Disklavier

Good morning, everyone.

I am a piano teacher and a Disklavier owner. I have 2 thoughts on this  
subject:

(1) If you get a Disklavier, you'll always have a wonderful instrument  
that will play music for you even if your daughter doesn't stick with  
her piano lessons.

(2) Sometimes kids switch instruments. If you get a Disklavier and  
your daughter switches to trumpet or flute, you'll have a great  
accompaniment instrument.

(3) There are thousands of commercially published MIDI files for  
learning how to play. Typically these files are published by the same  
publishers who publish the standard teaching methods (Alfred, Hal  
Leonard, FJH, Frederick Harris, etc.). These published MIDI files  
coordinate with the method books themselves as well as supplementary  
books and provide a wonderful play-along experience that is as  
motivating as it is educational.

In my case, I take things a step further: I connect a laptop to the  
piano, load the MIDI files into the laptop, and use an interactive  
software program for displaying the MIDI files in notation on the  
screen. Then, as the student plays, the student benefits from features  
such as:

--automatic page-turning
--accompaniment pausing if the student does not play the right note
--tempo control
--looping features for repeated practice
--and more

At more advanced levels, students can play with accompaniments that  
follow their tempo and dynamics.

Regards,
PianBench

www.georgelitterst.com
www.timewarptech.com


On May 20, 2008, at 9:25 AM, suzuki_mom_of2 wrote:

> We went to a Yamaha "clearance" sale a few days ago. We got the
> hard sell and bought a DGC1M4 for $22,300 "pending 3rd party
> approval" (my daughter's piano teacher). That is, if this isn't a
> good deal, we can back out. The teacher played the piano and said
> the piano itself is a nice one. I have no doubt that this is a
> quality product, and judging from the prices listed in the "polls"
> section of this website, it doesn't look like we're overpaying
> (right)?
>
> I'm just not sure if we need "this much" piano, or whether another
> piano out there would be a better value for us. No one in the
> family plays yet (my 9 year old daughter will begin lessons in the
> Fall). On the other hand we're very into music (my kids already
> play the cello and guitar very well), and we're moving to a new
> house that has a whole-house audio system - the integration could be
> a lot of fun.
>
> I would like to thank everyone who posted their prices on
> the "polls" section - that was very helpful to me. If we actually
> commit to this piano, I'll post as well.
>
> Any opinions or feedback? Thanks so much!
>