EASY Digital Piano Guide

In this section we will give you in an orderly and concise way all the basic concepts about the electronic or digital piano.First of all, let us clarify certain aspects of the matter. With this post you will know the difference between the different types of pianos that exist and you will know which electronic piano to buy.

What is the difference between a digital piano and a digital keyboard?

This is a major question when it comes to obtaining a digital piano. The difference between digital piano, electronic keyboard. We leave you a slide that illustrates the difference and below you have the differences in detail. And it helps us define what an electronic piano is so that it is well understood.

Electronic or Digital Piano

The digital piano or electronic piano attempts to simulate the behavior and appearance of an acoustic piano.

The important thing about a digital piano is that it imitates the sound of a piano as faithfully as possible. For this there are several systems and even some digital pianos imitate part of the acoustic piano mechanism. Although in the end the sound is digital. There are also hybrid pianos.

What electronic pianos do is bring the advantages of the digital. To begin with, you can study in silence, connect your piano to the computer, and they are usually cheaper, less heavy…..

They are very good options for the pianist who wants to study or work at home and nowadays they are so achieved that you can study until the advanced music studies at conservatory  with them.

Portable Digital Piano

A common portable Electronic Piano that usually has a weight of 11 KG. Really useful to transport it everywhere.

Music Keyboards

When we talk about an electronic keyboard, we are thinking more of a keyboard with 61 keys or less with a wide variety of sounds.Musical keyboards are usually lighter and are not so much intended to imitate an acoustic piano. They have piano sound and also many more sounds of other musical instruments.They can bring a pedal and some sensitivity to the keyboard. But they’re not meant to study piano in them. They are very light around 5 kg and are very good to compose if they have MIDI to connect them to the computer, or to take them to a rehearsal as a secondary keyboard.

A little history of the digital piano

The history of digital pianos is directly related to electronic music. It is during the 70’s – 80’s when the piano keyboard or digital piano reaches its maximum fame.

The Hammond organ, a symbol of the 1960s, is not a digital piano but it opens a different door to traditional pianos. It is really an instrument of analogical technology based on electromagnetism and amplification through amplifiers that the instrument was coupled. Invented by Laurens Hammond, its production begins in 1935! With a sound that has marked epoch and a great influence on soul, jazz, rock …

In spite of being of analog technology the Hammond organ during the 70’s competed with the first digital keyboards of brands like Casio and Roland. Next we leave you a video so that you listen to its sound, sure that it makes you travel in time. Today most digital keyboards and pianos offer the possibility to imitate their sound.

It is not easy to say who invented the first electric piano but we go with a bit of history of their most iconic brands:

In the 1970s, the first digital pianos based on oscillators began to be manufactured. Brands such as Roland introduced the EP-10 in 1973. Casio instead began its activity throughout the 80’s with innovative keyboards that became very popular. Casio released his first CPS-201 digital piano in 1986.

Roland released his first piano with sensitivity on the EP-30 keyboard in order to be able to play louder or looser already in the year 74, although of course these key sensitivity systems were not at all as good with the current ones. These models were still far from imitating real pianos although it was a very important advance in allowing dynamic changes while playing the keyboard.

It was not until the early 1980s that pianos and piano keyboards with MIDI arrived. So that they can communicate with other devices that also understand this protocol for sending information. Nowadays this protocol and the advances in computer science bring us possibilities never seen before, as much in the learning of the instrument as in the field of the production and musical composition.

How to learn to play the digital piano?

Whether we have an electronic piano or a real piano the technique is the same. There are several ways to learn, you can learn self-taught with methods or with classes. Of course a teacher is always recommended if the student can afford it but many can not and today there are digital media that allow a fairly complete self-taught learning.

The piano keyboard or electronic piano opens a way for us in the musical learning that did not exist until now. The fact of being ableconnect our keyboard to a computerallows us to monitor everything we do and interact with music learning software. In such a way that the computer program itself can give uscorrect. With the previous methods it was much more difficult to know if you did well or badly. (Music Production Expert)

To learn you can use the following resources or a combination of them:

• Books with DVD
• Websites with online tutorials
• Face-to-face classes: Both private classes at home and at school are the best way but also the most expensive.
• Iinteractive apps such as Flowkey or Piano Marvel.

In this same web we have a guide to learn to play the piano, and not only that, we guide you on the last resources at your disposal of which we have spoken to you, but in depth. Do not hesitate to visit our guide for piano learning, you will also find in it an entire free course to learn to play the piano and a post where we propose interactive tools to learn piano in a self-taught way.

What digital piano I should buy?

As we have seen there are different types of keyboards depending on the number of piano keys. If we want to practice the piano and we are not interested in portability, the best thing is a digital piano with a upright appearance like the Yamaha Arius. Although I always recommend having portability in mind.

The important thing is that the keys are weighted to simulate the touch of a real piano. Today’s technology allows these systems to be very faithful to the actual touch of an acoustic piano. Summarizing an electronic piano is the one that has at least:

• 88 sensitive and weighted keys
• MIDI to connect it to the computer.
• Sustain pedal input to keep the note in time.

