If you don’t already have a piano, choosing one should be a fun experience that the whole family can get involved in. However, until you’ve tried your hand at playing for a little while I don’t recommend spending too much money! A second-hand piano will be fine at first, as long as the action is in good working order.

It’s often sensible to take a piano tuner with you, to check over any instrument that you’re considering buying. Here is a short glossary of piano terms; I hope the definitions will prove helpful if you are planning to buy an instrument. When you’ve read it, you’ll be ready to try out my Piano Parts word search!

You might also want to explore the option of renting a piano: for a small monthly fee, you can enjoy the use of a really rather nice instrument. In many cases the rental fees will be deducted from the purchase price, should you decide to keep it at a later date.

Finally, there are digital pianos and keyboards. These instruments have many advantages: they require no tuning or maintenance, can easily be moved from place to place and have lots of ‘bells and whistles’ that you can have fun with (sometimes literally, but really I meant recording and playback functions!). They are also often very reasonably priced, though neither can truly capture the touch or tone of an acoustic instrument.