For those piano players who are looking for a keyboard instrument to use at home to practice on, or if you’re looking for a music keyboard for a specific music making purpose, there are several types of keyboard instruments to choose from. Here are a few tips on selecting the right instrument.
If you’re looking for a straight-up, no frills piano to practice on, but can’t afford an acoustic piano, there are a number of digital piano models available from leading manufacturers such as Yamaha and Roland. These will be modeled after an upright piano, so they save space, will have weighted keys that feel like those on its acoustic counterpart, and will have high-quality piano sounds that are produced through a built-in loudspeaker system. For those on a budget, Casio makes some quality digital pianos at a lower price than other brands. These instruments are versatile in that they will have additional functionality such as extra sounds to play with or recording capabilities.
There are digital keyboards for those who want different sounds to choose from (such as organ, saxophone, or, harp) and want to play songs or improvise over a backing track. The arranger keyboards will do just that, featuring pre-programmed tracks called styles that have the basic rhythm instruments (for example drums, bass, and rhythm guitar) that play in a certain style such as rock or techno. The player controls the chord progressions by pressing the chords on the lower end of the keyboard and plays the melody with the upper end. Composers and one-man-band performers will benefit from this keyboard. An arranger is not always a good instrument to practice piano on because most don’t have weighted keys and are not always a full 88 key keyboard.
There are other types of music keyboards such as workstations and midi controllers which have more specialized functions for specific music production purposes, for example controlling recording software on a computer or creating synthetic instrument sounds from scratch. When selecting an instrument it all comes down to how you’ll be using it. The Music Keyboards Guide is a good resource for further exploration on digital keyboard instruments.
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