Facts About the Digital or Electronic Keyboard

The digital piano keyboards are usually used by those who are either learning to play the piano or is already an acoustical pianist and desires something a bit portable to take on trips for practice purposes and of course, other reasons.  There are some characteristics you may want to consider prior to buying a digital piano so that you can make the absolute right choice and meet your needs in a piano.

Digital pianos usually come with 88 keys like the acoustic piano.  The difference is that with the acoustic piano, small felt hammers hit strings that vibrate or resonate the sound and with digital pianos you have samples or recordings of strings or soundboard sound.  The keys strike electronic contacts.  So the sound board is replaced by the amplifier and speakers of an electronic piano or digital keyboard.

When playing a digital piano, the sound should resonate, it should sound like the acoustical piano and have a weighted keyboard which means it might have lighter feeling keys in the treble and heavy feeling keys in the bass.  If you practice play a digital piano you are interested in and your hands feel sore afterwards, the action on the keys might be too heavy for your hands which is definitely something you want to consider when you are purchasing.  You want to feel comfortable playing your keyboard and you want it to feel exactly like playing the acoustic piano.

Pay attention to the polyphony or simultaneous notes played.  The better keyboard will play 128 notes of polyphony.  You may not need that however, depending on your purpose for use of the keyboard.  The more polyphony you have, the more voices you have or notes.  Mor complicated pieces or songs require more voices or notes.  If you are playing a complicated song with less than 128 notes, the notes may cut off on you.  You can purchase a mid price 128 note keyboard from Yamaha or Roland usually.

The price of a good digital keyboard can usually range from $2,000.00 to $4,000.00 dollars.  The price always depends on the quality of sound and responsiveness of keyboard action.  There are extras like metronomes, sequencers, and voices that will add to the cost. 

Play many different keyboards to decide the sound you want and keyboard action.  Once you decide what is best for you, your purchase should satisfy your needs.