I want to be clear that I recommend having an acoustic piano. KB's cannot fully imitate an acoustic piano, and the mechanical action and natural sound of a real piano cannot be duplicated by electronic KB's. All the nuances that are in music can be experimented with on the acoustic piano more fully than on an electric one. So consider the acoustic piano first, and if you feel that the KB is best for now (not knowing the future), buy the real thing as soon as possible, especially if you feel that your child is going to be pretty serious about playing the piano.
That said, I can understand having an electronic piano for students to practice on these days. For one thing, they are cheaper; and now they are made with a touch that is so close to the touch of a real, acoustic piano, that it works for practice and finger strengthening.
Here are some good rules concerning KB's:
1). Buy a KB with a hammer weighted action, which feels heavy like an acoustic piano. If you have a very small keyboard (KB) that has the spring action keys (push it down and it pops back up like a spring), these are very bad for a student. They are usually found on the small 61-key KB's. Fingers need to be strengthened by a heavy key action.
2). The KB should have the full 88 keys. This is a full sized KB like a real piano and the student will be learning to play experiencing all the possibilities of a full-sized piano. (Also, there are pieces they learn that use the lowest and highest keys on the piano beginning in Level One!)
Headphones (just a side note):
If your child is wearing headphones to practice, you don't know what they are doing. If you want to be sure that they are playing scales, and then pieces (each piece a minimum of three times a day), you might want to have them take the head phones off so you can double check on them. I am not implying that any particular child might be a little less than pure about their work, but....just to be sure. It is so easy to get side-tracked as a young (and older), pianist practicing the piano!
Costs of KB's:
Hammer-weighted, full-sized KB's will start at around $400 without a stand (add from $60 to $100 for a stand: highly recommended!), and go to $2500 or more, as with the Roland Electronic Piano's with SO many features, including a hard drive, USB port and drives to play available disks and jump drives and Media Cards. Electronic Piano's are a different category, having lots of features (including composing screen and printing capability), far better sound to the built in speakers, and have a real presence in a room. And they are going to be more expensive. In my opinion, as one who is teaching piano performance proper, I would say to buy an acoustic piano first, if you are going to spend the money. The Electric Piano can come later for playing with. (If the composing software idea is intriguing to you, there are inexpensive ways to do that on your computer).
To the best of my knowledge, and in my opinion, the best low cost KB for piano practicing is the Casio PX series, such as the PX-110. The cost rises with the features, but the 110 is wonderful. Fantastic KB's. Heavy keys, full set of keys, sounds good, has all three pedals now (the early ones did not), and is headphone capable! Craigslist searchs will sometimes turn these up for $300 with a stand. (Oh, and I highly recommend getting the stand that comes with these KB's. They look way better and the feet are free of the "X" stand that is the other option. Unless you like to build things, like my Brother-in-Law, who built his own stand for the PX-110 he bought.)
Costs of Piano's:
I see piano's on Craigslist all the time, and sometimes they are really cheap. Old, huge uprights that are so heavy, are a dime a dozen there (that means $300, $400). But, there are nice looking pianos there, too. These are from $400 to $700 or so. Just a steady perusing of the entries will turn up a good piano, I think. And I can go look at something if you like, to see what the condition is. A decent piano seems to start around $2,500 in the stores. Refurbished.
Places to look:
New pianos can be found in town at Dunkley's and Welch's. Welch's is the Yamaha dealer in town, and Dunkley, who is the Steinway and Kawai dealer. There are probably others, but these guys have been around for a long time. Dunkley Music refurbishes used pianos and re-sells them at lower prices. The better quality starts at about $2000 to $2500, and they do a nice job on the pianos. Welch's Music will give a 25% discount on new pianos to parents when I, as a teacher, refer them. Dunkley's may do the same.
The Statesman runs ads for pianos regularly, and there are occasional good deals there. Online at http://www.idahostatesman.com/ , for classifieds, music, or pick up a paper or two to see what is out there for less than $1000.
Craigslist.com is good, too. Just pick Boise, then look through the list for Musical Instruments. Type in "piano" and hit search. You can also clarify the amount you want to spend at the top of the page. These are not going to have the refurbished guarantee, but they might not need it, either! I see some good things on Craigslist.
Conclusion:
I hope this is helpful to you in your piano buying decision making. If you have any questions, just email me!
Talk to you later!!
Steven
steves160@juno.com
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