How to Choose the Right Piano or Keyboard for my Level?
Tips for buying your first piano.
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To buy a piano you must first take into account your budget, your level and experience, the use you are going to give it, the space you have in your house or apartment and the type of music you want to play. You should also take into account the different types of piano there are, there are acoustic pianos, electric pianos, synthesizers and MIDI keyboards.
The Budget - How Much Does a Piano Cost?
This element is transversal to all types of piano and other elements of this blog. If you are a beginner the usual thing is to start with an electric keyboard of only 5 octaves that you can get from around 90 dollars, but if you have a high enough budget you can start with an upright acoustic piano with prices from 1500 dollars or if you do not have a limit on your budget you can even buy a grand piano, just keep in mind that you must have enough space to place it.
The same happens if you already have an intermediate level and have been learning piano with an acoustic piano for some time and suddenly decide to experiment and transition to electronic music, pop or even rock, in this case you can find synthesizers or electric pianos from 300 or $500 up to $5,000 or more.
In general, if you are a beginning pianist, what is recommended is to buy a second-hand acoustic piano or a cheap electric keyboard, since in most cases there is always the risk that the student will lose interest and stop playing and practicing, but if you want this instrument to accompany you for many years, then it is worth making a greater investment and acquiring a long-lasting acoustic piano.
2. The Use - Concert, recording or fun?
It is very important to be clear about what you want to buy a piano or keyboard for and the place where you are going to use it, although it seems obvious, you would be surprised by the number of people who, after searching, inquiring and asking, decide to buy and only later realize that it doesn’t fulfill their needs , either because it is very heavy, very large, it does not have integrated speakers or any other detail that at first didn’t seem important.
If your intention is to move the instrument a lot, go to rehearsals and concerts or if you travel a lot either for your work or that of your parents, it is best to buy a keyboard with a maximum of 5 octaves and quite light, a kind of portable piano. On the other hand, if you are a student in a conservatory, the most coherent thing is that you have an instrument that allows you to practice consistently and intensely, as is usually the case in conservatories, for this the best thing would be an acoustic piano or an electric piano with heavy keys, as we talked before, depends on your budget.
Now, if what you want is to play at weddings and parties, the best thing is a synthesizer that allows you not only to reproduce what you play on the piano but also audio tracks with other instruments, this is very useful, but keep in mind that the more possibilities your synthesizer has, the bigger and heavier it can be, although the truth is that nowadays the companies that are building pianos and synthesizers want their instruments to be as light as possible.
3. What Piano To Buy According To Your Level?
As I mentioned before, if you are at a beginner level, what is recommended is to buy a second-hand acoustic piano or a cheap keyboard (it can also be second-hand) with 5 octaves to start with. As time goes by you will realize the different possibilities you have and how much you really want to dedicate your life and time to practicing this instrument, this will give you an idea of whether or not you want to continue with the same instrument you started with or want to change it for one that better suits your process and your tastes.
If you are at an intermediate level, surely you already have a clearer idea of what you like to play on the piano and what you would like to do with this instrument, in the next point we will talk about the type of pianos that are used in the different musical genres , with that you will know which option is the one that best suits what you may be looking for.
If you are an advanced level pianist, surely you have more than clear what you need, however for those who graduate from a conservatory and need to buy a piano but do not know where to start, the only thing I can recommend is that, before buying it play more than once on it, try different pianos before making a decision, even if you buy an electric piano, choose one that responds to what your hands are looking for musically and has a piano sound that really convinces you, use your educated ear and experience to make the best purchase decision.
4. Musical Genre - Classical, Jazz, Rock or Pop.
Pianos and keyboards tend to be more or less used in some genres than others, which is why it is important to know what music you want to play before making a significant purchase. In general, this decision is made when you already are at an intermediate level, when you already are clear about the basics of the piano in general and when you understand what are the possibilities that you have with this instrument.
Let's start with the most common: the acoustic piano. This type of piano is the most used in any genre, you find it in pop, jazz, Latin music, classical music and even in electronic music. It is worth clarifying that when talking about acoustic piano I also take into account the acoustic piano sound that exists in electric pianos. Tango music, for example, is usually played with acoustic pianos, but there are not always places that have them, which forces pianists to play on electric pianos using the acoustic piano sound, although this is nothing bad, today the sound quality of electric pianos is very good.
