Daughter wants to take piano lessons, advice please

Arranged through school but apparently she’ll need a keyboard. Any advice on buying one?

I’d probably go for one off Ebay so we can sell it at not much of a loss is she drops it like she did the guitar a couple of years ago…

she’s 8 BTW.

Had the same issue. Currently number one daughter is having piano lessons and has been for about 3 months. Currently she is using an inexpensive yamaha keyboard – keys are non weighted. She is progressing exceedingly well on it – and seems to have little trouble adapting to weighted keys in her lesson or on my sisters piano.

A digital piano will be acquired for her if she is still playing in October.

You will need at least seven octaves to do any piece justice. I got a clavinova which can be pricey but it’s worth it. Just avoid crap plastic stuff that has lots of software stuff but poor key mechs and lack of velocity sensitivity.

in rochdale we rent from the local council for 36 quid a term the thing is kept at the school

DO you really need to buy one? I would defiantely support her if she wants to play. I learnt as a kid and I still love playing the piano now and it’s a skill I treasure. I would recommend buying a piano over a keyboard. Either a cheapish up right piano or a electronic piano. you need something with reasonable sound quality and weighted keys. A lot depends how much you want to spend Yamaha do a range of decent electronic pianos I think they do a reasonable one for £500 but don’t know your budget.

you need something with reasonable sound quality

What, for an 8 year old’s first effort that she might give up after a few months? 🙄

Btw old pianos can be had for buttons if you have the space for one and can move it. Lots of people jsut want rid, my bro in law got an old school one for £50 or something silly.

I learnt one one of these (or something very similar)
http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/5400636/Trail/searchtext%3EKEYBOARD.htm

but I had actual keyboard lessons, rather than piano. Maybe an electric piano would be better suited as it will have less unnecessary bells and whistles than a keyboard but will have a better feel and sound quality for what is needed at the same sort of price

For something just like a real piano, Clavinova etc. are brilliant. Well worth the money. Roland, Casio also make similar. They are more expensive than a cheap piano, but are far nicer to play than a cheap piano (and the bonus of being able to wear headphones). They can cost quite a lot (up to thousands).

If you want a cheaper thing, there are weighted key keyboards (make sure you get one with speakers & sounds built in, there are also some that require external speakers or sound generators), which don’t have the fancy stands etc. but take up a lot less space, and have roughly the same action / playing feel as a big digital piano. You’d be looking at about £300 minimum I think.

If you really want to not spend much at all, I’d either pick up a cheap Yamaha keyboard – the only thing I’d worry about is full sized keys. Velocity sensitive keys would be nice too.

Alternatively, if you have access to a van, and the space for it, not very good pianos are often jolly cheap or free (budget £50 for tuning once you get it, check ebay or gumtree). We gave away the one I originally learnt on to a guy with a van for free. You can learn the basics of piano playing on any old pub piano.

Joe

My point was Molgrips if she gets into it, sorry I didnt’ explain myself very well!

i recommended the below for a friend recently

http://www.dv247.com/keyboards-and-midi/yamaha-np-30s-76-key-portable-grand-keyboard-in-silver–42874

if this was a shimano component it would be a deore or lx i suppose, the least you would really want to have. i would be looking at something like this – it’s cheap enough really, it’s not going to sound like a steinway, but it will be near enough for what she needs.

if you want to be frightened, look up the cost of a clavia stage, or a roland v piano. they are utterly gorgeous to play though. (defo xtr!!)