Piano Or Keyboard? How To Choose

By Ernie Mansfield

Many new and existing students call to ask about choosing a piano or keyboard for their home practice. This article may help make that choice easier.

Many students (and their families) are intimidated by the thought of buying, moving, and fitting a real piano in their home. In many ways, these fears are justified; there are many important considerations about the care and upkeep of an acoustic piano. However, let us consider:

The advantages of owning a good acoustic piano:

(a) - A good brand-name acoustic piano holds its value over time, which means that if you ever want to sell it, you will probably get what you paid for it, or possibly more.
(b) - The action on the acoustic piano builds finger strength, and allows for more fine control of the sound. In addition, there is really no experience quite as magical as playing an acoustic piano.
(c) - If there is a power failure, you can still play your acoustic piano!

The disadvantages of owning an acoustic piano are:

(a) - There are many bad acoustic pianos out there; and many old pianos have been neglected and would need much work to be repaired.
(b) - Even good acoustic pianos need to be periodically tuned and maintained.
(c) - If you move often, owning a piano can be a real problem.

Electronic keyboards are plentiful, inexpensive, small, and relatively low-maintenance.

Here are some of their advantages:

(a) - In general, small keyboards can be moved from place to place, and can be played with headphones. This is a tremendous advantage if you need to be concerned about interfering with other family members, or if you are moving or travelling frequently.
(b) - Electronic keyboards do not need to be tuned periodically, like acoustic pianos. Over time, this adds up to considerable savings – although the electronics can fail, especially if the instruments are physically abused.
(c) - Keyboards may have other features, such as additional sounds, built-in recording software, and learning features, which can be fun, entertaining, and often useful.

The disadvantages of owning an electronic keyboard are:

(a) - The inexpensive ones are, unfortunately, often cheap in both construction and features, and will quickly lose their resale value. Even the expensive, well-constructed keyboards lose their resale value – except on rare occasions.
(b) The action [the pressure required to press the keys] on all but the most expensive keyboards is too light and too easy to play, and the nuances obtained on a real acoustic piano are just not available. Usually this means that when a student practicing on a such a light keyboard comes to play on a real piano, they have problems with finger strength, and even have problems just pressing and getting the keys to sound. I see this problem all the time!
(c) If there is a power failure, you are usually out of luck - unless you have a fresh new battery back-up!

Having said all this, there are intelligent ways to choose reasonably good pianos and keyboards that will both be suitable for home practice and study, and useful for many years. Here are a few guidelines:

(1) Realize that, as in all purchasing decisions, you get what you pay for! A $100 keyboard is never going to be as good as a $5,000 piano.

(2) Before buying anything, walk into a few reputable music stores and check out the instruments. Be sure to test out the most expensive instruments first!! After all, it is just as free to try out the expensive instruments as the cheap ones! Find a good salesperson, and ask lots of questions.

(3) Look for name brands. It is very hard to go wrong buying a Yamaha instrument. They have been in the music business for many years, and their instruments are very musical - both acoustic and electronic. By the same token, avoid anything made by a company that specializes in calculators, watches, and gadgets - these will not be musical products. When I say name brands, I mean companies that have made a name in the musical world. A reputable salesperson can help you with this information.

(4) If you are willing to shop for used equipment, there are good deals to be had. Some people are willing to sell an acoustic piano cheaply, simply because it takes up too much space, or they will be moving. There are also many good deals to be had on used electronic keyboards; the resale value on these is very low. But - buyer beware! You really must know the difference between a good deal and a good instrument. Consider doing research on the instrument in question, or having a professional musician or repair person try it out first.

Happy keyboarding!

@ Ernie Mansfield