Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards What exactly is a digital piano? Is it a real piano?

What I mean is, if I learn to play on a digital piano and have no contact whatsoever with an acoustic am I really learning to play the piano? Can I tell other people that I can play the piano, without the need to add "digital" before the name of the instrument? Will I be able to sit down in front of an acoustic piano, eventually, and know how to play it as well?

Sure you will.

And no, you don't need to add "digital".. you can just say you play piano.

pianointhejungle, I have read your post, here:

What I mean is, if I learn to play on a digital piano and have no contact whatsoever with an acoustic am I really learning to play the piano? Can I tell other people that I can play the piano, without the need to add "digital" before the name of the instrument? Will I be able to sit down in front of an acoustic piano, eventually, and know how to play it as well?

___________

You probably know what an acoustic guitar is and you probably know what an acoustic violin is, too. You probably also know what an acoustic drum set is, too.

An electric guitar, an electric violin, an electric piano, and an electric drum set are all very, very, very, very, very different from the acoustic versions of the instruments BUT you can certainly tell people, yes, you can play a piano when you are playing an electric/digital piano without saying anything more.

You can tell people you have a bike and you are a biker and your have been a biker all your life and you are a rough, tough, dirty biker without telling people you are riding a bicycle - and without saying you are not riding a motorbike.

cheers,

3B26BIK

This just isn't true. There are differences yes, but not of the magnitude stated above so please disregard Michael's nonsensical post.

The skills needed to play and enjoy and perform on a digital piano are exactly the same as those needed on an acoustic. The acoustic is a beast from which the player can extract more tone, more nuance, more variation, more of everything. But the skills are the same. Every instrument is different and there would be a period of adjustment needed when swapping between acoustics and digitals - or between different acoustics or digitals of different makes. But this is rarely a big deal. The skills are the same.

You play a digital piano and you are playing "the piano".

jeje... I hope that will not be understood as a comparation between a "rough, tough, dirty biker" (top grand piano player) and a guy riding a "bicycle" with training wheels (digital piano). Or is it the opposite way?

I think that if you can play a good digital you can play an acoustic, but it will need some adjusting. I noticed that I hit the keys too hard on the acoustic and generally play better on a digital because I'm more used to it and control it better, but I think that if I had the chance to play acoustics more often I would be able to play both well... when I get better at playing piano, of course!

Right now I just bought a new digital and need to get used to the different action, so I think that one has to adjust to each piano, acoustic or digital.

Check vkgoeswild channel on youtube. She plays both digital and acoustic. I enjoy listening to her no matter which instrument and she seems to enjoy playing both of them as well. BTW her headphones looks quite big :-) AKG I guess.

Traditional musical instruments are made from various kind of wood and metal, with occasional hide (animal skin) and felt (a non-woven textile).

The so called digital piano is a modern electrical device made to imitate the appearance, sound, and touch (feel) of a traditional (acoustic) piano.

It is absolutely fine to begin your piano lesson on a digital piano, provided it's a well-made and imitate the best of an acoustic piano. If you learn the piano well, you will be able to sit down in front of an acoustic piano and know how to play it.

Your analogies aren't quite accurate.

digitals are different from acoustic instruments, which is very true. Even every and each acoustic piano different from each other.

As a matter of fact, the difference between a digital piano and a grand piano is less than the difference between an awful upright and a grand piano.

This, exactly.

Unless the digital piano is also awful, in which case the difference is negligible.

To answer the OP's rhetorical question in the title of this thread, no, a DP is not a "real" piano.

But when someone asks you whether you play the piano, you can answer 'yes', even if your piano is digital - unless it's such a bad one that it's unweighted and is really a cheap keyboard, that you can't transfer your playing - even to a small extent - to the real thing.

I don't bother to say that my 'piano' is a DP when I post in Pianist Corner. In this forum, I do .

Well, I walked in to the piano shop at Penrith, a small market-city in the N of England. And staring at me was this orange-y looking acoustic upright. Very small, 88 keys mind. And a sloping front which assured me as to it`s quality. So I sat down to play it, as you do. It was a 30yo Yamaha and it`s price was £1650. Which, of course, meant £1500 would be accepted. I was told it needed tuning. It didn`t, except in the lower registers slightly.

The action was lighter than any of the digitals in the shop. It was both easy and enjoyable to play; it passed my "complicated Piano assessment Music" with ease. Which is more than any of the digitals did. . . I suppose they`re all different, acoustic or digital. But they`re also all pianos, from the cheapest to the most expensive. Beware anyone who say otherwise . . .

If you can write with a pencil I'm sure you can write with a Mont Blanc pen too. Do they feel the same?..no..but I can still read it. The question address if he "can" play it, not how well playing it.

pianointhejungle, I have read your post, here:

subject: What exactly is a digital piano? Is it a real piano?

What I mean is, if I learn to play on a digital piano and have no contact whatsoever with an acoustic am I really learning to play the piano? Can I tell other people that I can play the piano, without the need to add "digital" before the name of the instrument? Will I be able to sit down in front of an acoustic piano, eventually, and know how to play it as well?

__________

Yes, I was being demonstrative.

