Before we purchased our Yamaha Grand, our ales person cut out a paper silhouette of it so we could place it in different spots on our floor to see how it would fit in different spots in different rooms. This was a great way for us to visualize it before purchasing it and to finalize positioning it more easily without having to move the real heavy piano around!

I have always admired your knowledge with the piano and how it works, how to play it, everything. Thank you for spreading your vast knowledge about pianos throughout the years!

This was great! I really appreciate your pragmatic approach to positioning the baby grand in the home.

Thanks Robert 🎉

And here I thought your main discussion would be about placement away from direct sunlight, not by an outside wall, not over heat sources, etc. Maybe even veering into discussion of internal piano humidity control systems and room dehumidifiers. Especially with expensive pianos such discussions are as important any concerns about sound dispersion.

A piano in every room, 2 preferable in biggest room , problem solved :)

You definitely can have a baby grand in tiny spaces. My 10x10 feet bedroom has a baby grand, loft bed, digital piano, reed organ, desk with pc, office chair, nightstand, and a lamp!

Thanks, Robert. Helpful advice indeed. I’ve gone for the ‘position it into a corner’ option for my 2002 Yamaha baby grand. Now just need to keep up the practice to make it sound as it should. 🙏

A true expert in piano. Thank you sir!

Wow thanks for the video great help.

I have a 9 foot two fazioli only in a room that is 17’6 x 17’ 6 and 9 foot high and it sounds fun but the rest of my house is about 25 foot ceilings going out into the other room so it absorbs the So It sounds very well

Thanks Robert, I feel like I really need to attenuate my up-right by hanging something behind it

Do not place a piano where it will catch the full sun light as that will fade the case work also do not place a piano near a heat scorch such as a radiator. Keep your eye on the humidity and keep the levels to around 40%. Get a good Piano Tuner and seek his/her advise

Thank you

YEs Robert ! Place the back of your upright piano against curtains to reduce the overall sound. Thanks!

Yes, so true, the room has to handle the piano acoustically. There is an obsession with concert grand pianos, and it even spills over into the digital world. I keep hearing people saying they want a digital piano or VST plug-in which gives an experience as close as possible to a concert grand. Issues of volume and timbre and reverberation come to mind. I feel like saying: Will your family be sitting in the street and enjoying your performance from there? And are you playing more piano conciertos, or more nocturnes? Wouldn't a more intimate sound suffice? Well if they only play/practise highly challenging piano music for themselves with headphones on, maybe they are right to insist, but DP manufacturers have it figured already. They put a CFX, Shigeru, Imperial or Model D sample into a digital piano, then tweak it for home use. You have to retweak the sound to get a more realistic (I didn't say full or perfect) impression of a concert grand, and then of course it sounds OTT unless you're on a big stage, and probably playing modern music anyway. My digital piano actually has a button for switching directly between home and stage use, mercifully. Yes, I dream of having a nice acoustic piano too, but I move around so much.

Does he remind anyone else of Mark Hamill? Just me? Also, thank you for the piano info! 🙂

Thanks for all your videos! I finally got an upright piano 2 days ago and I’m super happy with it. Watched all your videos before making the purchase, they were very helpful :) One question though, I don’t know if you’ve already talked about this but, what can I do to keep my piano clean? My rooms a bit dusty and I’m noticing lots of fingerprint from sweat on it, what do I use to clean it and prevent the keys from accumulating it?

My piano technician call who works the concert venue said that it is a myth that you cannot place a piano by the window that is only for older older homes and more contemporary type of home it will not affect the tuning or run the piano whatsoever so again that is a mess and it is untrue

The ground floor. 😁

While I agree, there are some issues with temperature and humidity environment that one might want to consider with placement. For example, placing an upright against an exterior wall can bring about temperature changes that can effect tune and long term life of the hardwood. It's not that bad, but if you have a choice, stay away from exterior walls. Also direct sunlight will fade some wood finishes over time and also cause those keys with the longest strings to expand and contract more than shorter strings creating noticeably different effects on tune from low to high notes. In our home, we can't avoid the direct sunlight on our baby grand, but we keep the piano covered in a nice tablecloth when we're not entertaining to reduce fading. We also have it re-tuned twice a year.

Robert, does anyone make a piano that fully exploits/utilises the BASS section of the keyboard, if a double bass was made the same way as a piano then the double bass's body would be only a couple of inches deep --- I'm sure I have seen such 'bass enhanced' pianos in a 1930-40's American films and musicals, the body of the piano extended to within about 6 inches of the floor ?

Hi Robert, do you think adding SOUND PROOFING foam on the wall behind an upright piano would work? I have just purchased a new upright piano which has been placed in a small room for my son and it is quite loud and he doesn't like using the middle pedal dampner.

Where do you place a 6 foot grand piano

my upright is in kind of in the middle of my garage xddd

Is 10ft * 14 ft room too small for a 5 ft baby grand?

Thanks - this vid would be so much more helpful and engaging with pictures... I am quite a visual person! Just feedback!

Robert is right, grand pianos look great anywhere, but... Cup your hands around you mouth as you talk, and then tell me again that it doesn't matter where you put a grand piano in a room; especially one with a standard 8' ceiling. Its why pianos are often 'too' loud for rooms! They are designed, big and small alike, for maximum volume, for better or worse, as if they will stand service in the 'free-space' (high-ceilinged) of a concert-hall of some kind, rather than a living room or worse as is usually the case. The closer you put a piano to one or more walls (as in a corner), PLUS the effects of the 'always proximate' floor, and the 'variably' proximate ceiling, the more you engage boundary reinforcement (of both the fundamentals and the partials), especially of lower frequencies. You also increase and multiply slap-echoes of higher pitches in rooms with long enough dimension to excite and exacerbate them. None of this is good. Experiment! Inches, too and from, or, in and out, relative to any and all fixed boundaries make significant differences both in respect and register. Relative room dimensions are very important too! Square rooms are the worse than rectangular ones. Additionally, high ceilings are better. A room with a sufficiently high ceiling [such as a concert hall] acts as it were an instrument standing in free space with no boundary reinforcement so it needs to be loud of its own volition. Additionally, several notes on the piano 'attempt' to generate pitches that have wave-lengths that are in excess of 12-16 feet long. If your room (or your string) is not that long (and you yourself are not standing at least that distance from the generating string) the room will not support the note and you will hear only the harmonics, as the fundamental is not present because it is not physically possible in a room of that size. You must leave the room to hear it through he wall. The same is true of car stereo that generates bass that can only be heard 'outside' of the car.

I actually have a piano in my own Bedroom (since I am still a minor)