Piano vs keyboard

[StressyDepressy]

My son is learning the piano. He has only had a few lessons but I’m thinking ahead to his birthday early next year.

is it worth getting a ‘free’ piano, paying for removal and refurbishing/tuning?

or go down the electric keyboard route?

He’s autistic so I’m more certain that he will continue with this hobby as he’s pretty involved, regularly wants to practice (at nearby aunties house)

any advice or info on price points to expect would be welcome! 🙏🏻

We went for an electric piano. Much easier to move around, and no need to get it retuned.

And if they are terrible, they can wear headphones.

My dd has an electric piano with weighted keys.

Far cheaper than getting and keeping a piano, and her piano teacher says it's great, the most important bit is the weighted keys.

Dds was £400 with the stand and stool as well.

Ditto an electric piano. We have an upright and an electric. The upright costs a small fortune to keep maintained. Due to the layout of our house, the only place we can have it is in a room that is very hot and dry in the summer, but cold and slightly damp in winter and the piano hates the temperature and humidity changes. It has to be tuned at least twice a year and I've noticed a definite difference in quality over the last few years. The electric however, nice and consistent, which is good for a learner, plus it can be used with headphones. Just be sure to get a full sized with weighted keys.

Each has a different playing technique, so if you switch to an electric piano, be sure to tell your piano teacher. S/he may be able to adjust their teaching accordingly, or may suggest a more suitable teacher.

A "real" piano shouldn't cost a fortune to maintain. It'll need to be tuned after it's moved, but unless your DC is a child prodigy, probably won't need to be tuned for years after that.

Agree with full size digital piano with weighted keys (NOT, repeat NOT a ‘keyboard’ if learning piano).

Lighter, cheaper to maintain, easier to move (ds’s has been to and from uni and post-uni accommodation along with all
his stuff in the back of a small family car), can be used with headphones.

We have found Korg is a decent but not pricy brand.

Each has a different playing technique, so if you switch to an electric piano, be sure to tell your piano teacher. S/he may be able to adjust their teaching accordingly, or may suggest a more suitable teacher.

I think this is misleading. A digital / electric piano with weighted keys is a very close match in playing technique to a standard upright.

A ‘keyboard’ (non-weighted keys, often different ‘sound effects’) is, I agree, a different instrument with a different technique, which beyond the basics may need a different teacher.

Depends on your house layout / noise constraint options. Any piano playing in our house would be heard everywhere and by our neighbours so we went for electric piano - Roland fp30 (somewhere around £500-700?) Def worth trying them out - the choice became much easier. Son has it in his bedroom and loves putting his headphones on and playing and messing about with it. It’s a real advantage actually - I used to love playing my guitar more than piano because I could play in my room and it was more private and personal. This way the piano is the same.

Having said that, if we had a large house I’d love to have a small music room off to the side with a piano and a closing door.

Given he's autistic and the sensory experience will likely be quite important to him, I suggest the first step is taking him to try out a clavinova-style electric piano as well as alternative uprights to the one he uses now.

He might be really clear as to what he likes and what simply won't be enjoyable for him, so that could narrow your options significantly.

Another factor to take into account is when he might want to practice if he has a piano at home to play whenever he wants. If he's a night owl or might want to play very early before school, or if he tends to hyper focus and might want to play for hours and hours at a time, it's worth considering the convenience of an electric piano that he can use headphones with. Otherwise, you might end up having to buy both in the end anyway.

As others have said, an electric piano is a very different beast to a keyboard and may well be your best bet.
We have an electric and an acoustic piano in the house. We got the electric second hand as a fill in whilst the acoustic was away being restrung but kept it afterwards as it was quite useful for when DS wanted to practice at inconvenient times (a real godsend during lockdown when everyone was trying to work from home!) Plus it's portable, so he's taken it to concerts in old people's homes etc a few times. It's not as good as our acoustic piano but then it's a cheap electric and we have a good acoustic so it's only to be expected. But it does the job.
Be very wary of getting an old acoustic. Our piano tuner's favourite saying is "There's no such thing as a free piano". He gets plenty of calls from people who have bought or been given an old upright being told "it just needs a quick tune" and has to break very bad news to them when he takes a look. A lot of the old pianos you see on Facebook market place etc were not very good when they were new and have been neglected for decades. Restoration may be very expensive (our restringing plus a few other minor repairs was about £3k as an example) or impossible, leaving you stuck with a useless white elephant. If you go down that route I would strongly advise you to get someone who knows what they are looking at to check it over before you pay for it to be moved. You might get lucky of course, but it's rare.* *

Definitely get a digital piano. I've got a Yamaha which I love.

