Try Tania Staite. She should have something for your needs. 020 8677 4422 or 020 8695 0555

Dear question...

Purchase or hire a piano from Markson pianos (www.marksonpianos.com, 5-8 Chester Court, Albany Street, NW1 4BU. Tel: 020 7935 8682. They are fantastic and will look after you with tuning etc. throughout. Reasonable, and you can put your finance towards owning the same piano if you hire over a long period of time, and your family love it enough to continue.

You will never have a problem with having a piano in a semi-detached home as long as you put your piano away from the party wall, and you don't play after midnight.

We have a piano and drum kit. In cities most are largely tolerant as long as you are reasonable.

Enjoy!

Best wishes

Emma (www.musichouseforchildren.co.uk)

Knightsbridge pianos in Parsons Green do rental with an option to buy
http://www.knightsbridgepiano.com/rental.htm

If you can fit a baby grand in you can borrow ours for a year or two....

If you have the piano pushed up against the party wall it will be heard quite clearly next door. If you want to reduce the impact on neighbours it would be best to have it against a non party wall. Our neighbours have a piano against the party wall. Unfortunately they play it until late at night sometimes and hearing someone practice their scales repetitively or play out of tune /the wrong notes isn't great. It can be heard clearly in our son's bedroom at night - we have to switch on recorded relaxing music to try and drown it out sometimes to help him get to sleep. It also drowns out our TV viewing unless we turn the volume up very loud on the TV which we don't want to do in the evenings when our son is sleeping above us! So basically, yes, it could annoy your neighbours if you are not considerate about it.

You'll find that you can pick up a second hand piano for not very much. The tricky bit is transporting it. There are companies that specialise in moving pianos - costs about £100 I think so you need to factor that into price. Pianos quite often come up for sale at Criterion Auctions (behind York Road - auctions every Monday). Good luck with searching. It's great having a piano - my kids are teaching themselves to play.

I'm glad to find out that people living in this particular proximate housing style have and play pianos!

I do have my heart set on an upright as opposed to an electrical keyboard despite the later being so much more convenient. Having grown up playing on a "real" piano I guess it's just hard to get an old dog to learn new tricks.

Buying something 2nd hand is a definite possibility. It all depends on quality, price and location!

Thanks for the responses.

I don't know where you would be able to rent pianos but would you consider buying one 2nd hand? One of my friends is selling hers as she didn't manage to engage her daughter playing. She doesn't live locally but let me know if this would be of interest.

To back up the previous post, I also have a digital piano and just love it. Having learnt on a traditional piano many years ago, I don't really see the difference with non digital ones (but I am not a very good pianist...). It is definitely great to have the flexibility to put the earphones on or not. Even my husband is grateful .

I bought a piano 2 years ago from Normans.co.uk- We live in a flat so I had the same concerns as you and bought a (digital) Yamaha Arius (similar to clavinovas perhaps less expensive). I must say that it sounds close enough to non-digital ones, we all love it it is probably the best item I've ever bought! with the advantage of being able to put the volume up or down or to plug in earphones at late night. Unless you're a professional or quite advanced in piano, it could be a bit irritating for a neighbour else to hear a piano learner rehearsing the same piece over and over...
The only problem was the delivery man was really moany when he saw a few steps...
Good luck and enjoy it, you won't regret

we live in a connected home and our neighbour piano is placed against the joining wall. he often plays in the evenings and I have to say I love it. We have a toddler but the music from that piano has never bothered me, I just enjoy it. He really is good pianist but he practises as well so sometimes repeating the same part over and over but it never ever annoys us.

I would personnally feel very sorry for you if you stop yourself from pkaying music because if your neighbours. Playing music for thr learner, the talented, the listener is such a joy!
Just make sure you dont play after 8.30-9pm or after 7.30pm if you know they have children. Now of course, if you are my neighbour and if you play like Beethoven or Eric Satie then please do play until 10pm

I have a two-fold question on pianos...

First, we'd like to rent an upright piano long term (1-2 years). Does anyone have a recommendation as to what company we should use for this service?

Secondly, never having lived in a connected home before, I have to ask if anyone who has a piano has ever had a complaint about the noise from the neighbours. We live with neighbours attached on both the east and west sides and although I can't hear much of them I do hear when radios or tvs are on loud. I would imagine they would be able to hear us when we play? Just trying to gage whether or not this would be too much of an annoyance to them before we start the process.

Thank you!