Does anyone have any insights into buying a musical keyboard? My sister is asking me because I play the piano, but I’m clueless.
The niece is 18. She plays the violin but has little experience with keyboard or piano, so we’re probably not looking for top of the line.
One that’s available locally is the Casio LK-90TV which is described here.
Is a keyboard like this too cheap to be any good? Do you get what you pay for? Are there features this lacks that are important? Help!
Guitarist here, but I keep threatening to get a keyboard for my kids and have done research with my pro KB playing friends.
the biggest priority is to get one that is Touch Dynamic, preferably with weighted keys. In other words, it plays louder when you hit a key harder, and has a feel more like a true piano vs. a rinky-dink plastic synth. Every player I talked with talked about this first.
Apparently it should have 60+ keys, so you can approximate an 88-key for most songs.
Some folks liked those “teach yourself” features like light-up keys that help you learn songs, but not at the expense of touch dynamic…
Just a start…
Best of luck!
Nah, keyboards have advanced so much that even the cheap ones sound pretty decent these days. For consumer-level keyboards, you’re basically looking at Casio and Yamaha. You’ll basically get what you pay for up to about the $400 range – more features and better sounds – but you should basically just go with what you like. I think the Yamahas sound more pleasant and not as toy-like, but that is just my opinion.
About four years ago, I got rid of my regular piano and bought a KAWAI ES1. I have been extremely happy with it as a total replacement. It has the weighted notes and a pedal with 88 keys. It allows you to choose from several instruments including grand piano, modern piano and electric piano. You can choose to play two instrument sounds at the same time. (Strings and grand piano are really nice on Adagio for Strings, for example, and vibes are good with all sorts of things for jazz pieces.
There are some ways to modulate the sounds and a way to record two tracks.
There is no rhythm section, but there is a metronome.
One feature that my husband appreciates is that I can plug in earphones and play to my heart’s content while he watches TV or reads.
I paid around $1300 with the stand when I got it, but I’m certain that it would be less now or you could get it with more features. It has been worth much, much more to me than that. It sounds so good that I forget that I am the one making those fantastic sounds!
If you want one that sounds and feels like a real piano, this is a good buy.