Electric piano with weighted keys to start with and in a few years if he shows real aptitude and you have space/can afford it consider a real second hand piano, from a proper supplier that can advise you and offer after care. A real, good quality piano is a delight and if well maintained it should not cost a fortune in upkeep even if it is secondhand/ancient. There are also finance deals for parents to buy pianos for children which can help with the initial outlay. But I am yet to see a "free" piano which didn't need a lot of work / wasn't poor quality to start with.

That said the newer electronic pianos are also amazing so ultimately go for what you need now and then decide and try different ones as time progresses. It will come down to preference and cost in the end.

I would either go for a decent piano, regularly maintained and tuned (very unlikely if free and if you're not experienced, don't risk anything other than a reputable piano shop)
Or a digital piano (not keyboard). I have both real piano and this digital one and definitely recommend it. It has the advantage of being silent with headphones too if necessary (and no tuning costs).

www.gear4music.com/Keyboards-and-Pianos/Casio-PX-S3100-Digital-Piano-Black/42X0

Hasn't your son's piano teacher given you guidance on this?

We got a good quality electric piano second hand for my DD when she started learning, it's fine for the first few years. If he likes it you can always upgrade to a real piano when he's older and playing more advanced music

We also have an electric piano. I play it from time to time, and really doesn't feel that different to a real piano. We don't have the room even for an upright piano.

Electric piano (not keyboard) definitely. I would love to have a real piano but for the stage of life we're in, an electric piano is much more practical and we love ours. I've actually had it for almost 25 years and it's still going strong with zero maintenance required.

We've got an electric (a Kawai) - it's beautiful to play and I really love it (having grown up playing the piano since I was five). My mum chose it - shes a professional pianist and she said it's on loan to us until she downsizes in her dotage, at which point I can have her upright and she'll have the Kawai. But I love it so much that I don't know if I'd be able to surrender it

I'm a piano teacher and also work in a piano restoration company. (Teaching doesn't automatically confer technical knowledge on whether an old piano is suitable or a financial nightmare, so don't rely on a teacher to know what restoration is needed btw.) Pupils who have access to a GOOD acoustic piano generally develop better dynamic variations in their playing than those who have an electric from the start. (It's a bit like manual versus automatic car - learn on a manual, then you can do anything later.)

Which is right for your home depends on various factors, not least budget. Initially, an electric piano (must have weighted keys, as others have said) is absolutely fine and has the advantage of headphones - though modern acoustic uprights generally have practice pedals which muffle repetitive playing when needed - a practice tool rather than a performance one, though. Bear in mind electric pianos still take up lots of space if full size though (ie 7.25 octaves).

If your dc gets up to intermediate level and beyond in time, an electric piano won't give the same experience in terms of dynamics (there's no actual hammer hitting a string, and it's harder to get really beautiful dynamic variations out of electric pianos) but a digi is better than a knackered old acoustic one as it's more consistent. That said, all acoustic pianos even from the same maker/era are not created equal, original build quality is part of it but what kind of life it's had makes a massive difference, eg whether it's been cooked in a hot house or sopping wet in a damp garage, etc. Overstrung and underdamped is what you want for a start, but definitely ask a tuner for a PAID assessment of anything that seems like a bargain being sold privately - or ask for advice from a proper supplier. Not because people are inherently untrustworthy, but because they may v well not know if the tuning pins or bridge are about to fail.

There are plenty of excellent quality bargains being sold privately (we get offered probably 2 dozen a week, half of which are absolutely fine, we just don't need them) AND plenty of absolute dross. Get them checked out first and bear in mind that you'll have to budget for moving it (yes, they do need the proper equipment, we do a lot of insurance work for damage caused by guys who didn't have a clue) and tuning it.

Also, "needs tuning" sounds nice and easy, but tuning only tightens the pins so all the strings are in tune (assuming the pins are firm enough to stay where the tuner puts them)! It doesn't do anything to the action unless your tuner is also a technician (not all are) and has charged more for extra work, so if notes are uneven, sticking, not working at all, clicky, etc etc, they still will be even after it's tuned and that's not the tuner's fault!

