I just wondered where everyone keeps their pianos / keyboards. I am lucky and have a separate room for the pianos, and we put a wooden floor down. Consequently the sound bounces around! Does anyone have any ideas of practical, yet vaguely nice looking, ways to help the acoustics? It's fine when you're at the keyboard end, but it can be quite harsh if you're not, and it's a very mellow piano!

Oh, I wish we had a big enough house for a proper music room. Our piano lives in the lounge, where there are too many soft furnishings to really get a good sound, and other family members have to be very tolerant when my son or I decide to play. We operate a "piano comes first" policy up to a point, and if there's something on TV at the same time, it has to be recorded and watched later.

Ours is in the living room, but there seems to be more of a 'Piano comes last' policy in our house. I've asked for it to be moved several times, but it always seems to fall on deaf ears!

i keep my piano in my school bag

Hmmm - it's not one of those hideous roll up keyboards, is it?

Our piano is in the lounge and mainly gets played with headphones. Unfortunately all rooms have to multi-task in our flat

Maybe it's one like this!

http://www.knbc.com/2006/1208/10490046_240X180.jpg

And I thought Rachmaninoff had big hands!!!

Mine is in the dining room and there is no fighting to get on it as it is mine! The old piano we put in my son's play room and he is allowed occasionally on my new one for instance when we are having our little duets or concerts.

Since the old piano was placed in his playroom he has started to play again almost every day and everything is coming back to him. He gave up over a year ago and I was really upset about it but decided it was no good forcing him to do something he wasn't enjoying; I didn't want him to be put off music for good. It has paid off as he is doing so well on his flute and last night announced that he may like to take up piano lessons again once he is settled in his new school.

I just said thats great, you let me know when you think you are ready.

ET

Since I'm in a tiny one bed flat, the piano lives in the multi-purpose room that is everything but bedroom, bathroom and kitchen

Ours is also in a music room. I'm still getting used to it - we've only had it for a week and it does rather dominate the room.

Try putting a rug under the piano - it makes a surprising difference. We're also starting to experiment with curtains open/closed and hanging things on the wall (we have a few wall hangings we want to put up anyway, might as well get them inthe best position for the acoustics of the room too).

no, its in our dining room, but will be moved to the hallway soon.

I'm so pleased to hear this, eldatom. I remember you posting last year and hoped this might happen. It's a great idea to put a piano in his playroom - no pressure to practise but lots of opportunity! Well done!

i keep mine with its stool.

Thanks Berkshire Mum

Its amazing what taking the pressure off him has done. I was quite amazed when he announced that he may like to take it up again but I am keeping every low profile and let him make all the moves. I did tell him the option to have piano lessons again was always there if he ever changed his mind when he gave up. We will just have to wait and see. I think moving to secondary school has helped because he has grown up so much. Mind you he came home from school the other day and said how boring the music lesson was as they had to do clapping to simple rhythms which he had done at Kinder Music when he was 4. The teacher did get them to fill in a questionairre about what music they had done, grades etc so hopefully they will be put into groups so that those that are musical manage to get some challenges.

Down the road in my mother's kitchen - it's much quieter there (as in less people about) but probably louder in its own volume.

In the kitchen ... which wasn't the kitchen until we bought the piano... The piano went into the dining room, but, it being a relatively new house (think tiny rooms!) meant the dining table had to be bumped into the conservatory, leaving me with a piano room and dinners being served on trays because the conservatory was too cold in the winter... So we knocked through the wall from the kitchen to the dining room to make one larger kitchen/diner which now has a small table, armchair and dog basket next to piano. Works like a dream, wouldn't dare complain about people interupting practice after all the upheaval and of course there is absolutely no pressure to keep motivated after rearranging the whole house to fit the piano in !!

When my nephew was learning the violin several years ago, his teacher told all the parents to leave the violins somewhere very visible, with the case open, so that the children would be more tempted to pick their instrument up and play it. He said that most children wouldn't seek out their instruments if they were tucked away, however much they enjoyed them - out of sight, out of mind, I suppose. It sounds as though your son is pleased to find the piano close by and just waiting to be played. Fingers crossed for both of you.

Ours is in the living room as it's the only place with the right amount of wall! Sometimes I watch silent television while my son plays, but even though his back is to the television when he's playing, he has some sort of sixth sense and can always tell when the adverts are on, so then there's a lot of swivelling round and I turn the television off The guitars live in here too, apart from my older son's bass, as that keeps them out of the hands of too many eager hands when friends are round.

I like Daisy-Jane's idea of the idea of having the piano in the kitchen/diner - very sociable.