My wife expressed a desire to learn the piano. She played trumpet in high school (many many moons ago), so she has some musical ability. I’d like to surprise her on her upcoming birthday with…well, not sure what, that’s why I’m here.
What would be the best approach?
Buy a piano. NOTE - this is not feasible
Buy her lessons
Buy a digital musical keyboard thingy (not sure what they are called)
I’m leaning towards #3, partially because I’d like to learn myself as well.
So, the opinions wanted are
a) what’s the best approach
b) if we go for the “digital musical keyboard thingy”, what’s a good product?
I’d encourage you to buy her both lessons and a keyboard thing-y. I have no specific insights into the keyboard thing-y which you should buy, I just think that the utility of either lessons or the keyboard will be enhanced by the acquisition of the other. The lessons will benefit from a keyboard to practice on, and the keyboard will benefit from an instructor to say “You know, You’d learn faster if you’d practice once in a while” (Or “Um, you are doing this wrong”)
I wouldn’t buy a lot of lessons–but I’d at least give her a gift certificate for lessons (homemade is fine) or some help locating a suitable lesson-giver.
The lessons are an excellent idea - not sure what part of Connecticut you’re in, but there are a few music schools at universities there, and a master’s student can work out quite nicely as a teacher.
Getting an instrument is a really good idea. As far as digital keyboards go, I like the weight and feel of the Yamahas. Rolands are also quite good; I just don’t like the ‘action’ (weight and feel of the keys under the fingers) as much. I now have a Yamaha CP300 (CAN $2,800) which works well. It has the built in speakers, so an amp is not a requirement. There are smaller models, like the CP80, that are more portable (calling the CP300 portable is like calling one of those old 22 inch TVs portable. It might have had a handle on it, but that’s about where the portability ends.) but they require amps. The CP 140 (CAN $1,380) is cheaper and has the built in speakers.
If you don’t require portability at all, the Yamaha Clavinova may be the sort of thing you’re after. I don’t have any prices handy, but the last I looked into one, it was around the $1,000 range in Canada.
In this economy, you may want to consider looking for a real piano as well. Do you rule it out because of cost, or because of size? A full 88-key instrument is about 60 inches wide, and that’s all there is to it. Uprights, especially apartment uprights, aren’t very large - in fact, most people’s ‘home theatre’ units take up more space than a piano would. If you’re willing to look through the classifieds, you may well find an upright piano for less than a thousand dollars. For various reasons, dealers are probably still selling for more - it’s not like the technology on an acoustic piano is any more obsolete now than it was when they paid for it. Anyway, keep it under consideration.
I’ll second the recommendation of Yamaha if you’re looking at electronic instruments. The difference between them and cheapies is like playing on a real piano vs trying to play on a typewriter - the tactile sensation is a pretty important part of playing.
As for real pianos, deals are out there. About a year and a half ago, we bought an older spinet from a local dealer for $600. It’s not a gorgeous showpiece, but compared to pianos on craigslist, we knew that this one had been at least glancingly gone over by a technician and tuned to A440. (We’d run across all sorts of sad pianos being sold by people where it was obvious that the poor thing had been untouched in years, or that looked like someone tried DIY piano moving and dropped it.)
I’ve got the Yamaha DGX220 and I love it. I have no idea how in the hell to use 90% of the bells and whistles but that’s half the fun! Just browsing around it looks like it’s discontinued but it might give you an idea about what to look for
I would suggest a digital piano instead of a keyboard. I bought this piano from Yamaha. It has weighted keys and feels (and sounds) exactly like a real piano, which will be important as she takes lessons.
There are some decent digital pianos that aren’t $2000+ and have decent key action - some of them are Yahamas. And for starting out, I wouldn’t invest in a really great digital piano new - until you know that you are going to enjoy playing it enough to justify the expense. A cheaper used digital piano (but still a decent quality one that has good action) and lessons - then purchase an expensive digital piano later if she enjoys playing.
I wouldn’t at this point replace my beautiful 120 year old upright when it goes (which it will) with anything other than a digital piano.
My brother is currently teaching himself. He plays vibes, so he’s got some background. He works at the Salvation Army and picked up an electronic keyboard for next to nothing. I suggest you check on ebay and Craigslist. You might be able to come up with something that is suitable.