Sorry, I could go on. Feel free to ask if you have specific questions, this is what I do :) and being in piano restoration for 30 years is the reason I've never had any money...

This has been enormously helpful thank you all!

@LonginesPrime - thank you for the reminder about what my sons sensory preference will be. As a sensory seeker I suspect he will enjoy an electric piano he can have loud in his headphones and not be complained at by his sister, who has opposing sensory needs!

I’ve always wanted a piano in the house for aesthetic reasons, and I enjoy the sound so I wouldn’t be put off by practicing etc. But I was afraid of cost - as confirmed by so many responses. My sister has an electric piano, with weighted keys etc as her kid learnt to play on it. Piano teacher will be fine with it as it’s the same teacher.

As @EmeraldDreams73 suggests - we will definitely consider moving to an acoustic if his hobby continues for a few more years and he becomes a more serious player.

Appreciate all the stories - positive preferences and horror stories 😂 thank you!!

Hi,

I wondered if I could chip in too, as an ASD family with both acoustic and electric pianos?

We all enjoy the piano and we have ended up both for complicated reasons.

From a sensory point of view we all love the acoustic piano and wouldn't want to be without it, because there is a "feel" of the music as it vibrates in the air. It's hard to explain but I definitely feel music from accoustic instruments. If I see a loud orchestra then I even feel the vibrations of the music inside my lungs. I love that feeling and for me a piano wouldn't be a piano without it. I don't get that feeling from the electric piano. So you might want to check if that is important to your son. I also love to look inside the piano and see the mechanism, and you don't get that from an electric so it might be good to check if that matters.

The flip side is that sometimes people play something on the piano that not everybody wants to hear. Sometimes they also play it over and over again for months. If someone is angry or sad then that may come across very strongly in their playing, and especially if you have an ASD teen then they really may not want to have to deal with someone else's strong emotions. This matters.

So that is how we ended up with the electric piano too. We only bought it recently but it is very popular because if someone has the strong emotion then they can play whatever they want on it and nobody else is affected because they are on headphones.

Entirely separately - the other thing we've noticed is that all of us get wrist pain from the accoustic piano, but less so from the electric one. The keyboard has been lightened, but it made no difference. We've had to work hard on playing technique to resolve the pain from the accoustic. When we play the electric the technique is totally different. So switching from one to the other risks injury if we don't maintain the technique for both.

About buying the piano - we got our piano as a throwaway from Ebay. It was £16 + delivery charge. It was knackered and looked as though it had been dragged out of the sea. However, the sound was magical. It rings like a bell. It's a 130 year old Bechstein and it's really got an extraordinary sound. Later on, when we had a bit more money we had it fully restored, which cost the best part of £10k and it's wonderful now. You wouldn't know there had ever been anything wrong with it and the sound is still amazing.

The electric piano is a Yamaha Clavinova 745 and it is also brilliant. It's not easy to transport. The legs come off, but the top part is very very heavy. Getting it up the stairs was really quite a feat. It can't be tipped on its end or rolled over - it has to be kept flat, so if you want to move it regularly or anything, you need two strong people.

I hope that helps a bit.

@NewNameNewDrivel we have a Bechstein from the early 1900s and we love ours too - there's something a bit special about it. We've spent quite a lot on ours too but it's worth it to keep a beautiful instrument alive.

We bought a piano for £75 + £240 for removal/delivery. Piano was tuned, old but pretty. It's perfect for my child's lessons + it added some class to the living room.

Thank you so much

Just to clarify some language used here:

Piano - a piano has a weighted keyboard, either because it has real hammers and dampers (acoustic piano) or an action that simulates them (digital piano)

Keyboard - a catch all term for instruments that do not have a weighted keyboard, such as organs and synthesisers.

Electric piano - this is a mechanical piano with electric pickups (eg Fender Rhodes or Wurlitzer). It has a weighted action with real hammers and dampers but they feel different to an acoustic piano as the hammers are hitting tines rather than strings. It is not the same as a digital piano but unfortunately many people use the term electric piano when they mean a digital piano.

Start him on a digital piano with a full weighted action, this will equip him with all the skills needed for any keyboard instrument.

One more, try to avoid pianos, which need any kind of repairs ,even if they look nice. Usually, people, whose children moved (are moving) to Uni,sell pianos for £50-100, but the instruments are well looked after, tuned, which will give you at least 6 months before spending money on tuning.