I played a guitar for about a year and I was a terrible guitar player. I played an acoustic with nylon strings, it was not very loud when I played it and it was very easy on the fingers. I played an acoustic steel stringed guitar. It had a rich loud sharp sound and the thin wire strings were hard on my fingers with pain until the callouses formed. The electric guitar was cool but it didn't sound like an acoustic guitar and you definitely need a pick to play it in any meaningful way.

I played an acoustic student model violin that had such a rich sound - all acoustic violins do - that it brought tears to eyes as my ears absorbed the awesome sounds. It was loud and lots of work
to create the beautiful sound. My electric violin was awesome because it was easy to play, easy to play quietly because when not plugged in and NOT being acoustic it was perfect to take to the hospital because was light, and I could play it in a hospital bed and people 10 feet a way in another bed couldn't hear me. That is how awesome an electric violin was and is. The bow was the same for both the acoustic and the electric violin but the feel and the sounds were totally different in to many different ways.

And others have said: The skills needed to play and enjoy and perform on a digital piano are exactly the same as those needed on an acoustic.

And I agree.

And others have said:

The acoustic is a beast from which the player can extract more tone, more nuance, more variation, more of everything. But the skills are the same. Every instrument is different and there would be a period of adjustment needed when swapping between acoustics and digitals - or between different acoustics or digitals of different makes. But this is rarely a big deal. The skills are the same.

And I will say:

When I used to play with guys in my shack my digital - a clavinova CLP-50, 25 years old, beautiful 18 inch speakers with a velvet touch and always joy to play and hear - but as awesome as was 25 years ago - we couldn't hear the piano when anybody play a sax, or a trumpet because it does remotely have the volume of an acoustic piano so I had to use a huge amp that was connect to the digital piano.

When I played my digital piano for six months as a beginner - it was because it had been sitting in my shack for 25 years gathering dust and never played other the occasional scales when the guys came over and played and I played my saxophone. So as I was saying I started playing my digital when I was 62 and after 6 months I realized my digital - as awesome as it was - was not remotely the same as a digital piano. Let me tell you why. When I played the digital piano, I only ever play it pp which means very, very, very, softly. It is very, very easy to do it on an digital - not because it is electric and you can turn the volume down - no - no - it is because it is such an easy gentle touch compared to an acoustic piano but here it the monumental difference between an acoustic piano and a digital piano. When you play a digital piano of any value or quality - like a 10,000 dollar digital - there is what is called in the electronic world called decay. Now - to me - the word is awesome because when I think of the word decay, it is to me something dying a slow death and when I play a digital piano quietly, slowly or even if I play the digital piano keys pounding them hard - the digital piano 88 key sound - sadly dies by the sound of about the count of 8 at the metronome speed of 30 MM. But when I play a cheap throw away street acoustic piano that are famous around the world in Canada the USA, London, England that are so bad that they are going to be thrown in the dump but then fixed a bit to be played a bit and the sound of acoustics as so awesome that sound seems to go for at least way, way more - and goes for ever and ever and then ever so slowly fades - even without the touch of a pedal.

Which reminds me - on an digital piano if I use the pedal it sounds like a terrible muddy sound not remotely like an acoustic.

As I said the digital piano was an easy velvet touch but on an acoustic it took me 6 months to play pp or softly and even now 2 years later playing pp on an acoustic piano is like going to the gym every day to keep the pain down and your muscle toned because it that difficult to play pp or softly on the acoustic piano because the nuance of the touch, feel, pressure, strength is very, very difficult to play properly and consistant whereas on an acoustic it is a none issue.

Now as I say, I only every play pp on the digital and my acoustic 3 legged secondhand piano so I don't know how loud my acoustic can be even though I live in a shack and can play it loud, I know it could be very, very loud and is loud if I play it normally which I have only done once or twice.

So with the greatest of respect to the entire world of piano players on the planet regardless of age and ability, I respectfully disagree that any acoustic piano or digital piano are remotely similar - even though play I play my digital Yam P95 and Yam acoustic 3 legged secondhand piano everyday and I love both those pianos very, very much but as beginner piano player of 2 years without a teacher because I can't afford one,

I rest my case. Thanks for reading.

cheers,

3B26PNO

I'd say an electric guitar is more different from an acoustic guitar than a digital piano is from an acoustic piano, though. An electric guitar is not typically designed specifically to try to sound and feel like an acoustic guitar, but a digital piano is designed to try to sound and feel like an acoustic piano.

BTW, most people would not refer to a digital piano as an electric piano. The term "electric piano" has typically been applied to some kind of physical (non-electronic) sound generating mechanism, amplified, i.e. Rhodes, Wurli, CP-80. Much like an electric guitar has actual strings, amplified.

[quote=Michael_99 The electric guitar was cool but it didn't sound like an acoustic guitar and you definitely need a pick to play it in any meaningful way.

[/quote]

Sorry Michael, but I really have to disagree with that statement.

Sometimes I play on a Rollup piano; when people ask, should I bring up the fact that my (other) piano rolls up into a comfy carrying bag?

I really like her playing! She can play absolutely anything, from classical to metal, and at risk of many people here saying that she can't play classical, I think that she plays it very decently. She's done the best cover of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody I've heard, and that one is in my list. She's also done a lot of great covers and I'd love to be able to play like her, full stop. I'm not only looking at classical.