Digital vs. Acoustic Pianos
Found in: Equipment
Carrie G.
My piano is on its last leg. Some of the keys don’t have the same touch they used to, the sustain pedal squeaks, and the tone is a bit tinny – by the end of the day I’m glad no one is playing it.
Here’s my deal… I was at CostCo this last weekend and tried out a Casio keyboard.
May I take a moment to add that for the first time in my life, I sat down played chords – just fiddling really – and was able to come up with a chord progression that sounded amazing! I just let it happen. Let me just say that I surprised myself at what I was able to do just by playing chords and adding a little rhythm. I had no idea I could do that! Previously, I used sit down and play only scales to check out pianos. I surprised myself and smiled at what I did. On top of that, I impressed passers by and took it as an opportunity to had out my business card! NEVER IN MY LIFE HAS SOMETHING LIKE THIS HAPPENED. I never would have had the nerve to sit down and mess around in a public place, much less NOT play Beethoven or some other piece that I hadn’t spent the better part of a year polishing and perfecting. It was absolutely exhilarating!
Back to my question, the keyboard had a wonderfully warm tone, it felt just like a piano and it is much better than any piano I could afford right now. It has a pedal, is touch sensitive and 88 weighted keys.
My husband and I considered it seriously, until he asked “Well, do you think that new students or your existing students would take you seriously as a piano teacher if you didn’t have a piano?”
Neil Moore
Firstly Carrie,
Congratulations on the successful experience playing keyboard at CostCo. These types of experiences happen for teachers, quite often actually, and catch the teacher by surprise. I think it is great for us to share these stories with one another, as well as with your students, and even potential teachers.
Regarding your choice of instrument, whilst it is absolutely a very real and appropriate expectation that a piano teacher use a quality instrument as their tool of trade, there is also no doubt that a quality digital piano falls into this category. So the question comes back to budget. I have an excellent digital piano, and a nice looking, but pretty ordinary baby-grand (the one you see in the videos). I like to teach on a piano, but I would have no qualms about teaching on the digital if it was all I had.
Obvious Negatives:
- The keyboard is not a ‘living’ instrument, and will never have that ‘alive’ sound.
- The keyboard won’t have the same action and physical responsiveness of an acoustic piano.
- It probably won’t look as good.
Positives:
- It never needs tuning.
- It’s quite portable.
- You can completely control the volume.