Piano Video Lesson: What is an Upright Grand Piano?

Hi, and welcome to livingpianos.com and virtualsheetmusic.com. I'm Robert Estrin with a viewer question today. What is an upright grand piano?

You may have heard this term. When you first hear it, it sounds like an oxymoron. Is it an upright, or is it a grand? Well, that's what we're going to explore today for you and cut through all this clutter.

Behind me, you can see this enormous upright piano. Yes, indeed, a hundred years ago, a piano like this may very well have been talked about as being an upright grand. What this meant at that time when these instruments were so popular is a full size upright that indeed has a soundboard area larger than most baby grands. The bass strings are as long or longer than most baby grands and rival the sound of a grand piano.

You see, at that time, there were over a thousand companies making pianos in the United States. Many people could not fit grand pianos in their homes. Homes were much smaller back then. People who wanted to have the rich sound of a grand, they'd get instruments like this. It coined the term "upright grand." It truly is just simply a large upright.

You might ask yourself. "Is it as good as a grand piano?" Well, for that, I have another video you can check out, uprights versus grand pianos. There are many things about grand pianos that indeed are superior in the way they respond mechanically on the action, as well as how the pedals function and other aspects of grand pianos that are preferential to uprights. For those who don't have the space for an upright, indeed you can get the sound of a full grand piano if you have a soundboard that's as massive as an instrument like this beautiful old Schubert upright grand. Yes, I've used the term myself.

If you're ever wondering is it an upright or a grand, this is indeed an upright with a grand size soundboard and strings. That's exactly what an upright grand is.

Thanks for the great questions. Keep them coming in. We'll shoot a lot of them for future videos. You may even hear yourself on our podcast coming soon. Thanks for joining me, Robert Estrin, here at livingpianos.com and virtualsheetmusic.com.

Automatic video-to-text transcription by DaDaScribe.com

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