​The most popular brands of electric pianos and the ones we review the most are Yamaha  Korg, and Casio, Kawai and Roland electric pianos. On the other hand, the leading musical instruments store in Spain and Europe has developed its own piano brand. We are talking about Thomann and the truth is that for beginners it is an interesting option.

On the other hand there are many stores to buy this type of musical instruments. It would be yours to have a physical store next door with all the necessary stock but that is not usually the case. Now it is normal to buy the electronic piano online for years and there are shops that offer very powerful prices. The best known are Thomann and Musicstore but there are other very powerful as Woodbrass. For second hand and see if you have opportunities also Amazon is very good

From Kawai the most popular model is the electric piano Kawai ES110 and from Roland the Roland FP 30

In this blog you will find hundreds of reviews of digital pianos. The truth is that right now I more or less have reviews of all the important pianos to consider but so that you do not lose I help you with the following posts:

If your budget is less than 300 euros visit my selection with the cheapest electronic keyboards. In this section you will find keyboards with sensitivity but not weight on the keys. They usually have 61 keys and are a very valuable option to start with low budget.

If on the other hand your budget is more than 300 visit our guide with the most convenient electronic pianos in relation price and quality.

Are you looking for a piano that looks more like an upright piano and we’re already talking about you wanting to spend more than 900 euros? Then look at this guide with digital upright pianos.

Accessories for our digital piano

Our digital piano accessories are listed below. Of course this will depend on whether you have chosen a digital piano or a portable piano:

Choosing the right case for our electronic pianos

Many pianos have similar shapes and dimensions but the weight can vary significantly from one model to another. In this section we wanted to deal with this issue from the point of view of portability, as a couple of kg are a very important factor for a person who is moving his tool daily.

Apart from the weight of the instrument we have to pay attention to the case that we will use to carry it, it is very important that it is as ergonomic as possible, most are usually backpack type but we have to find one that has a good balance between protection thickness and ergonomics. It is an important decision when choosing this accessory.

This leads us to ask ourselves which combination to choose, because if we have a high quality keyboard we will always be afraid to choose a very thin case. This fear is logical and surely if all our material is new we will never be able to avoid these insecurities. But we’ll lose those fears if we choose a good cover. It does not need to be rigid, if it is well padded we will be able to transport our keyboard with total security. So the best thing to do is to focus on making the instrument as light as possible and the sleeve as padded as possible, even if we have to pay a little more.

What about the rigid covers? They are much more expensive but if you can afford them the important thing is that they are with backpack handles because otherwise you will suffer a lot from the back. In order for a rigid case to be light, the price has to be high, so this already depends on the budget of each one. However, it should always be a backpack if you have to carry it regularly without a car.

Digital Piano Stands

If we have a portable digital piano or a keyboard we have to think about the support we will use for it. And it’s not usually worth a table because in a concert it’s aesthetically wrong to put the keyboard on a table that we use to take to the beach and place the food and beers on it 🙂

Always thinking about the portability of our keyboard we can find supports with a very reduced weight and quite comfortable to carry to be foldable. So we can carry them in our hands while we carry the keyboard and pedal in a backpack case.

Light Piano Stand

Digital piano pedal

This is already the other element that is missing to have the complete pack, the pianos have pedals that allow to maintain the note in the time and are a must in the interpretation. So don’t forget to buy one, especially if you want to give the piano to someone and you don’t know what it’s all about. You won’t be the first to order a keyboard and then you’ve noticed that the pedal is missing and you can’t order it online and pay the shipping costs again. You can order it with the whole keyboard, because with its price the pedal shipping will also be free in most of the sites. With the advantages over the price you usually have to buy online.

There are pedals that are very cheap but they are pieces of plastic of very bad quality, so that when little to use them tend to squeak. In general they are not expensive items anyway. Those of a certain quality range from 20 to 50 €. And many pianos already come with the sustain pedal (the one to hold the note even if you release the key).

Sustain pedal

Piano bench

Another important accessory, especially if we are going to study several hours at the piano. It is important to choose an adjustable chair to avoid back injuries and pain. If you are interested in the subject of this tutorial on ergonomics and how to choose the perfect stool.

Music and audio production

To finish the guide you may be interested in pianos with DJ or music production functions in the future. Do not hesitate to take a look at many of the reviews below.

These include Yamaha PSR musical keyboards. Both the professional series S and E more for beginners. These are keyboards with controls for modifying live music (DJ functions).

On the other hand there are very complete pianos that are the dream of any professional but they are already going to a higher price than the digital pianos that we propose in this guide. You have an example in the Nord Piano. A real dream that has everything.

Another very interesting aspect is to create your own music and sounds from scratch with an electronic instrument such as synthesizer keyboards. Synths are a bit more complex…

On the other hand if you simply want a more affordable midi controller to have fixed in the computer or want to know more about how to connect your piano to the computer here we leave the link to our section on MIDI keyboards

If you’re interested in acoustic and grand pianos take a look at our post on the types of piano that exist.

Reviews and post of this section: