BEST DIGITAL PIANO
How To Choose The Best Digital Piano For You
When looking for digital pianos for sale, you will find the market is big, the range of pianos can be daunting and knowing where to begin your research can be a little overwhelming! I hope the information you find here will help you figure out exactly which digital piano will be the perfect one for your needs.
The Best Digital Piano – Things To Consider
When shopping for a new digital piano, The first thing I always tell my students is to choose the best piano your money can buy! Once you know your budget, then it’s easier to narrow your search down to the pianos that suit your budget the best!
There are a number of of factors you need to consider, to ensure you are getting the best electric piano for your home.
These factors include:
- What is your budget?
- What features do you need?
- Is your pianist a beginner, intermediate or advanced player?
- Is your pianist taking piano lessons?
- Do you need advanced features like recording and mixing?
- What size electric piano do you need?
- Where will you put your new piano in your home? How much space do you have?
- Do you have a particular colour in mind for your electric piano?
- Does your electric piano need to be portable or fixed?
Once you have decided these things, you will have a better idea where to start your research into finding the best digital piano for your needs.
Digital Vs Acoustic Piano
While an acoutsic piano is always recommended, there are some circumstances that mean a digital piano is your preferred option. There are a number of reasons a person may choose a digital piano over an acoustic piano.
These might include:
- I have a small budget, so I need a cheap piano
- Space is limited, so I need a small piano
- I move around a lot, and need a portable piano
- My house changes temperature a LOT, and I want to save on the piano tuning cost
- I need to be able to practice without annoying the neighbours, so I need a quiet piano, or at least one I can plug heaphones in when I need to!
- This is a beginners piano – I will upgrade once I know we will be continuing piano lessons!
The Best Digital Piano For Beginners
If you are buying a digital piano for a beginner pianist who will be taking piano lessons, it’s important to consider your piano has these features:
Weighted Keyboard
This is vital for a number of reasons, but the most important is that playing piano is a physical exercise. One of the most important things about piano practice is that pianists need to develop finger, hand and arm strength. This is almost impossible if your keyboard is not weighted. Experienced piano teachers know within a few short weeks if a student is practicing on an unweighted keyboard, because they do not develop the strength needed to control the keys. Over time, the difference becomes obvious to all! If you are planning to take piano lessons, then start off correctly – ensure your piano has weighted keys!
88 Key Piano Keyboard
Having a full length keyboard on your electric piano is important, for two reasons:
- Most shorter keyboards do not have weighted keys
- To ensure you have the full range of notes you need when learning the piano
- To assist with orienting yourself at the piano. If you have a keyboard at home, and take lessons or perform on a “real piano”, it can be hard to adjust to the larger look and feel of a full length keyboard. If you are planning to pursue music for more than a few months, then ensuring you have 88 keys from the beginning is important
Touch Sensitive Keyboard
When buying a digital piano, you will find touch responsive keyboards are standard. It is worth mentioning here, though, in case you are still considering buying a keyboard. Having touch sensitive notes aids musicality and develops the ear to hear more subtleties in your own playing, which in turn naturally develops a more music pianist.
These days, touch sensitivity is expected in a digital piano. The way the touch response is designed depends a lot on the brand and on your price range. The higher quality pianos will have each note individually sampled and you will find the tone changes realistically according to how hard or softly you strike a note.
Hammer Action Keyboard
These days, the good electric pianos include a true hammer action keyboard. This is great, because it simulates the true action and feel of an acoustic piano. Sigital pianos without hammer action can feel quite spnogy, and tend to be harder to adjust from when playing an acoustic piano.
Digital Piano Stands
Many electric pianos come with a built-in case. This is ideal, if your available space and budget allow for it! If you need to purchase a stand separately, then ensure you are getting a quality heavy-duty piano stand that will bear the weight of your 88 weighted keys!
The other consideration is that you need to make the piano a suitable height, so your pianist’s arms can hang straight from their shoulders, and go horizontally out to the piano, where the fingers curve naturally over to play – shoulders are relaxed, arms hang loosley, forearms are horizontal to the ground and fingers curve downward in a natural curve to the piano. If the piano is too high or too low, your arms will go “uphill” or “downhill” to the piano, and cause tension when playing and poor hand position. Early training in this area is vital in forming good habits, so please make sure your piano stand and stool are the correct height for your pianist!
Piano Stool Adjustable
If you can get an adjustable stool, this is ideal, because it’s rare that every pianist in a family are the same eight (or never grow!!). A height adjustable stool will help ensure you are seated correclty at the piano, and learn to play with the minimum of tension through your arms, hands and fingers.
Best Digital Piano Brands
There are many good digital piano brands, but to keep things simple, this website will be focussing on the top 4 digital piano brands in Australia for now.
These are:
Digital Pianos Australia
If you’re ready to buy a digital piano, our pianos can be shipped anywhere in Australia – Just ask!