To start your child out on the right path, you’ll need to invest in a quality piano. Not just any piano will do. 

If you wanted your child to take up tennis, you wouldn’t present them with a basket of flat balls. The game would quickly become difficult, and your child would be discouraged. 

The same applies to music. While you might not need a professional quality piano, having one that doesn’t do the job well will leave your child anything but excited about practicing. A good experience while learning should be your ultimate goal. 

With so many options available, where should you start to look? 

You’ll find three different categories: electronic keyboards, digital pianos, and acoustic pianos. 

Acoustic

Consider acoustic pianos to be the real thing. The sooner a student has the opportunity to practice on an acoustic piano, the better. Acoustic pianos produce sound from real strings and real wood, which offers a level of responsiveness and a range of dynamics no digital can ever match. 

True, acoustic pianos are your most expensive category. Depending on if you look at uprights or grands, they can cost into the thousands of dollars. But there are options. You can find good used pianos on the market. If you are purchasing a used, don’t fall for the “finding one for free” on Craigslist trap. These are often of poor quality and even worse sound, which will make the playing experience bad. 

Digital

While it’s impossible to completely simulate the experience of playing on an acoustic with a digital, there’s nothing wrong with starting on a high quality digital. Digital pianos are designed to sound and feel as much like an acoustic piano as possible. They are smaller, meaning you can tuck them away when your playing is through, and less expensive than an upright piano. 

They can also be motivators to kids that want to combine their love of music with their love of technology. Digital pianos make it easy to transfer their music to the computer for easy editing, posting, and sharing. 

Keyboards

Many parents get hooked into keyboards because of the price. Yet they don’t offer a beginning student all they need to learn piano. They may learn key placement, but keyboards often don’t have properly weighted keys and don’t have the sounds that carry through on a real piano. And because they often don’t have a full 88 keys, they won’t be able to play every song presented to them, which isn’t enough for advanced students to move on. 

There are advantages and disadvantages to all. The best way to make your decision is to weigh your odds, and learn all you can about each of your choices. We can help.