The size of the piano really is more important than what it’s called, although how the piano performs and how well it is built is going to determine how much you will enjoy your piano, how long it will last, and how much value you get from your investment. Most homes do well with a baby grand piano through full grand size. Theaters and larger churches usually do fine with a semi-concert grand. Concert halls that seat over 1,000 people have plenty of room and they require the power and volume of a concert grand. Pianos are designed to sound good in the room they’ll be played in. Legend has it that ‘S’ means ‘small.’īaby grand piano has pretty always meant “our smallest piano that sounds good” while Petite grand piano, or miniature, means “our smallest piano.” The 5’1 Model S also holds the distinction of being the Steinway & Sons piano to have only ever been produced in one size.
This means the Model S has held the baby grand title for longer than any other piano in history. Because almost nobody has a parlor anymore – the Model A is now considered a recital grand. The Model M took over the baby grand moniker in 1927 before finally handing the title over to the Model S in 1935. In 1916, Steinway & Sons began calling their 5’10 Model O the baby grand because it was smaller than the Model A, which they then began calling a Parlor Grand. The modern version of this piano is only two inches longer, but because modern baby grand pianos can perform like a 6′ piano did a century ago, we now call 6′ pianos recital grands. And yes, it does follow suit that today’s best designed 6′ pianos can outperform yesteryear’s 7′ pianos and 7′ pianos can outperform 9′ pianos from the past.Īs Steinway developed the modern grand piano to keep up with demand, they kept finding ways to make it work really well in a smaller cabinet. The world’s first baby grand piano was the Steinway & Sons Model A, invented in 1905, that settled in at 6′ long – nearly a foot longer than a baby grand piano today. Because of that, the scale shrunk and the names changed.
Similar to how cell phones have changed, the performance of smaller pianos has shown the most dramatic improvement. During that time, pianos became more dynamic, shorter, and began to last longer than a few years. The instrument we know today as the piano developed between the late 1860’s and the mid-1960’s. The first pianofortes had fewer keys, fewer strings, and lacked iron plates. Piano technology has changed a lot over the centuries. Semi-Concert Grand Pianos – 6’10” to almost 9′Ĭoncert Grand Pianos – anything over 8’10” Petite Grand Pianos are shorter than 4′ 11″ (sometimes called miniature)Ĭlassic or Medium Grand Pianos – 5’2″ to 5’8″ From baby grand to concert grand, pianos have been built in virtually every size over the past three hundred years, ranging from around 4 1/2′ to 10′ long.
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