To put a piano in my kitchen?

[Islands81]

Just that really - I’d like to get a piano but the only place in my teeny house it could go is in the kitchen/dining room. It’s a decent sized room with the cooker on the right hand side wall, the piano would go at the opposite end of room (approx 6 metres away).

Is this a really bad idea in terms of humidity from cooking? I’ve read that this can bugger them up. The other option would be to get an electric one, but I know nothing about these or whether they are recommended by piano teachers. I’d like dd to start piano lessons, and I used to play many moons ago.

Any advice appreciated.

yes, do it - there would be fabulous acoustics

But make sure your DD practises! :)

Otherwise the teacher may get cross

We've got a piano in our kitchen(diner)!

It's a big room, around 7m x 6m, piano at one end, kitchen 7m away at other end.

It works for us!

Haha yes she is desperate to learn an instrument so hopefully she’ll be keen to practice.

Thanks, this is reassuring :) it wouldn’t be a super expensive piano, just one suitable for beginners. I’d rather have a ‘proper’ one than an electric one.

Electric that has headphones if you have neighbours.

Electric is fine but needs to be an "electric piano" not a "keyboard". You need dynamic keys, ie keys that make more noise if you hit them harder and less noise if you hit less hard. And a "soft" and a sustaining pedal as on a proper piano. Added advantages is that it can combine different instruments (my very old electric piano has rather a nice harpsichord mode), you can play with earphones, and no worries about regular tuning.

On the other hand, if your room is getting on for 20ft long, I don't think you'd have too many worries with humidity.

You need to keep the humidity around 40-45% as it can affect the wood, soundboard & strings. I've got a little humidity monitor that's kept next to the piano.
Heat can also be an issue. My piano is kept well away from the window & the radiators are switched off near it. I also use a hydroceel unit all year round & even use a humidifier or dehumidifier as required.
Admittedly it's a 1920's grand that has been in my family for most of its life & I am a little anal about keeping it in good nick but when you put the lid up, it sounds amazing!

Oh and make sure you get professionals in to move any type of piano - upright or grand. Piano wheels have moods of their own and you can do serious damage to the structure if you attempt to move it yourself!

Electric pianos (not keyboards) with pedals and weighted keys are brilliant for learning. I use to have one as a kid and often recommended them to parents when j used to teach the piano.

In my experience they are usually better than cheap accoustic pianos. And they have the benefit of headphones. You can always invest into a proper accoustic piano in a few year's time if your dd really takes to it.

+1 for electric piano (not keyb), we ummed and arred about electric or upright and I can say I am so pleased we went with the electric. If I want to try something out at 10pm I can just use headphones and no-one any the wiser. Also so much easier to move around, we've also connected it to a laptop so it can be used a a midi trigger for all sorts of things. Brilliant thing.

As long as it's not unusually steamy/humid I'd recommend it. We did this with our piano and it helped enormously with practice as it made it sociable : I could be cooking tea while the kids got on with it after school. A really nice time to chat about the school day too. As a child I was banished to my room to do my practice and tbh it was really lonely! Never stuck at it as always watching the clock.

Another vote for electric here. We had an acoustic and sold it and replaced with electric. It's much better for kids to learn on. Alongside benefits of headphones/volume control most will have 'extras' that can help with learning or are just 'fun', including different sounds, recording/playback, preprogrammed tunes, inbuilt metronome. If you are technically minded and have the software, you can plug it into a PC/laptop and create sheet music of what you are playing. It's a much more versatile instrument. Kids haven't had a problem moving from our digital to an acoustic for exams/school performances.

I’m learning and went for electric in deference to our lovely neighbours. I bought a quite decent version and have no particular plans to upgrade since it sounds and looks pretty awesome. I can’t see why it would object to being in a slightly humid atmosphere.

Go for it.

Thanks all, I think electric could be the way forward. We live in a terraced house so it would be kinder to my neighbour on the left, although as long as it wasn’t too late I don’t think she’d mind too much as the walls are pretty thick and I was going to put it against the rear wall of my house rather than the wall that divides our houses. But being able to use headphones would be great if it does turn out to annoy her. Also no tuning costs with electric.

Another problem is that I’ve got a narrow hallway, which the living room leads straight off, so whatever I get will have to be turned on its end just to get it in the door (getting the sofas in was fun ). So I’m not sure how much an acoustic piano would appreciate that.

Any recommendations for brands/models of electric pianos? I’m going to look for a second hand one as no idea how keen dd will be.

I’ve got an electric piano. It’s fab, they take up less room and because you can adjust the volume and wear headphones it means you can play anytime of day or night without disturbing the neighbours.
My dad plays professionally and he got rid of his proper piano for an electric piano.
They’re fab x

The Yahama Clavinova’s are meant to be good. I’ve got a Casio Celviano and it’s been great and inexpensive x

We spent two days ransacking large electric piano shops, and came away with a Roland ep880 as the closest in both feel and sound to a baby grand that DP had back in the family home. It has not been regretted as a purchase, at about £1000 new. That was about a decade ago though, no idea on developments in electric pianos since.

Blimey - checking sold listings on ebay they go for £50-200 now. Nice!

Seconding the Roland ep880 suggestion. Wonderful sound.

Thanks everyone! Electric piano it is then, will get looking.

I bought a Yamaha Clavinova 15 years ago - it's been a complete joy and still looks and sounds as it did on the day I bought it. No maintenance has ever been needed and of course as it's digital no tuning required, which I imagine would be a pain in the backside.

Agree with other posters that it's much more versatile and fun to learn on. Had some friends round at the weekend and we had a great time playing with the different sounds and settings. The 50 preset pieces are incredible as well and you can have it as background music - like having a concert pianist in your own home

I got a really good compact keyboard from gear4music

Not advertising for them but it was cheap (ish) and fitted a really small space

Electric piano also worked well when we needed one that could cope with humidity. We were somewhere very dry (Alaska) but the shipment of our belongings at the end of the three year posting went via the Panama Canal, which was very hot and humid. Electric piano survived great.

Another vote for an electric / digital piano. Get a ‘proper’ one with weighted keys and pedals as mentioned. Another plus of an electric is it doesn’t need tuning.