Grand pianos come in many different makes, types, and sizes. Grand pianos are considered to be better than upright pianos for two reasons. First, the bass strings are longer than in an upright piano: the tone of a piano depends mainly on the length of string, the longer the better. Second, the roller action found in modern grands gives a much better playing response than the best upright pianos’ vertical action. Concert grand pianos are over nine feet long. The sound they produce is very powerful. Some models even have an extra eight keys in the bass so they have ninety-six notes altogether (compared to the usual eighty-eight or eighty-five.)
Baby grands go down to four feet in length, but in our experience, these pianos are not a patch on a good upright. You can hear the difference in bass tone between a baby grand and a good upright in an auditorium.