Jeremy Kaplan
The piano is a magnificent musical instrument, and just listening to the soft or energetic sounds it can produce under the fingers of a talented musician can be enough to convince you that this is the instrument you want to learn, too.
However, there is quite an important issue to address here, and that is that a piano can take up a lot of space and is also very expensive. Not many people can afford to have such an instrument in their homes, and if you don’t know for sure that you will be willing to spend the next 10 or more years of your life dedicated to learning the piano, an excellent alternative to consider would be an electric keyboard.
Is the keyboard you intend to buy touch sensitive?
Some may argue against an electric keyboard, saying that it cannot replace a full-size piano. While this statement is true, it doesn’t mean that you cannot learn how to play the piano using a keyboard. One of the traits it should have, however, is touch sensitivity. What does this mean?
When you touch a key on the keyboard, you will produce a sound. Touch sensitivity means that the harder you will press, the louder the sound you will get. If you like these keyboards, you will be able to master such an instrument sooner than you think.
Get a full-size keyboard if you’re serious about learning the piano
At one point, if you are focused on learning this type of instrument, you can expect to transition to a full-size piano, and no alternative can help you in this endeavor better and the full-size keyboard. That means that your keyboard should have 88 keys, with 52 being white, and 36 being black.
If you are just a beginner, you can do with a smaller model, and you will not be expected to go over 61 keys in the musical pieces your instructor will teach you. However, if you want to get ready for the future and avoid other expenses at a later date, it is always recommended to get a full-size keyboard.
Are weighted keys important?
The way the keys of a piano are designed plays an essential role in how soft or loud they sound. Without going into details about the internal mechanisms of a piano, let us just say that this aspect is not exactly easy to reproduce with an electric keyboard.
However, the most reputable manufacturers of such instruments offer weighted keyboards which are, mainly, models that strive to imitate the same weighted feel of the keys in an acoustic piano.
Of course, not every keyboard you can find will be able to do this well, which is why you should focus on getting a model with positive reviews from users and made by a company with a long-standing reputation in creating musical instruments. This might take a bit of shopping around, but, in the end, it will be worth it.
