At Stilwell Pianos, we have long been fans of Casio Musical Instruments for their unparalleled tone, touch, and value. From their venerable Privia line of affordable digital pianos to their Bechstein-branded Celviano Grand Hybrid pianos, Casio continues to offer the best digital instruments for piano players at the lowest prices possible. 

For 2019, we are proud to offer three exciting, brand new Casio digital piano models! All three offer Bluetooth for Casio-exclusive Chordana app, which is free! This app allows for music composition, easy arrangements in any imaginable style, and complete control of the piano from...

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A New Piano for the Year

The birth of a new year represents a clean slate and boundless potential. For many families, better management of time and pursuing quality bonding activities is found on the proverbial list of new year’s resolutions. What better way to begin a new chapter—a new year—than purchasing a piano for your home?

A Survey of Music Making in the Past

Long before telephones or the advent of radio, Western families entertained themselves with domestic music making. From the noblest or aristocracy to the humblest peasant, the ability for a family to produce...

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There are so many things professional pianists look for, but that subject will remain for series of separate blogs. For an average family purchasing an affordable piano, the piano should provide three things: a high level of responsiveness, a good tone, and good stability.

For most beginners, a piano should have keys that are even in weight. There should little to no play before the hammer travels once the key is depressed. When a key is lifted, the sound should be damped immediately. Double repetition and aftertouch is not as important for a beginner, but a grand piano action will...

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It is so frustrating to see the amount of deception and manipulative marketing tactics employed by some of the more famous piano companies making digital instruments today. Yamaha manufactures so many expensive Clavinova digital pianos using what they consider "wooden key actions." Or NW-GH. The only problem is...these are not wooden keys. Check out the picture below.

As you can see, this is nothing more than a sticker of wood veneer slapped on the sides of plastic keys. This is the same dated technology found in portable weighted keyboards, definitely not a true piano key. Not even...

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When is the last time you have made a monthly payment? From iPhones to mortgages, we live in a world based on credit. Borrowing money effectively and responsibly boosts our credit scores, and empowers us to better choose how and when we spend our hard-earned cash, which is great. However, interest rates are, very often, unfathomably high and unpractical-- negating the good they might do for our credit. So many people come into our store wanting to finance a piano, but they simply cannot stomach the idea of paying a high interest rate. We understand. That is why we have thought long...

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Buying an affordable piano from a famous piano brand is similar to buying an affordable German car. Cheaper pianos from Yamaha look like Yamaha pianos because YAMAHA in gold lettering is proudly stamped on the fallboard. The GB1K says “Yamaha Pianos” on the soundboard, vacuum-processed plate, and even has a vague similarity in sound compared to  other Yamaha models. This is where any resemblance quickly ends. Yamaha does not offer a quality cheap piano, despite being priced significantly higher than pianos of comparable size and build quality from entry-level companies, such as Pearl River or Samick....

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Hailun: Moving Forward Radically  

Today the global world seems to gravitate towards greater multi-national partnerships than ever before. It is a recent phenomena brought on by globalization and has contributed to radical breakthroughs in science and technology. No other piano company has taken advantage of this new global capitalism like Hailun.  

Here is a list of countries that make Hailun special:

• Austria
• China
• France
• Germany 
• United States
• Japan
• …and more!

From world-renowned piano designers to all-European hardwoods and felts, Hailun pianos utilize the best materials one would...

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Are Grey Market Pianos Bad?

This is a top contender for the most asked question we get from callers, emails, and visitors in our store. Many people desire a high-quality Japanese piano, such as Kawai and Yamaha, at a price they can afford. Over the years, both Japanese companies have invested considerable time and money into their marketing throughout North America in effort to convince buyers that a grey market piano is always inferior and guaranteed to have issues. All of these claims are immense exaggerations of partial truths—very similar to how politicians emphasize and deemphasize certain facts to win...

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Will a piano’s tone change over time? 

One of the most common concerns people express in our store is “Will (brand x) piano sound the same in my home over time?” The answer is yes and no. Intrinsic tone and consequential tone are two very different concepts that I have created to describe the phenomena of a piano “loosing” or “changing” its tonal color. 

Intrinsic sound is not bound by variables or conditions, such as hammer quality or climate. As pianos receive continuous use over time, the hammer felts actually begin to compress. This compression makes the hammers...

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Have you ever noticed how reverberant the sound of a concert grand piano is in a concert hall? The gleaming tone colors from the stage envelops the entire space, with an echo that is rich and full. This is due to hard, reflective flooring beneath the piano and careful acoustic engineering that amplifies the natural sound of the instrument in the hall; emphasizing the fundamental pitches and thinning out the overtones that, when too strong, create a harsh tone that is unpleasant to our ears. When considering an instrument for your home, workplace, or institution, it is paramount that the...

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