Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Portable keyboard (under $500) to practice when traveling

I have been taking private piano lessons for almost two years. I believe keeping my playing/practicing consistent is important to achieve my goals. I travel quite often which kind of puts a dent on my progress. My piano instructor agrees. I am looking for a portable keyboard that I can easily take on flights. At home we have a Roland LX-17 for my daily practice. For better portability, it seems to me that I should stick to keyboards with around 61 keys. So, I have been looking at the Roland Piano Go, although I have not tried one in person. There is also the Yamaha NP-12, but from video reviews it seems like that Roland Piano Go offers better features such as more realistic keys (although the action apparently is still subpar) and it weighs only 8.6 lb. My choosing criteria are: (1) portability - compact size/weight, (2) Good action. I will be using headphones most of the time in hotel rooms so having great sound from internal speakers is not that important.

Are there any other keyboards out there that I should be considering?

Thank you!

See this thread here.

Man, that 61-key Roland:GO piano looks pretty awesome.

What do you mean by “portability”?
a. Fits in your car?
b. Airline friendly?
c. Fits in your backpack?

All compromises - and not necessarily “practice” friendly.

have wrestled with this issue myself for some time now. so far, we've located vacation rentals that had basic console-sized uprights (one had a mediocre spinet, another had a nearly new medium sized yamaha grand), but it's obviously a big limiting factor on where we can travel without me dealing with piano withdrawal.

my conclusions thus far, there aren't any good weighted-action portables smaller than 73 keys long or about 10 kilos in weight. yamaha has a 73 key weighted action (p-121) around that weight. for airline travel it would require a hard case weighing about the same as it does. dexibel makes something about the same size, more $$, but they're difficult to find in the u.s. to test play. there are a number of options for fully weighted actions once you make the jump to 88 keys, some are fairly light in weight, and casio has just come out with models that are considerably slimmed down in overall dimensions.

am now considering 61 to 76 - key workstation keyboards, but even there, the casio CTX- models (700, 3000, 5000) can't be found in our area to test play. the roland 'go piano' action was simply too insubstantial for me, and that might be the case with the next batch of keyboards in my search.

I bought one and returned it. Awful keyboard action. Felt like a cheap plastic toy.

Somewhat related:
https://forum.pianoworld.com/ubbthre...mmer-action-controllers.html#Post2854930
https://forum.pianoworld.com/ubbthre...s-cheaper-than-go-piano.html#Post2755574
https://forum.pianoworld.com/ubbthre...and-go-keys-vs-go-piano.html#Post2796399
https://forum.pianoworld.com/ubbthre...-for-a-compact-keyboard.html#Post2855959

You may find https://forum.pianoworld.com/ubbthre...-piano-with-good-action.html#Post2793282 useful.

Osho

This one exceeds my budget at almost $900 USD, but what do you guys think about it?

https://pianodevoyage.com/

YouTube: https://youtu.be/ajTGlaebUAE

Think it’s $300 per 24 keys? Still a bit expensive. Good idea, maybe if the price comes down, it’s robust enough for travel and use, and becomes available to buy, available at lower price. Not for me there’s always alternatives unless you’re in the wilderness, and then why play piano.

Hi Everyone,
I was also on the market for the same kind of DP,
Portable, short, light, easy to carry by plane...and above all, with weighted keys, similar to a “ normal DP “

Unfortunately, currently, , there is no DP With 61 keys with weighted action that ticks all the boxes....
The Go Piano is really far from my expectations, “ action wise”... the keys are spring loaded.... impossible with my basic experience to play and learn with it.
I tried it multiple times though.

I went to the p-121 Yamaha , 73 keys, with a flight case adapted to it ( swanflight )
In my opinion, it’s the best compromise for the time being.
( personally, with pianoteq because the build in sounds are not very good)

I think the real value of this is for people who travel by plane. It may be the only way to get more than 37 keys in a carry-on. Saving the cost of checked/oversized luggage and the cost of an ATA approved case could quickly justify the cost of this. Plus you wouldn't have to lug anything heavy around... those ATA cases have significant weight even before you put a keyboard in them!