The modern, much cheaper, alternative to the traditional piano is the electronic keyboard. Some people buy themselves keyboards and offer their traditional pianos for (next to) nothing. However, the cost of removal and (yearly) tuning can make them an expensive buy, and the touch may be too heavy for a learner – which is very unlikely in the case of a keyboard.

 

While the professional ideal is a ‘hammers and strings’ piano, carefully chosen and costing over £1000, the wise and practical choice for a learner is a digital keyboard costing around £100.

 

Watch out for the following features in any on-line listing:

 

• a range of at least 61 full-sized keys (ideally 88)

• the keys weighted so that the user feels some resistance

• touch sensitivity, so that depressing keys gently gives quiet notes and banging them down annoys the neighbours!

 

This leads me to the first of some optional extras:

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• an earphone socket and earphones.

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Other optional extras include

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• a stool

• a trestle or proper wooden mounting

• If there’s a mounting, one or two pedals fixed at its base.

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Mounted like this, a keyboard can well be called a piano!

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Amazon currently have the Yamaha PSR-F52 Digital Keyboard at £76. With 61 weighted, touch-sensitive keys this fulfils the essentials and can be powered from either batteries or mains. Other retailers offer it packaged with some of the ‘optional extras,’ pushing the price to around £116.