Till which Piano grade keybaord be used ?

[mom17]

My son( 8 yrs old) has 61 keys touch response keyboard recently bought but we started classes later and found piano teacher ( we were initially looking for keyboard teacher) and wondering How long I can use this keyboard ? My son complains of keyboard keys being so soft and he says it will be difficult for me to switch to Piano as I will used to it ( must be his way of pursuing me to buy him piano) but I am non-musical mother hence don't know what to do ? I am not sure how long he will take interest in learning though at this point of time, he seems serious. BTW, he is about to finish Easiest John Thompson Book 2 and I guess pedalling thing will start soon. I have an option to extend only sustain pedal with this model.

The keyboard is big enough for the moment so I wouldn't buy a piano until he's done grade one and wants to carry on!

Mom17,

As a piano teacher, I would advise you to switch ASAP from the keyboard to a full digital piano with weighted and graded keys (full sized keys that feel like a piano keyboard, not springy keyboard ones). You can purchase some decent models, new, for around £350 which is a tenth of the price of an acoustic upright. Look for Casio or Yamaha models (e.g. the Arius series). I tolerate keyboards for my youngest students up to around prep test level, but I'd require at least a digital piano by grade 1 - which will take you a lot further.

The other option is to talk to the piano teacher about following a keyboard syllabus rather than classical piano - I do this with some of my students and the teacher may be open to the possibility. I teach some of my lessons on a Yamaha CVP series clavinova which has a piano-style keyboard (weighted etc.) but full keyboard-style functionality (different sounds, drums and so forth). You can always keep the keyboard for fun.

Thanks Julie.