Thinking of giving a piano this Christmas? What to consider first: space, sound, digital vs acoustic, lessons, and delivery timing, from Cunningham Piano in King of Prussia.
Short answer: yes, and it may be the gift your family is still enjoying twenty years from now. A piano is not a gadget that gets replaced in two years. It is furniture, an instrument, and a daily invitation to make music, all in one. Here is how to choose the right one for the people you love.
The three gifts a piano can be
A child's first instrument. If your child has been asking for lessons, or keeps gravitating to every piano they see, a real piano at home changes everything. Practice stops being a weekly appointment and becomes part of the house. Research on music training and children's developing brains is genuinely encouraging, and any teacher will tell you the simplest truth: kids practice more when the instrument is right there.
A piano for the whole family. Plenty of our customers are adults returning to the piano after twenty years away, or starting for the first time. A good piano in the living room gets played by everyone, and it has a way of pulling people off their phones and into the same room.
The piano that plays itself. This may be the perfect gift for someone who does not play the piano at all. A Yamaha Disklavier is a real acoustic piano that performs by itself: thousands of performances you can call up in your own living room, including exclusive performances recorded for the Disklavier by artists like Elton John, Sarah McLachlan, Bob James, and Jamie Cullum, played live on the piano in your room. It fills a holiday party with real piano music, no pianist required, and it also plays silently through headphones when the house is asleep. And its recording feature is something special: it captures a player's actual hand and finger strokes on the keys, so a performance can be played back on the piano itself, note for note, exactly as it was played. Students use it to learn from their own playing, and families use it to preserve something priceless, a grandparent at the keyboard, a child's first recital piece, kept forever and heard again on a real piano. It is the most magical thing we sell, and it is worth a visit just to hear one.
What to consider before you buy
Space. An upright takes about the footprint of a small bookcase. A digital piano needs even less, and a grand needs a room that can give it roughly five feet of length. Measure first, then come play.
Sound. Worried about practice noise? Digital pianos and Yamaha's hybrid and Silent models let you play with headphones any hour of the day. Acoustic pianos can also be fitted with systems that do the same. Noise is a solvable problem, not a reason to skip the gift.
Who will play, and who will teach? A piano plus a teacher is the complete gift. Our Cunningham Music School offers lessons for children and adults, and a first month of lessons tucked into the stocking turns a big box into a running start.
Delivery timing. A piano is not a parcel. It is delivered, placed, and set up by people who do it every day, and the calendar fills up as Christmas approaches. If you want it in place for Christmas morning, come in early and reserve your delivery date.
Make it an experience, too
Pair the piano with a night out: tickets to First Fridays at Cunningham Hall, our monthly concert series in the same building, make an easy companion gift. A concert and a piano together say this gift is about a life with more music in it, not just a purchase.
The holiday offer
Through January 4, 2027, qualifying new Yamaha pianos carry 0% APR financing for 24 months, which makes the gift easier to give this year. Come in and we will walk you through the Yamaha pianos it applies to.
*Additional terms apply. Subject to credit approval. Financing by Piano Credit Company, a Division of United Midwest Savings Bank, N.A. 0% APR for 24 months on qualifying purchases October 29, 2026–January 4, 2027, $41.67/month per $1,000 financed (may vary). At participating, authorized Yamaha dealers only. Select, new piano models–subject to availability. See retailer for details.
Come play before you decide
Cunningham Piano has been helping Philadelphia families choose pianos since 1891. Our King of Prussia showroom at 450 S. Henderson Road has the Yamaha Experience Room, where you can compare acoustic, digital, hybrid, and Disklavier pianos side by side, with people who will give you straight answers. We are open Tuesday through Saturday, 11 to 6, and Sunday, 1 to 5. Call us at 215-991-0850, or just come in and play.