It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Subscribe to our Patreon, and get image uploads with no ads on the site!
Base theme by DesignModo & ported to Powered by Vanilla by Chris Ireland, modified by the "theFB" team.
Comments
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Most keyboards have pressure-senstive keys nowadays but aren't weighted so playing the keyboard is a very different feeling to playing a digital piano.
I agree with the Yamaha P-series recommendation. The keys are very well weighted - with the high ones lighter than the low ones like a real piano. Most of them have midi out as well I think; my P60 certainly does.
A standard full piano keyboard has 88 keys.
Before I got my acoustic piano, I was using a semi-weighted MIDI controller keyboard, and it felt crap. A proper piano-weighted board feels right - much easier to play with the dynamics.
It's worth doing some research on where the digital piano technology is currently at. There are a few key features that help to make it feel more like a real one, and when I was looking a few years ago, the dearer digitals had more of the features. A few things to consider are...
Graded hammer action. On a real one, the higher pitched keys have a lighter action, and the lower keys a heavier action.
Polyphany. You can, generally, only press 10 keys, but if you use the sustain pedal, notes that you've released will continue to sound, and that can add up to a lot of notes if you keep the pedal pressed down for a long time. (A good piano will sustain for ages.)
Sympathetic harmonics. On a real piano, when you play with the sustain pedal, all of the notes are undamped (normally, there's a felt damper against each string). Playing notes results in other strings producing sympathetic vibrations (even if they haven't been hit and released - silent strings will start to vibrate).
Better speaker system. When I was looking, I found that the cheaper ones didn't sound particularly special. It wasn't until I got to a 2.4K Yamaha Clavinova with a multi-way speaker system that I was impressed with it's room-filling and realistic sound.
MIDI. Damn useful, both for recording the player, and for playing pieces through the piano without having to faff with those paper roll things.
Other sounds. Of debatable value, depending one what one wants to do with it. There are other piano sounds (like Fender Rhodes) that can sound really nice and still feel right on a piano keyboard, but some sounds don't feel right - like organ, for example.
I did my piano shopping about 7 years ago, and I would expect the technology to have moved on since then. After hearing the dearer Yamaha, I went off to look at acoustics and ended getting a used one for about half the price of the Yam. Out of about 10 pianos I tried in the used piano shop, a 2.4K Yam acoustic was nice, and so was the Rossler Rigoletto (east European) that I chose. Those were the only two that sang for me - everything else felt a bit bland.
I would strongly recommend that you take Mrs MD to the piano shop, park her in front of as many different models as you can and let her play around. It's just like buying a guitar - you have to take your time, get settled in, absorb the sound and feel. The one she keeps going back to is probably the one to get.
Nomad
Nobody loves me but my mother... and she could be jivin' too...
Hopefully I'll have the funds to buy something in the new year for my daughter to learn on.
As I understand it, it's for playing at home. That aside, so far as I'm aware, all 88-key keyboards are piano keyboards (whether stage pianos on stands or the piece-of-furniture style).
Trying to play piano on a synth-style keyboard is crap - I thought it would be okay but ended up getting the proper thing, and it made a world of difference. The key weighting is an intrinsic part of the instrument.
I would also question whether some multi-purpose synth-style setup will produce a piano sound that's conducive to learning piano. If you wanted to learn classical guitar, you wouldn't buy an electric and a pile of effects in the hope that the compromised feel and sound will lead to you learning classical.
Nomad
Nobody loves me but my mother... and she could be jivin' too...
electric proddy probe machine
My trading feedback thread
That's exactly why I got the P-35 - my daughter is learning piano and the non-weighted PSR just wasn't good enough even for basic practice.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
The stage piano ones should be easy enough for two people to move around the house, even if it's on the stand made of wooden panels (which, @Adam_MD, looks to be much better than those grotty X-frame things - better room for the feet and pedals).
For proper ballache, try 200+ kilos of acoustic upright.
Nomad
Nobody loves me but my mother... and she could be jivin' too...
http://www.reddogmusic.co.uk/catalog/keyboards-and-modules/digital-pianos?utm_source=Red+Dog+Music&utm_campaign=493c22d553-xmas+synth+&+key+special&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_3dce5edb4c-493c22d553-98983964
Remember, it's easier to criticise than create!