March 16, 2010 Choosing the best Piano or Keyboard for Your Child
I teach children and adults piano and keyboard. One of the question I am often asked is “what kind of piano or keyboard should I buy?”. So I’ve decided to dedicate this post to answering this question.
For clarification purposes, let’s quickly describe each:
Acoustic Piano:
According to wikipedia, an acoustic piano has been around since late 16th century. Modern pianos have 88 full-size keys and use a mechanical system. This means when a key on the piano is played, it causes a felt-covered hammer to strike steel strings. The hammers rebound, allowing the strings to continue vibrating at their resonant frequency. These vibrations are transmitted through a bridge to a sounding board that couples the acoustic energy to the air so that it can be heard as sound. There are various types of acoustic piano including grand, baby grand, studio, upright etc.
Electric Piano/Digital Piano:
Electric piano or digital pianos are electronic devices which utilizes sound chips and speakers to reproduce piano sounds. Depending on the size of the electronic piano, they could have full 88 keys or less. Older electronic and digital piano reproduces poor piano sounds, but improvement in sampling technology, some electric/digital pianos sound and feel like a acoustic piano.
Portable Electronic Keyboard:
Portable electronic keyboards come in various sizes, but the most popular are full size, 61-keys keyboard. Portable electronic keyboards usually have many built-in sounds and rhythms but keys are non-weighted, plastic keys.
Advantages of Acoustic Piano:
- Greater aesthetic
- Deeper more richer sound which provides plenty of inspiration
- Full weighted keyboard with 88 keys
- Quality piano last for decades
Advantages of Electric/Digital Piano:
- Does not require tuning
- Uses less space and can me moved easily
- Built-in different types of piano sounds
- Headphones to practice privately
- Some have rhythm section providing excellent accompaniment for practice
Advantages of Portable Electronic Keyboard:
- Cheap
- Portable, most can operate with batteries
- Good beginner instrument
- Some provide good sound when connected to external speaker system
Depending your budget, goal and situation, chose the category that best suits you based on the advantages outlined above. This should help you decide on choosing the best piano/keyboard.
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