Within Jazz we can find cool jazz, jazz fusion and free jazz which, among others, usually look for sounds beyond the acoustic piano sound, for this reason a synthesizer is usually the favorite option for pianists in this type of music, but it is also for Pop, which although it does not always require a great piano technique for its interpretation, a good knowledge of the possibilities that a synthesizer has is needed, since in the same song a pianist or in this case a keyboardist, can swap and combine sounds as many times as there are sections in the song.
In electronic music the use of synthesizers and MIDI keyboards is usually much more predominant, in this case the decisions from the piano point of view are not very relevant, the important thing is the function that this type of keyboards can fulfill in the music you play and the sounds you want to have and control within your songs, your concerts or your recordings. As you can see, the decision of which keyboard to buy is directly related to the type of music you play.
5. The Mechanism of the Keys.
Surely you have realized that not all pianos or keyboards have the same type of keys, not only because of their texture, but above all because of their weight. It is possible that the sound all they have is similar and maybe visually they look alike too, but the reality is that the physical system for the operation of the piano is different for each case and this is directly related to the price that the instrument may have, the more similar it is to the mechanism of an acoustic piano will have more value and also the greater its weight. It is important to understand a little about how these instruments work to make it easier to decide which type of piano is best for you.
Acoustic pianos work with a hammer mechanism where pressing a key activates a system that moves a hammer to strike a piano string, electric pianos simulate this mechanism with the only difference that there is not a string that is going to be struck, insted it will be a sensor. Some electric pianos use a counterweight key mechanism to be able to offer a cheaper price, this mechanism works quite well to imitate the feeling of the mechanism that I mentioned at the beginning.
There are also semi-weighted keys, the most common for electric keyboards, sometimes also called sensitive keys, since they react to the intensity with which you press them, allowing you to interpret some dynamics in musical pieces, this is usually the option most beginning students choose. Finally there is a last mechanism where there is no counterweight and in most cases it does not allow control of the dynamics. I do not recommend this type of keyboard even as a toy.
It is important to understand a little about how these instruments work to make it easier to decide which type of piano is best for you.
6. Keyboards or MIDI Controllers.
MIDI controllers can come in different shapes and sizes as well as fulfill different functions, one of the most common shapes that a controller has is that of a piano, although not always with the 7 octaves of the acoustic piano, you can find controllers with only 2 octaves . The function of this type of keyboard, clearly as it says in its name, is to control, but what exactly is what must be controlled?
In order to answer this question, I must first explain to you that keyboards or MIDI controllers do not work by themselves, they do not have integrated sounds like there are in electric pianos and synthesizers, nor do they include speakers to hear what you play and they can only work if you connect them to a Hardware, this means that in order to use this instrument you must connect it to a computer, an Ipad, a tablet or even a cell phone.
So the MIDI keyboard controls the information that you have in that hardware and that information is everything related to music, that is to say that you control the musical notes, the dynamics, the volume, the duration, the expression and many other elements. This type of instrument or piano is usually the favorite of film music composers, with it they can control the different sounds of the different instruments of an orchestra with their different characteristics. Nowadays almost any electric piano can be used as a MIDI controller, but if you really want to fully control the musical elements, then it is better to buy a MIDI keyboard specifically.
If you are not a film music composer you can also take advantage of MIDI keyboards, I have had piano students who start taking their first classes using this type of keyboard because it was what they had at home, I explain the easiest way to use it and thus be able to have a class in a fluid way every time. I have also had concerts where I use a MIDI keyboard along with my cell phone.
Already knowing roughly how MIDI keyboards or controllers work, you can know with more certainty if this is the type of instrument you need.
With all this information you already have an idea of what your first or next musical acquisition could be! If you want more information, have any questions or are interested in taking online piano lessons with me, do not hesitate to contact me, I will gladly answer your questions. Do not forget to subscribe to the newsletter to receive news of new blogs and relevant musical information. You can also share with your contacts if you think this information may be useful to them. Do not hesitate to contact me
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