Choosing the Right Gear
Need some help choosing the right instrument for your needs? Check out our recommendations for purchasing or renting gear.
Keyboard Recommendations
You don’t need anything super fancy to get started! It’s best to begin with a keyboard before investing in a traditional piano.
Recommended Brands
We prefer keyboards made by Yamaha, Casio, or Roland.
Details to Consider
You don’t need 88 keys; 60+ keys will work! However, if you’re spending more than $300, select an option with 88 keys. Make sure that the keys are weighted so it will feel more like a traditional piano.
Buying Locally in seattle
We love American Music in Fremont. They have an excellent keyboard selection and their staff is very knowledgeable.
Buying Online
The Yamaha P45B Digital Piano is a great keyboard that many adults choose to purchase instead of a wood piano.
The Casio LK175 61-Key Lighted Key Personal Keyboard is a great option for beginners as it provides visual feedback as you’re learning to play.
Guitar Recommendations
If you’d like to purchase a guitar, you can visit one of the following local shops to get some great advice from their experts:
For younger students, Taylor Guitars’ Baby Taylor is a good choice.
Music Stand Recommendations
We recommend the Manhasset Model #48 Sheet Music Stand.
Instrument Rental
Renting from Off the Wall
We rent a variety of instruments to help you on your musical journey.
Keyboards
- 61-key keyboard: $15/month
- 88-key keyboard: $40/month
Drums
- Acoustic drum set: $30/month
- Kid-sized acoustic drum set: $25/month
- Electric drum set: $25/month
Guitars
- Acoustic for adults: $18/month
- 3/4 Acoustic for kids: $15/month
Please contact us to learn more about availability, setup your monthly rental, and schedule a pick-up or delivery.
Practice Room Rental
Piano & Drum rooms are available for rent when they are not in use for lessons.
- Upright Piano Room – $15/hr [contact us to schedule]
- Grand Piano Room – $17/hr [schedule now]
- Drum Room – $15/hr [schedule now]
Renting from the Community
Here are the recommended companies who rent instruments that we don’t currently offer.
Brass & Woodwind Rental
If you’re brand new to brass or woodwind instruments, it does take a bit of time and patience to get the hang of them.
Instead of purchasing a new trumpet or saxophone, we suggest that you rent one first from local Wallingford shop Seattle Sound Repair.
We also have clean mouthpieces for the clarinet, trumpet, alto sax and tenor sax at the school; that way, you can try out your teacher’s instrument during your first lesson to determine if it’s the right one for you.
Traditional Piano Rental
If you’d like to learn how to play on an upright or grand piano instead of a keyboard, you don’t have to purchase a piano outright.
A-1 Pianos offers piano rentals for as little as $25/month — and they even have a rent-to-own option.
Violin Rental
Our violin teachers recommend the following businesses for renting a violin:
- Lasley Violins
- Ted Brown Music (formerly Capitol Music)
- Bischopfberger Violins Ltd
- Olsen Violins
- Kennelly Keys
Instrument Care & Maintenance Tips
Piano Tuning
On Site Tuner
We recommend Hak Bo Lee – 206-226-4941.
He’s generally flexible with his rate depending on the size of the tuning job. Mention that you’re a student at Off the Wall and he’ll give you a discount!
Tuning it Yourself
Learning how to tune a piano is very useful — often, only a couple of notes will be out of tune and it’s not convenient or cost effective to have a tuner come out to tune the whole piano.