Thinking about picking up a piano keyboard, advice?

The_Spaniard

When I was a kid I had a low end electric piano keyboard. I don't read music, but I loved fiddling with it and working out various songs by ear. A while back my mother decided I did not play it often enough and went to store in our outside storage run on the side of the house with nothing but a black trash bag covering half of it. Of course it rained and killed the thing which made me very sad.

Anyway, I've been moved out for a while now and here and there get a hankering to play this or that song and then lament the lack of a piano to play them with, so I thought I'd look into a cheap keyboard. I have no idea where to start though. I did a quick search on Amazon and this came up. Looks like a good deal and comes with all the accessories I'd need. Though I have no idea, so I'd like some advice, are there any better ones I could get, what's the best one I could go for with a budget under 200 bucks, is there a place I could get a better price on this one?

I'm no enthusiast, I just want something I can tinker with here and there when the urge grabs me that sounds good, and I'd rather not spend more than 200 bucks if I don't have to.

Michael H

That looks as good as any in that price range. Looking used on Craigslist will probably yield you a nicer keyboard for the money, but "upgrades" that might considered like weighted keys, 76 or 88 keys, etc. usually come in a higher price range than $200 will allow. But if you want a new, no-fuss-no-muss, delivered to your door keyboard for messing around on, then yes, what you linked is a good way to go.

Another place to poke around is Musician's Friend, just to browse by price/manufacturer to get a feel for what's available.

Rigor Mortis

That keyboad should be fine for what you want. I would suggest picking up a sustain pedal as well. (I couldn't live without one.)


I used to prefer the feel of Casio keyboards to Yamahas in this price range since Casios felt like levers and Yamahas like sponges, but it was ten years back I was looking so this isn't necessarily still valid.

surrealitycheck

Yeah there are a lot of pieces that don't work without a sustain pedal.

Michael H

http://accessories.musiciansfriend.com/product/Yamaha-FC4-PianoStyle-Sustain-Pedal?sku=151550

The_Spaniard

Thanks for the advice on Musician's Friend. Ordered, and then when I got to the checkout screen it asked if I had a promo code. Whenever I am shopping online and the checkout asks me this I ALWAYS google the name of the store and "promo codes". Found one that saved me an extra 10 bucks on my order, so I got the keyboard, stand, and pedal for 180 bucks. Sweet deal! Shipping was pretty killer too, free shipping and it will arrive in 2-5 days. 8-)

Michael H

Nice! Yeah, I always do a search on promo codes; there's so many sites that specialize in such matters that you can usually find any existing bargains pretty quickly. Enjoy rocking out with your keyboard.

The_Spaniard

I think the first 2 songs I'm going to play on it will be;
Bink's Sake - One Piece
and
Death and Life - Lost

surrealitycheck

Try this: It's not as hard as it sounds, and it's fantastic for testing the sustain pedal :P

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXOJwGO9sEg

SniperGuy

Any good online free keyboard teaching tutorials? I know there's "Nota" on the apple app store, but that's not free, and my iPhone is not a big enough device for that. I've got a keyboard, but I can't play it worth a damn.

The_Spaniard

I hope it arrives today, it was supposed to come within 2-5 days. =P

Rigor Mortis

SniperGuy wrote: »

Any good online free keyboard teaching tutorials? I know there's "Nota" on the apple app store, but that's not free, and my iPhone is not a big enough device for that. I've got a keyboard, but I can't play it worth a damn.

Are you looking to develop general skills or tutorials for a specific song?

The_Spaniard

Rigor Mortis wrote: »

SniperGuy wrote: »

Any good online free keyboard teaching tutorials? I know there's "Nota" on the apple app store, but that's not free, and my iPhone is not a big enough device for that. I've got a keyboard, but I can't play it worth a damn.

Are you looking to develop general skills or tutorials for a specific song?

Oh, I'd like some tips on developing general skills.

SniperGuy

Same here. Other than being able to name the keys, personally I have no more training.

surrealitycheck

The most vital thing is simply this:

If you want to learn to read sheet music, spend as much time as you can sight reading with both hands simultaneously. Force yourself to learn the notes. I always slacked on the sight reading, and it meant that as I got better it took longer and longer to learn pieces as my technical ability outran my sight reading.

DeathPrawn

If you want general skill, look up Hanon's "The Virtuoso Pianist in 60 Exercises". A quick google search is showing lots of dirt cheap print copies (new on Amazon is less than $7, and that's the high end of the scale), and even some online places with the content for free. Basically, it's the gold standard of simple keyboard exercises to build finger dexterity - simple variations on scales to help you build up the proper muscles.