My son is learning the piano...help!?

Question

My son is 9 years old and has just started learning the piano. Friday will actually only be his 2nd lesson. I was wondering what kind of keyboard/piano I could get for him at home that would help him with his practices? I d not have a lot of money to put into this and I want to make sure it is something he is going to stick with. Plus I do not have a big home. But, I was told by his instructor to get him something to play at home. Does anyone have any suggestions? I was told it needed to have big keys like a piano and not skinny keys. Anything else I should look for?

Answer 1

I had a Yamaha keyboard when I took piano lessons. I think it was about $200 at the time (maybe 1995?).

We got a folding stand for it so when I wasn't practicing, it folded and both the keyboard and the stand fit under my bed.

In fact, it's still there (13 years later). As you can see I didn't stick with it, but hopefully your son will have more patience than I did!

Answer 2

You don't have to have a full blown real piano. he's only nine. chances are he's not going to be a composer when he grows up. buy him a simple keyboard

yamaha possibly?

Answer 3

look for a keyboard that is touch sensitive so that it changes volume depending how hard you press the keys.  also make sure you get one with enough octaves (at least 4, preferably 5 or more -- the ones at my kids' group piano class have 5, but some of the kids' versions have fewer).

Answer 4

As a piano teacher I can tell you that even touch sensitve keyboards are NOT the same as a piano. I would recommend you find a piano dealer that will do rentals and go that route as it is less expensive than buying it outright. Keyboards also don't have pedals on them (unless you get big expensive ones that are thousands of dollars, but at that price you may was well buy an actual piano!) and he will need those when he gets to that point- and it will come up quicker than you realize in lessons!

If you have to have a keyboard understand they are a temporary fix and not meant to be a permanent solution to learn properly.  It should have at least 70 keys, full sized and weighted to touch.  Yamaha is good as is Korg or Roland. Anything else and you have a glorified toy.

Answer 5

Try pawn shops for a keyboard. They usually have several, and the prices are not bad.  It's not so much the features like different sounds and  drum beats that are important, it's the length of the keyboard and keys, as you already mentioned. As already posted, at least four octaves is a good size to start.

Answer 6

Try getting a used one on craigslist.

Answer 7

my son took piano for 3 years. He had a keyboard that was pretty nice, my husband's step father bought it for him used but ti worked great for home practice. I would suggest looking on ebay for a used one. The best kind to get are the full sized ones otherwise there aren't enough keys. You want to get a full size one so it has the same or close to the same amount of keys as a piano. My husband built a stand for it out of wood.

the other thing is if you can find one that comes with the peddle that is good because we didn't have that and once my son got into more extensive songs that he needed the peddle for, it made practicing harder because he didn't have a peddle to practice with. Because of this it made it harder for him to practice and so he didn't want to. eventually he lost interest and stopped playing. Now he is in middle school and he plays the saxophone in the band. Learning piano made it easy for him to pick up other instruments though. I think piano is a great instrument to learn.