Get the best start with a Kawai piano

When beginning your journey on the piano or perhaps returning after some years away from it, an instrument to inspire and encourage you is essential. For almost 100 years, Kawai, founded in 1927, has been inspiring beginners and professional performers alike with its range of superbly crafted acoustic and digital pianos – instruments that blend advanced technologies and materials with traditional processes to provide consistency of tone, a reliable and responsive action and features that expand the pianist’s musical horizons.

 

Established expertise

 

Koichi Kawai founded his eponymous piano company in 1927, inspired by a dream to build the world’s finest pianos. By the 1950s, his craftsmen and women were producing 1500 high-quality pianos a year and establishing the foundations of excellence and dedication that characterise every aspect of Kawai today.  

 

The firm’s original name, the Kawai Musical Instrument Research Laboratory, was appropriate since from the very beginning, Kawai has embraced research and innovation, never once fearing the future. Always searching for new materials and technologies that can improve the tone, touch, stability or durability of a piano, Kawai has pioneered many of the piano industry’s most compelling and beneficial innovations including aluminium action rails, slow-close fallboards, hard finish music desks and the revolutionary use of ABS composites and carbon fibre in piano actions. 

The company’s passion for innovation also extends to electronics: Kawai created the industry’s first digital pianos with real wooden keys, the first action designs that re-create the natural movement and motion of an acoustic piano action, the first affordable digital pianos with real wooden soundboards, and soundboard speaker systems offering the concert grand piano experience at home.

 

 

The perfect piano for you

 

Grand, upright, digital or hybrid – there’s a Kawai piano boasting a high level of performance and at a price to suit every taste and pocket.

 

For beginners and re-learners cautious about investing too much, Kawai’s latest digital piano, the ES 60, is a new and reassuringly affordable instrument with the sound and touch of a quality piano. Portable, feature-packed and graced with the full expressive tone of the Shigeru Kawai SK-EX concert grand piano, it delivers a rich and clear sound for an inspiring playing experience, enhanced by the fitment of Kawai’s new Responsive Hammer Lite keyboard action with graded hammers for a natural feel. 

 

 

Kawai's latest digital, the ES 60

 

For those looking to start their musical journey on an acoustic piano, there is Kawai’s premium upright piano range. It includes the surprisingly affordable K-200 featuring the brand’s much-admired Millennium III ABS-Carbon action. Combining modern material science with innovative new design, the action is incredibly sturdy and rigid, allowing the parts to be lighter. The result is an enviable touch and consistency while the material itself requires less maintenance.   

 

A grand piano could be considered out of reach for many but once again Kawai confounds expectations with the popular GL-10, an affordable grand piano boasting an impressive specification that includes not only Kawai’s strong but responsive Millennium III ABS-Carbon action but also longer key sticks for greater control, a wide dynamic range, a richly resonant soundboard and superb build quality.

 

 

The affordable GL-10 grand piano

 

The sound and touch of an acoustic

 

An acoustic piano is a wonderful instrument to own and to play. However, perhaps for reasons of space or price, or a desire to explore the additional features they offer, a digital piano may be the more appropriate choice. Fortunately, when it comes to a Kawai digital piano, it’s a choice the beginner or re-learner (as well as more advanced pianists, all the way to professional) can make without compromise.

 

As a renowned manufacturer of premium concert-grand pianos, Kawai has dedicated decades to researching and developing the fine nuances in touch and tone that have led many of the world’s finest institutions and concert halls to choose its acoustic pianos. Taking that experience and applying it to its range of digital pianos has resulted in instruments whose touch and responses are uncannily like those of an acoustic piano. I’ve mentioned the ES 60 with its Response Hammer Lite keyboard action, but elsewhere in Kawai’s digital range are the KDP and CN series of instruments with their equally authentic actions and Shigeru Kawai SK-EX grand piano sound.

 

 

The art of innovation

 

The piano may be more than 300 years old but for Kawai, that’s no reason to be bound by years of tradition. Kawai deeply respects that tradition, of course, but adopting new technologies for the benefit of pianists, new or experienced, is one of its chief, guiding principles.

 

Accordingly, Kawai pianos are fitted with the latest technology to assist with the pianist’s control and enjoyment of their instrument. Some digital models feature an easy-to-use touchscreen and mobile app functionality giving quick access to favourite songs and settings. Kawai believes playing the piano should be an intuitive experience, so is careful to integrate these features in order to always make them an aid to the pianist’s progress and enjoyment.

 

 

Take your first steps... in private!

 

Naturally, learning to play the piano is a painstaking process, one requiring slow and methodical practice and, inevitably, producing the occasional wrong note! Few things are worse for the beginner or re-learner than disturbing others or being aware of them hearing those first, tentative steps.

 

Fortunately, Kawai has the solution in the form of two remarkable technologies: AnyTime (ATX) and AURES. Fitted to its most popular acoustic upright and grand pianos, with this technology the pianist has the freedom to play their beloved instrument at any time, day or night, without disturbing others. Using it, they can even record their performances digitally to a computer or portable device for playback and review, making both systems a great learning tool. 

 

 

Attention and aftercare

For Kawai, caring for its customers begins at the manufacturing stage when its craftsmen and women produce and assemble the pianos with the greatest care and attention to detail. This focus extends beyond the workshops to Kawai’s distribution centres where all instruments are checked and prepared for their new owners by trained technicians prior to their despatch to Kawai’s expert retailers.

Those same retailers ensure customers receive the information they need to make an informed purchase. Once they’ve made their decision, dependable aftersales support and Kawai’s long warranties (10 years for acoustic pianos and up to five years for digital models) ensure customers can enjoy their new instrument now and long into the future. 

 

Main image: The Kawai GL-30 ATX4

 

Find your nearest dealer and discover Kawai digital pianos for yourself.