My 7-year-old daughter has recently started piano lessons. She’s had about 4 lessons so far, and she seems to like it and seems to be retaining stuff from one lesson to the next. I would like to support her by getting her something she can practice on at home – however, she is 7, and I don’t want to spend a ton of money on something that will gather dust if she loses interest – we don’t have any other piano players in the house.
So – I’m looking for recommendations. I’m assuming we get a keyboard instead of a piano. But what kind? I know that there are such things as “weighted-key” keyboards that supposedly feel more like pianos when you play them. Do they? Are they worth the expense? Am I better off getting a cheap keyboard now and springing for a more expensive one if she really takes to it, or is practicing on a cheap keyboard counterproductive?
Thanks in advance for any thoughts/recommendations!
Initially what you learn is reading music and where the notes are on the keyboard. Expect to hear stuff like “Mary Had a Little Lamb” and “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” hundreds of times (and one of the benefits of a keyboard: headphones). The subtleties of tone and timbre don’t really come into play for quite some time.
Pretty much anything out there now with real-sized keys is good for a kid. It was only back in the olden days when you’d get keyboards with no “touch” (i.e. no distinctions in volume, no matter how hard or soft you hit the keys) that I would recommend getting a fancy one.
The main thing I would worry about is this: definitely get a stand (and perhaps a pedal). Ideally, look into a stand that bolts onto the keyboard. They’re still easily removable if you need to go portable. But it’s very important to keep these things from being dropped. They’re even more fragile now than they used to be.
Weighted keys would actually help her develop finger strength, but keyboards with that feature are still rather expensive. Plus, if she does learn to play, it is quite likely that more than half her playing time will be on keyboards, anyways.
Long time piano player here - I learned on an old fashioned upright. Just so you know where I’m coming from.
If you’re getting a keyboard for a beginner I’d say the most important feature to look for is full size keys. Part of learning to play is learning to play by touch, without needing to look at the keys. You can’t do that unless the keyboards you’re using are all the same key size. You don’t need a full 8 octaves, or weighted keys, or a lot of other things as a beginner but you need a keyboard that won’t mess you up.
A cheap keyboard will allow her to practice finger patterns which will translate to better playing on a real piano (in the bad old days before electronic keyboards people did this by practicing the motions on paper representations of keyboards, which of course produced no sound, but having the sound as feedback is very helpful). If she maintains interest and keeps with it then discuss getting a more advanced/elaborate keyboard.
Personally, I’ve developed a great fondness for my electric piano. While there are some aspects of an acoustic I still miss, never having to tune it, and having it take up MUCH less space, are great advantages. I will also note that my electric piano is not cheap, it’s a professional-level keyboard with a full 88 keys, pedals, and various other features. At 110 pounds it’s not exactly what I’d call portable, but it is certainly lighter and easier to move than an acoustic. I wouldn’t recommend getting something that elaborate unless this becomes something she is really dedicated to.
(By the way - I started at the age of 6. I’m not a great pianist, but it’s a hobby I expect to enjoy for the rest of my life, or at least as long as my hands work well enough to let me play.)
If she has no evident talent and only ordinary interest, the advice about a modestly priced keyboard with full-size keys is appropriate.
If she has (or a competent teacher says she has) better than average potential or a real gift… **rent **a decent-quality upright. That straddles the line between investing too much in a casual childhood interest and stifling genuine potential. This is the advice of a conservatory-trained, upper-quality piano teacher with a great deal of experience.
There is nothing worse than giving someone with potential and real interest a toy instrument, or dime-store paints, or a leatherette baseball glove. There is no substitute for the real thing, even from Method Book #1.
A lot of people take lessons for a while, then quit.
Which means there are a lot of lightly-used, modestly-priced second-hand keyboards out there …
Japanese manufacturers seem to put up on their websites every manual they ever printed, in dozens of languages. I easily found one for a decades-old thrift shop goodie that my mother bought (and happily played).
And I second the advice about full-size keys and a well-anchored stand.
My son started piano maybe a year and a half ago, and so I took him up to Best Buy and we tried various keyboards (partially because I wanted him to buy into whatever we bought).
We settled on one that had full-size keys and that was “touch sensitive”, meaning not fully weighted, but with some resistance. It ran around $130 IIRC, so not cheap, but not the price of an electric or real piano.
Yeah, I was going to say go to Best Buy. . . or even Target now carries some relatively decent keyboards. . . and even Casio makes some these days that are pretty well respected and should last you guys a good while.
They might be spendy for your situation, but you might want to take a look at the Casio privia line. My criteria was 88 keys, weighted action or reasonable facsimile thereof, pedals, not too expensive, and my little girls can play it without me having to watch them like a hawk like I do when they pick up one of my guitars. I play it a bit, too, so that’s where our situations differ.
The one I have has a bunch of prerecorded classics (plus the music for them is included - major bonus!), a bunch of different sounds that they can have fun with, 2 headphone jacks, midi, rudimentary sequencer and rhythm machine, and of course the all-important volume knob. I think it was $400-500 a few years ago.
All of our kids were allowed to play the piano and the guitar as soon as they were big enough to reach/hold it. All six are competent to gifted musicians now.
I don’t think anything - anything - can contribute more to development of a budding musician, or even a well-rounded person. If you’re serious about their musical future, give them the real thing and let them do what they want with it, ear and breakage limits aside.
ETA: I don’t think digital pianos with built-in beats, tunes and helpers are half as valuable in this regard. It makes music into a meaningless activity on a toy.
We got a Casio from Costco Online, I’m not sure if it’s a Privia (I’m at work right now) but it’s just like what you described. Weighted keys, like 700 different sounds (kids love to play with these), rhythms, pre-recorded songs, record your own songs, pretty much everything we could possibly want. It came with a stand and a (kind of cheap-looking) stool. I think it was $399 on sale, and I’m in Canada so it’s probably cheaper where you are.
I am extremely pleased with it and how much I paid for it. I shopped around a bit and could have easily paid twice as much for a piano with fewer features.
I did read some minor complaints about the sound quality of this model but unless you’re a professional concert pianist or some kind of $300 gold cable audiophile I’m pretty sure you’re not going to notice anything wrong with it. It sounds great to me.
I’m not sure how much you were hoping to spend but just a thought: rather than go super cheap because it’s just going to be for your 7 year old, why not spend a little more on something decent and learn how to play yourself? Learning to play it a little bit, alongside my 8 year old, has been great!
That’s a good point. I had one of those floating around from before parenthood, and the kids (when they were little) did more playing with the buttons than anything else.
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I don’t think anything - anything - can contribute more to development of a budding musician, or even a well-rounded person. If you’re serious about their musical future, give them the real thing and let them do what they want with it, ear and breakage limits aside.
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As much as I’d like a real piano it’s just not in the cards, given our living situation (very small apartment).
Just make damn sure it has a headphone jack and the external speakers can be turned off, so she can practice, be as bad as she might be (or as good), without driving the rest of the household nuts.
If you adopt, have a piano tuner assist you in deciding which one to get, just as you would have a mechanic assist you in deciding which used car to get.
The problem is that if they have a small apartment then the size of even a small “real” (by which I assume you mean acoustic) piano may be prohibitive.
I think it was $400-500 a few years ago.