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Hey all. I mainly will be playing using Piano Marvel on the computer and for midi input. I don't own a piano and would only play one on rare occasions. This would be my primary instrument as well. Is there injury risk or other factors I am not considering that I should be aware of?

as an aside, I am between either getting a Roland FP-10 on sale(was 400 during xmas) and the new Arturia Keylab Essential 88 key midi controller(currently 350 bucks and I don't know what the sale price would be).

thanks in advance!
kelly

No, there is no injury risk in using unweighted keys. Organs, and in recent times synths and keyboards, have always had unweighted keys and organ players are doing just fine, injury wise.

It is simply a different instrument, i.e. if you want to learn to play the piano, you should do so with weighted keys, otherwise you will never learn proper piano technique.

But if you don't care about that, it doesn't matter.

Or if your goal actually isn't even "proper piano technique" but instead is "proper organ technique", then an unweighted keyboard would actually be better.

So your goal should guide your decision.

FP10 for sure.
I think most synth player play some piano too

There is no injury risk playing with piano technique on a semi-weighted action but there is injury risk playing a piano or weighted action with a more finger-oriented organ technique instead of a full arm technique. The best suggestion is to use a semi-weighted action for organs and synthesizers and graded hammer action for pianos.

Between those two choices you gave, I would get the Roland FP-10.

If you're worried about tendonitis from a weighted action, you can adjust the touch settings on the Roland FP-10. You reduce the risk by setting the action to "light"

According to the manual you can set the touch setting to "light" or "superlight" with F5.

https://static.roland.com/assets/media/pdf/FP-10_eng01_W.pdf

It's explained here on the last page:




So I would get the Roland FP-10, but then adjust the touch setting to "superlight" everytime I turn it on (if that's not too much hassle to remember to do each time).

Three thoughts (for what they're worth) --

1. I studied piano as a kid, and took a _long_ break through adulthood.

When I re-started, I got a Korg X5D synth -- 61 touch-sensitive, synth-action keys.

After I'd been playing for a while, I found that it was difficult for me to maintain dynamic control -- for example, to play a scale with even volume.

So I switched to weighted keys (the PX-350), and that problem disappeared. (Well, it never _disappears_, but it got substantially better.)

Unless you have had previous problems with tendonitis, I wouldn't worry about it. Unless you plan to spend a _lot_ of time playing, and playing seriously (like for exam prep, or recital prep), you should be fine.

2. If you're not playing piano music, do you need 88 keys ?

3. I think that the Arturia keyboard has _no built-in sounds_. So you're tied to a computer, or some other device. Whereas the Roland FP-10 (while it's heavy) can be carried as a self-contained unit.

Either choice will work, if you want it to.

Three thoughts (for what they're worth) --

1. I studied piano as a kid, and took a _long_ break through adulthood.

When I re-started, I got a Korg X5D synth -- 61 touch-sensitive, synth-action keys.

After I'd been playing for a while, I found that it was difficult for me to maintain dynamic control -- for example, to play a scale with even volume.

So I switched to weighted keys (the PX-350), and that problem disappeared. (Well, it never _disappears_, but it got substantially better.)

Unless you have had previous problems with tendonitis, I wouldn't worry about it. Unless you plan to spend a _lot_ of time playing, and playing seriously (like for exam prep, or recital prep), you should be fine.

2. If you're not playing piano music, do you need 88 keys ?

3. I think that the Arturia keyboard has _no built-in sounds_. So you're tied to a computer, or some other device. Whereas the Roland FP-10 (while it's heavy) can be carried as a self-contained unit.

Either choice will work, if you want it to.

There is injury risk playing organ with a graded hammer weight keyboard even if a lighter touch setting is used.