So your son or daughter wants to learn to play the piano. Yet as a parent, you’re skeptical about how long this latest “desire” will last. You have piles of unused or barely used items in the basement from things your child has wanted to try before. Is the piano any different?
Why not invest in a cheap digital piano instead? Ride it out for a while and see if this newest idea lasts. And only if it shows promise, then you’ll consider investing in something better.
From the outside, that seems like the best course of action. Yet it’s setting your child up for failure before they ever begin. Here’s why. 
An 88 Note Keyboard
If you look at all modern pianos, they all have 52 white keys and 36 black keys for a total of 88 keys. While a beginner won’t play all the notes any time soon, you will be surprised at how quickly their lessons take them up and down the keyboard. When you purchase a piano with 88 keys, you’re giving your child room to grow.
Ensure The Keyboard Is Proper Width
A keyboard is a keyboard, right? Nope. A lot of the electric pianos you’ll find in the big box store are made for price, not for quality. When you compare them to quality instruments, you’ll find the manufacturers don’t produce these cheap imitations up to standards. When keys are standard size, it plays like a real piano. If you learn on a piano that doesn’t have standard size keys, you’ll never learn the proper hand placement for playing a song. That means your skills won’t be transferable from piano to piano. And you’ll never enjoy all that comes from making music anywhere.
They Should Also Have Weighted Action
If you’ve ever run your hands along the keys of a traditional piano, you might have noticed the spring action in the keys. This is from the connection between the key attached to a lever that causes a felt-covered hammer to strike strings inside the piano. Many cheap digital pianos bypass this feel, creating an organ-like feeling instead. If you don’t learn with the weighted action, it’s more difficult to transfer your skills through to other pianos.
They focus on the wrong bells and whistles
If you’ve never played piano before, you might be tempted to purchase things for the “fun” factor. After all, being able to create sounds at the touch of a button sounds like a lot of fun. But if your goal is to learn how to play the piano, you’ll never use most of these sounds. You won’t use a piano to sound like a trombone. But you will quickly appreciate things like a built-in metronome.
Are you thinking of purchasing a piano for your child? Avoid the cheap digital pianos and invest in one you’re child will love to play. It’s the only way to get them excited about the opportunity of making music.
