This blog is an outgrowth of those many conversations. I hope you'll enjoy it and find some inspiration for your own piano journey!