Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Buying a Digital Piano

I have been taking lessons for about 1 1/2 years now. I played the trumpet for 50 years until I had a heart attack. After two years without music I bought a Roland E-09 keybaord. I did not think that I would progress and like it. My teacher has told me I need to get an 88 key piano. I am limited for space, but would like to get a an upright digital piano with layering, and nice sounds. I would like one with organ sounds , etc. Any advice would be helpful. Thanks in advance.

Would anybody be kind to recommend a keyboard player for 12 year beginner? Thanks.

Two excellent resources are the buyers guide:

http://www.pianoworld.com/Buying_A_Piano/buying_a_digital_piano.html

and the prices paid thread near the top of this forum. The prices paid thread indicates what people are buying, often after exhausting all the resources of this forum. I see every entry in the prices paid thread as a recommendation. Having the real world prices also helps shoppers in seeing what might be available at various price points.

There is no right or wrong answer. There tend to be trade offs as far as features, price. There are subjective judgements as far as touch, and sound samples.

/edit to add: I looked up the Roland E-09. For similar money there is the Casio PX-150 and Yamaha 105. Older used units from those companies will be less money, as will demo units or refurbished units. Those two and similar units from other companies, tend to be the low end of what gets recommended on this forum. A bit less money, is the Yamaha P35.

As a person goes up in price, there are more options. The already mentioned resources would be a good way to start. A price range will tend to narrow the search down.

As I have it myself, and love its primary piano sound over all competitors, I can´t recommend you to go for a model of the ROLAND HP series in your case. Although it claims to have the functionality for layering sounds and can do it for two sounds, it is much restricted in the possibilities of which sounds you can combine and also not comfortable at all on how to make use of the few possibilities it has. Finally, all sounds which are not the primary piano sound, lack of quality and can not compete with other keyboard´s sound. Without ever having tested them, but having heard and read about them, I would spontanously check what the YAMAHA CVP models (not to get confused with their CLP models) can offer you.

For a 12-year-old beginner (that's how I interpret what you wrote) I'd say get something not too expensive, small, and portable. If you can afford it that's the Yamaha P155 or Kawai EP3. If those are too pricey, then the Yamaha P105 or Casio PX150 (or 350) will do in a pinch.

To the OP, it depends on how much money you have available. I tend to recommend slab-style pianos over console models, but it sounds like for some reason you prefer a console (aesthetics?). Typical place to start is the Yamaha Arius line or if you can afford better, the Clavinova line or Kawai CN line. Even better is the Kawai CA line. I'm less familiar with Roland's console models. Some of them seem pretty good but very expensive to me.

Depending on how important "real piano sound" is, to you . . .

If you want good _configurable_ organs -- multiple simultaneous stops, or Hammond drawbar simulations -- you might want to look at the "synth / organ" market, as well as the "digital piano" market.

The trick is finding a keyboard with 88 _weighted_ keys (that is, a "piano action"), a good piano sound, _and_ good organ simulation - - -

. . . and still paying the rent and buying food.

. Charles