It’s no secret that we love pianos…We’ve been selling them for over 165 years after all! To celebrate this World Piano Day, we took things a step further than most and were dedicated to bringing some piano excitement into your home from our Cambridge Showroom. The day was jam packed with fun conversation, insightful expert knowledge and one of the best performances our Cambridge showroom has ever seen.
Here’s our recollection of the day laced in with all of our favourite moments so you can catch up on anything you missed!
Casio Digital Piano Reviews
We kicked things off with a wonderful review of some of the most popular pianos within our Casio digital piano range. Our Norwich showroom manager Ollie headed over to Cambridge to orchestrate the day and guided us through some of the fantastic features and comparisons between the highly portable and slimline PX-S1000, the stunning resonance of the PX-870 home piano and finally, the sensational touch and prowess of the GP-510.
As we’ve spoken about before, the digital piano industry is in high demand and low stock at the moment, so if you’ve been thinking about picking up a digital piano, Casio or otherwise, now is the time!
European Vs Eastern Sound - Acoustic Piano Demonstration
Next up, Ollie used his expertise to focus on the differences between different piano sounds and styling. It’s often a common misconception that all acoustic pianos sound the same…When the truth couldn’t be further from that! Every single piano has its own uniquely tailored voice, tone and feel. To demonstrate this best, we highlighted two unique tones from the warmer feel of a European piano in the form of a much beloved W.Hoffman P120 upright and contrasted it with the brighter, bouncier tone of a sensational Yamaha SU7.
To round off this demonstration, Ollie then delved into the differences in tone and sound when comparing upright pianos to grands. This was demonstrated on our personal favourite and most prestigious grand piano in our showroom, the C.Bechstein B212.
The Importance Of Piano Tuning
To round off the demonstration section of the day, we brought in our lead piano technician Chris Vesty. Chris has been professionally tuning pianos for almost a decade now and has an unbelievable level of expertise and passion when it comes to the inner workings of a piano. Chris took apart the W.Hoffman P120 and explains the importance of not only the tuning process but gives you some expert insider tips on quick and easy things you can do to keep your piano in tip-top condition!
Intro To Improvisation Masterclass with Robin Phillips
Next up, this was an entirely new feature for us and something we were incredibly excited to get going! Following the success of his previous set at the last Millers Live event we ran, Cambridge based Jazz musician Robin Phillips was back and brought with him the charisma and charm to offer an exciting insight into improvisation on piano.
Whether you’re just getting started with piano, or are already a seasoned pianist looking to break into the jazz world, Robin is your guy! For more from Robin, you can read his story on how he utilised the pandemic to rediscover a new passion for music here.
Live Performance From Leanne Rae
It wouldn’t be much of a world piano day event without some kind of live performance! So for this extra special set, we brought in the incredible Leanne Rae playing on a Roland FP-90. Leanne is a pianist from Cambridge who can be regularly found performing around the city. She openly calls the piano “her first love” – something we can definitely relate to and her set goes on to prove it! For more from Leanne, she also featured in our Lockdown Stories here.
There we have it! A day of fun filled information and performance that we hope you took plenty away from! We certainly had a great time and hope you did too!
How did you celebrate world piano day? Or do you want to learn more about any of the pianos featured in #MillersLive? We’d love to hear from you and our team are here to help! You can contact us via livechat, social media, phone or email. You can also sign up to our newsletter to make sure you’re reminded of the next #MillersLive!