Clearly, an acoustic piano is best.  Students don’t need the most amazing pianos to practice on and it really doesn’t matter what kind you have but it should be in good repair and kept in tune.  MMM uses Robert Schuller to tune our pianos and he’s happy to take on new clients.  He can be reached at 508-733-3030.

If you can’t get/don’t have  a real piano, synths or electric pianos can suffice. They must however have the following qualities and anything under $500 will likely not fill minimum standards.

1) 88 keys (fewer octaves can tide you over for a little while but eventually you must have all 7 octaves available)

2) Weighed keys – The flimsy hollow plastic keys that come on many keyboards are simply  not ok.  This is especially for beginners who are looking to develop strength and good habits.  Many parents seem to want to start off on something inexpensive  to make sure their child is truly interested, but be assured, this could cause more damage than good.  Physically your child will have to almost start over when you upgrade. They will have too undo old habits and create new ones which is very difficult and frustrating to do. Decent technology is now affordable enough that it makes most sense to spend the extra $ on weighted keys in order to provide your child with the best chance for success.

3) Decent sound – Please avoid keyboards with tons of features and hundreds of sounds that do none of them well.  If the piano sounds are ugly your child will not enjoy no matter how well they play.  Truly discouraging. These little keyboards with lots of bells and whistles can be fun to have as an extra however, something to mess around with when practicing becomes tedious.

4) Touch sensitivity is a must as well. Meaning, when you hit a key with more velocity it plays louder, less it plays quieter.  These days almost all have this feature but many are poor and react in very different ways than a real pianos do.  Even high end instruments that I’ve tried out don’t quite get it right.  If you get a keyboard that does not do this reasonably well your child will develop habits that are different than actually required by their instrument, the piano, and will have to refine their skills later.  This is not an easy task.  Not to mention, on a keyboard that can’t do this your child will never be able to play expressively or creatively.  Better to start out on an instrument that will allow them to do this and teach them correct technique from day one.

5) A sustain pedal is a must although we typically don’t use this pedal with beginners.  Most electric pianos have an input  to plug one in and they are affordable (under $40) when the time comes to purchase one. Take care to make sure that the length of the sustain is similar to a piano’s.  This is not always the case and it’s a fault of the keyboard, not the pedal, when this occurs.

Bottom line, you don’t need to spend a ton on an instrument but there is a minimum standard.  A few extra bucks could make all the difference for your child. The market and available technologies and prices keep changing so we are not going to make specific recommendations here but the above features remain constant.