Why You Need Insurance for Your Keyboard

The most common things we think of when it comes to insuring something are our health and our automobiles. 

You know how insurance works; you pay a monthly fee and have a specific financial "covering" for any damage done to what's insured - say your car. It's great to have even if it is annoying to have to pay for, and anyone who's ever needed it has felt this way. 

But...we don't always think about insuring our pianos and instruments! I think that it's because we feel our instruments are protected in our homes and won't be in harm's way. Maybe we're renting and feel like we can't afford renter's insurance. It's just not something that comes up in "non-musician" types of conversations. 

Let's rethink that a bit though. There are actually many things that can happen to your instrument even if it stays in your personal residence only. For example:

• A tree can fall onto your house and damage your piano along with the house. (This just happened to me although my instrument wasn't damaged, thankfully!)
• There could be a fire - what if it happens when you aren't at home?
• Theft is one of the biggest things musicians use insurance for, especially if you have a portable keyboard and/or other equipment that you use when you are out gigging. Worst nightmare: having all of your gig stuff in the car and running into the store to grab something really quickly and returning to your car to find everything gone! It happens!
• Your car can even be stolen with all of your equipment in it.
  
• Your instrument can be damaged while you are out playing a gig. One time a drunken fellow literally stepped in the middle of the cello of one of the quartet members and destroyed it...and didn't want to pay for the damage! (Your insurance company would fight this one for you.)

Whether you rent or own, take your instrument with you or leave it at home, live in a house or an apartment, you need to look at protecting your instrument from theft, damage from weather events, damage from others, and any other thing that can cause damage to your keyboard. 

In the next blog post we're going to look at different options for insuring your instrument and which type might fit best for your personal situation. You may already have insurance through your renters or home owner's policy and may just need to tweak that a bit with your agent. 

• Why don't you take time this week to write down all the important info about your piano: make, model, year it was made, the cost when you bought it; and include any other items that you use regularly with your piano, including your music.
  
• If you already have some type of coverage through a renter/home owner's policy, double check to see what exactly your coverage is and what isn't covered and how much coverage is provided - especially if you need a full replacement of your piano. 
• Feel free to post any questions you'd like answered in the next blog about where you can find the best insurance for your piano. 

Stay Tuned to pianolessonsontheweb.com to learn much more and achieve your dream of playing the piano!