Piano Video Lesson: Baby Grand vs Grand Pianos

Hi, and welcome to LivingPianos.com. I am Robert Estrin. Today, we're going to talk about the difference between a baby grand and a grand piano. What's the difference? Now, you might just think, "Oh, one's bigger than the other," and that is an intelligent observation, but really, there are three fundamental differences between baby grand and grand pianos, and we're going to break it down for you today. The three basic differences are string length, soundboard area, and action geometry. Let's talk about each one of these aspects and the significance of them, and then you can determine what might be the right piano for you.
Well, obviously with a longer piano, because baby grands are typically around 5' long, and that's from the edge of the key slip to the farthest part of the lid, that's how pianos are measured, whereas grand pianos are more like 6'. Now, these are only approximate measurements. Some pianos might be 5'1", a baby grand, or 5'4", even. Grand pianos could be 6'3", 6'4", even 6-1/2'. When you get more into 7', that's considered a semi-concert grand, which is another class of piano, but we'll talk about that later on.
Right now, I'm going to talk about the difference between a baby grand and a grand piano in regards to string length. Now, the physics of sound is such that a doubling of frequencies creates an octave. When something vibrates twice as fast, it creates an octave in pitch. Therefore, things that are twice as large as something else will create twice an octave higher, and something twice as big will be an octave lower. Really, with a piano, if you think how short the top strings are, if you went doubling each octave, you'd have a piano that stretches out way farther than your room, so how do they compensate for that?
Well, even on a 9' concert grand piano, the strings aren't nearly long enough in the bass to be twice as long for every octave in the treble, so it's compensated by making the strings fatter. You notice the copper-wound strings in the bass, and they get thicker and thicker and thicker. Well, even the steel-wound strings have different gauges from the top going down so that the piano doesn't have to be ridiculously long in order to have the range of pitch that it has.
Now, the sound that's created by a thicker string that isn't as long as the doubling of the frequency has many overtones. Overtones are color tones that exist in all vibrating objects that create pitched sounds, whether it's a piano or a bell, or anything that produces a pitched sound, even in nature. If you blow through a seashell and create a pitch, that's got overtones in it. That's what gives the vibrancy and the difference in sound from one instrument to another.
The shorter a piano is, the stronger the overtones are, and the less fundamental frequency you have. When you're playing a low note, particularly on a small piano, you're actually getting more overtones than fundamental pitch, the pitch you're playing. I remember as a kid, I used to love to play with tape recorders, and one time I took the lowest note of the piano and I recorded it, and then I played it back four times as fast. Three times as fast? It was way faster. I had different tape recorders. I recorded on one machine that had two speeds, and another machine that had three speeds. Anyway, it was way faster, and it was the lowest note.
Now, this is a 5'1" Steinway. That's a pretty darn good sound for a 5'1" baby grand, but still, if you were to take that sound and speed it up, you would hear almost a chord, the overtones are so strong. So, this makes it very difficult to tune a smaller piano because the overtones can conflict with fundamental frequencies of higher notes. So, the purity of the sound is one benefit to having longer strings, and the longer a piano is, the truer the fundamental tone, that is, the note you're playing, the stronger that tone is, and the less of the overtones you have. So, that's one aspect of sound of a larger piano that's a benefit because of string length.
I brought up the second thing, which was soundboard area. The larger the soundboard, the richer the sound, all things being equal, much like a stereo that has bigger speakers tends to have more bass, could have a richer sound if the design is good. And it's the same thing, it's very difficult to get good bass out of small speakers. There are some technologies that can come close with baffles and tubing and things of that nature and subwoofers. But with just one diaphragm, which is your soundboard, a bigger one is going to have a richer sound overall, not just because it's bigger, but the placement of the bridges on the soundboard can be more centralized when you don't have to cram everything into such a tight space.
The piano design, the scaling of the piano design, can be such that you can get better vibration of the whole soundboard from any of the registers, so you get more of an evenness from top to bottom on a fine, larger grand piano than on a baby grand. Those are two sonic benefits of grand pianos. What about the action? I talked about the action geometry.
Well, the thing is, on a small piano, in order to fit it all into a small space and to have the strike point, that is, the point of the string where the hammer hits to be in the correct place, the keys are shorter. Now, not the part you see here, but the part that is behind the fallboard. So, when you are playing on a baby grand, you are very close to the center pivot point. Therefore, the key travel when you're close to the fallboard, whether it's black or white keys, is not so great, whereas in a grand piano, these parts of the keys move much, much more, giving you better control with your hands on the keys when they're not necessarily on the edge of the keys. Easier to control soft playing in particular.
So, those are some of the benefits to grand pianos compared to baby grands. And as I said, these benefits multiply as you get to semi-concert grands. And the ultimate piano, in terms of scale design with the way the strings get larger and longer from the treble to the bass, as well as the placement of the bridges on a larger soundboard, as well as the action geometry, giving you such an even feel, even from close to the fallboard on a 9' piano, is the ultimate playing and sonic experience.
I hope this has been helpful for you. Once again, I'm Robert Estrin. This is LivingPianos.com, your online piano resource. Thanks for the questions. Keep them coming in. Subscribe to LivingPianos.com. You'll get our newsletters that come out on a regular basis with fresh videos and pianos. Thanks again. We'll see you next time.

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