need a suitable music keyboard for dd - any suggestions ?

[thetideishigh]

dd is going to start keyboard lessons next week and I'm supposed to be getting a keyboard for her to practise on. Her teacher to be said "oh any thing will do so long a she practices lots" so no pointers there as to what I should be buying adn I don't think he appreciates that I am totally non-musical myself.

I know nothing about them at all and am totally in the dark on this subject.

Can anyone help me ?

(I'll probably get a second had one via ebay to start with and if she gets really into it think about investing in something else later if necessary).

I've just looked on ebay and I've no idea what is suitable/good/bad.

Yamaha is usually the best make. Casio is OK too but the sound is not quite as authentic IMO.

Keyboards can be bought quite cheaply brand new.
gear4music is a good site to try.

Oh one more thing- Make sure the keyboard had full size keys.

DD 10 yo has been learning piano since last June. She practises on a yamaha psrE323 which we purchased from amazon. It's been fine for her and her piano teacher thinks she doing fine with it - no problems switching to the piano for lessons.

we were looking at a purchase scheme through the school until we saw the prices you don't need weighted keys (i.e. ones that feel like piano keys) at beginner level, but you should really get touch responsive (i.e. the harder you hit the key the louder the sound). the cheapest touch responsive one through school was over a hundred quid.

we found one (yamaha psr270) on gumtree for £30 :) the older models are perfectly as good as more recent ones and because they're huge and heavy people tend to advertise them locally rather than ebay.

O.K. so......

Full size keys

Touch responsive keys

Probably Yamaha

Amazon - never thought of them for it.

I know what you mean about the school purchase schemes ! We were stung like that for dd's other instrument, my fault I should have looked into it more but when you barely know one end of a guitar from the other you are a sitting target.

Thank you for all your help everyone.

heh i bought dd a guitar just because it was it was pretty and had a mermaid on it :o she plays with it occasionally (too young to manage steel strings, which i knew when i bought it )

i play it quite a lot :)

I would just say I think it's unlikely that school purchase schemes are ripping anyone off. They buy the instruments in bulk and don't have to pay VAT, which saving they can pass on to you.

If an instrument seems slightly expensive that way, it's probably because they've chosen a model other than the cheapest one available, for a reason.

And a hundred quid new is not expensive at all for any kind of half-decent keyboard.

One thing to bear in mind is whether you want something that JUST approximates a piano, or a whizz-bang all singing all dancing "fun keyboard" with automatic accompaniment patterns etc.

The latter might be tempting to make the learning experience more fun, but has the potential disadvantage of leading the kid to spend all their time playing with the buttons rather than actually practising. If the child is reasonably responsible and has any capacity for delayed gratification, it can be better to work on a simpler instrument so they have to seek the satisfaction from the playing itself.

Yamaha and Korg make good "quasi-pianos" in the 500 pounds ish range, which I'm gathering is more than you want to pay. This one however is supposed to have most of the same qualities, in a cut-down 76-key version, for much cheaper:

www.dv247.com/keyboards-and-midi/yamaha-np-30-76-key-portable-grand-keyboard-in-black--42872

Note however I've never played it so can't recommend it directly.

Otherwise, for the more keyboardy option I suppose you're looking at one of the Yamaha PSR models. I don't know how much they go for these days but there must be billions of them around second hand.

We have a Roland. Not cheap but very good.

Just an update.

I bought dd a 2nd hand Yamaha via ebay and it had most of the recommended features.

Well, dd is absolutely loving it, still plays almost every day for 10 mins or so without needing to be nagged, and zooming through the book of lessons that they use at school, her teacher is impressed with progress to date and happy that she is practicising at home on "something suitable".

Thanks for your help everyone.

Great!