music keyboard

[jinglejet]

my 12 year old DD has really took to music lessons at school, and practices daily on my very old keyboard - at least she did

It was 15 years old, and i think it has decided to retire, as i cant get it to work anymore - either via adapter or batteries.

So, i think santa may be having to bring a new one - there are only 2 lessons at school she gets good results at, and music is one of them, so we are both devastated she cant practice for now.

So, enough waffle - i have bought the pressies i was going to get and now need to find money for this, please does anyone have any ideas on where to find a cheap but good enough to actually practice on? It doesnt need to have loads of functions, as i will tell her she needs to save up for one with all the fancy options on (like the one which has just broke) but it needs to have (if possible) full size keys, and enough of them to play right and left hand!

I have appealed on freecycle - but thought someone here may have an idea of a cheap but nice one

could you not wait and see if she gets any money for x-mas from friends and family and then use it to buy her a new (or 2nd hand) one?

E-bay?

i dont think she is getting any money for xmas, will check out ebay thanks x

thisone is in Argos for £25. They do it in silver too

thanks - the pink one is out of stock, so may have to be silver. That will do for practice for now, do you think?

Have you asked at her school? You may be able to have a long-term loan of one, or even just to borrow over the holidays and then buy in the sales?

googie - do you think they would do that? i dont have a car at the moment, so picking it up could be tricky - DD cant even manage to carry a book without dropping it/falling over or something, so wouldnt really trust her with a keyboard But, taxi if need be - would be cheaper than buying a new keyboard!

I may send her in search of her music teacher tomorrow......

Especially if you say how keen she is to learn and that you cannot afford a keyboard at the moment...they should want to encourage her.

Be very sure that the keyboard in Argos has fuill size keys. There is no point her practising on one with small keys.

I just took another look and think they are smaller than average keys. All the ones with full size keys say so in the specs.

Asda are doing one for £25 too - I've just got one for ds2 who's doing music for one of his Standards (scottish GCSEs), and for me to learn my choir parts on. It definitely has got proper size keys, though obviously they are not weighted or touch-sensitive for that price.

It's battery powered too, but you can buy an adaptor to work it off the mains, according to dh.

You can hire proper digital pianos from shops that sell them, these have 88 full size keys and touch sensitive keys. There is one local to us that does a weekly hire arrangement and you can offset that cost against the purchase of the piano if you decide to buy it. May be worth considering looking into.

How about contacting Yamaha or Casio directly? Might be worth an email to see if they can lend you one or donate a keyboard to a keen learner - say it was suggested to you on MN and it might be good for their PR??