Pianos strike a digital comeback note

Businessman Manav Shah realised it was time he bought his son, Krish, an acoustic piano after he heard the eight-year-old playing “a bit of Mozart” on his digital keyboard. Krish, who had been taking lessons since he was five, was naturally overjoyed when a gleaming upright piano took centre stage in the Shahs’ drawing room.

“Many affluent people are known to buy the elegant instrument for furniture value, but a majority of them want their children to have a well-rounded musical education,” says Inderjeet Singh, who runs the Sai Nanak Music Academy at Navi Mumbai. He adds that while most budding musicians would rather opt for a guitar, the decision to buy a piano is mostly taken by parents or older amateur players.

The piano, which has a long history in the subcontinent — dating back to the start of the British empire in India, seems to be making a comeback in Mumbai homes despite the space crunch.

While music stores in the city get a bigger chunk of business from the sale of guitars (500 guitars for every piano sold), the popularity of digital and acoustic pianos seems to be rising regardless of the higher cost of the instrument.

“It is a slow process, but in the last few years we have seen a steady rise in the sales of upright pianos,” says Prashant Frank Pawar, business development manager at Bhargava’s Musik, a store dealing in musical instruments. It is the increasing demand that prompted them to open an exclusive Yamaha piano salon at Worli recently, he adds.

Furtados, one of the oldest music stores in the city, stocks pianos of several brands, price range and categories. An acoustic piano costs anything between Rs2 lakh and Rs1 crore. And in the last few years, the store is estimated to have sold more than 100 upright pianos annually to five-star hotels, corporate houses and households across the city. “While individual or amateur buyers prefer to go for the lower-end instruments, price is not a factor for professional players and business houses who will happily shell out lakhs of rupees for a good piano,” says Andheri-based pianist and music instructor Sammy Reuben.

Pawar points out the piano has always been associated with Christians, who were exposed to the instrument at church or in convent schools. “That’s not the case anymore as people across the barriers of language, region and economic strata are now taking interest in playing the piano,” he adds.