what electronic keyboard should I buy?

[clarelouise]

My husband and I are buying an electronic keyboard,maybe a Yamaha for our son to learn to play.
I am wanting to ask someone who can play a piano or keyboard and I want to know if he could learn on a 61 key or would it have to be an 88 key.
It is just that we want ot buy him one on ebay to start off with and not spend a large amount of money, but there doens't seem to be many 88 key ones so just wondered if we would get away with 61 keys.
Any info and advice we would be very grateful.
many thanks.
clarelouise

[cranberry85]

Hi, I'm keen to answer your question as I am a keen piano player and I began playing the keyboard at the age of 6 on a very very small keyboard! LITTLE_CRANBERRY

Here is how it goes. If you get a Casio keyboard it will do almost anything you want and will have CD drives for recording music etc etc but the sounds are not of high quality and it is generally a cheaper version. So, say a Casio keyboard cost �100........to get a Yamaha one that does all the things the Casio one does is much more expensive however the sound quality is much better. And Roland keyboards....they are for stage performance and are meant to be very robust and hard to break, excellent sound quality too.@MSG

You are right to look on ebay, I would however suggest you buy one from someone who lives nearer so you can visit and try out the keyboard. often they have minor faults. E.g my keyboard crackles when you turn the volume dial up and down. We have a newspaper nearby called The Loot which lists things that people are selling in the local area. I'm not sure of your equivalent as I don't know where you live. HAMER.NET

[cranberry85]

Continued from last post......To cut a long story short the best keyboard to get is a Yamaha one. Maybe a PSR-75 or around that number. What tends to happen is that they make models of PSR-75 then PSR-85 and then 10 years later then go back to PSR 76, PSR-89 etc. So the number is little indication of how old the keyboard is. PSR-75 keyboards tend to have 49 keys, I think this is sufficient for an absolute beginner, particularly if you are unsure if your son will stick to playing the keyboard. When the numbers eg PSR get to around 200, then these keyboards have around 61 keys. this is the biggest you will find on a keyboard. 88 keys i would say is more like a portable piano and far too big for a beginner.

If your son is really determined and is keen on the idea after a short time then I suggest he takes up piano (not keyboard) lessons as this will train his fingers better and improve coordination. If you can play piano the keyboard is a doddle. I would always encourage someone to learn to play the piano and not the keyboard if they really want to do well. its like guitar. if you learn on an electric and then you try to play an acoustic your fingers are not trained for the hard strings on an acoustic. its the same with a piano, the keys are much more weighted.

[cranberry85]

I'm not sure how much you know about keyboards and the like and dont want to patronise you but I feel I should let you know anyway. Keyboard playing just comprises of playing a melody with the right hand and chords (2 or more keys played at the same time) with the left. You can often have it so that when you play a chord with your left hand the keyboard starts a backing tune to accompany the melody. Piano playing is much more beautiful and graceful. It often, but not always, comprises of a melody with both the left and right hands. If your son learns to play the keyboard then chords are denoted above the stave as letters in boxes. by learning to play the piano he will have to read both the bass and treble staves as melodies are played with both hands. If you have any further questions you can send me an email. I'm not sure if I am allowed to give my email address out so I have dotted it around the text so therefore, its not actually my address but you will work it out :D

[clarelouise]

hi there,

many thanks for the information you have given us.

we really appreiate it.

you have helped quite a bit.

If there is any more info that we need then I will e-mail you.