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What is the best digital piano for beginners? Selecting a piano is a matter of personal choice. What sounds, touch, feel, design, and price suit your needs?
One of the first questions for a new piano student is what type of piano to buy. Should it be an electronic or acoustic instrument?
Your budget plays an important role, of course. But it's also important to consider what you need most as a pianist, as a possibility to practice with headphones, and how much maintenance you are willing to do.
A digital piano is a type of electronic keyboard. It's "imitating" a regular acoustic upright or grand piano, but it's both smaller and lighter. Digital pianos are constantly being improved and should be seriously compared with acoustic pianos as a great alternative.
The digital piano has developed enormously over the years and has become a good instrument both in quality and sound. The best digital piano has full-sized keys, and all 88 of them as well. You can play loud and soft (called "touch-sensitive") on the weighted keys, and it has pedals like a "normal" piano.
However, digital pianos and electronic piano keyboards are getting harder to tell apart. The quality is getting better all the time, though. So, why would you choose a digital or electronic piano and not an acoustic instrument? Let's look at some of the pros and cons:
The advantages of a digital piano compared to an acoustic piano are many, for example:
So what are the disadvantages?
The best digital piano for starting piano lessons, should at the minimum, have
Below, I have handpicked what I consider a great choice of digital pianos, including all the above, perfect for learning to play the piano. This list is not in any particular order.
I have selected the pianos from 3 well-known brands: Yamaha (It's the brand I have chosen for all my pianos, acoustic and digital), Casio, and Roland.
So, have you decided yet? Acoustic or electric? Grand or upright? New or old? I will make it even harder for you!
Today we have the better of two worlds available. A modern “Player Piano”; the Disklavier (Yamaha). This is a hybrid between a digital and acoustic piano- since it is both! The Disklavier is an amazing instrument with limitless possibilities. You can choose between upright and grand pianos.
This is a really fantastic instrument, and definitely, the one thing I would bring to a deserted island… (or maybe not... no electricity!) But, it is expensive. On my wish list, right after a Steinway or Bosendorfer grand piano - absolutely! :)