As long time members and participants in America’s large piano community and as piano educators, one of our goals is to help piano students across this country make the right piano buying decisions when it comes to purchasing pianos for their family or themselves. Whether it be for recreational piano playing enjoyment or for professional musical needs, we are here to help. Although we love playing acoustic pianos, especially the top grand pianos, our focus for our musical friends and piano students is on digital pianos.
We personally know many piano teachers around our our area and throughout America, and most piano teachers do one thing well…they teach piano playing. Piano teachers normally don’t have much experience with digital pianos, they usually own an upright or grand piano, and those acoustic pianos can be very satisfying to play. But many piano teachers simply don’t know how good some of these new digital pianos can be and the educational advantages they have. We believe a piano is there for you to musically express yourself and some of the new digital pianos do an outstanding job of allowing piano teachers like us to do that and help our piano students.
The word “digital” does not mean a digital piano cannot replicate a great piano playing experience. What the word “digital” means when it comes to piano playing is that it’s simply another way, and in most cases, a better way for families and individuals to musically express yourself in a satisfying way while playing the piano. A digital pianos is a piano…period. There are different qualities and abilities from various digital pianos just as there are in many acoustic pianos. Not all of them sound good or play good. There are good ones and there are bad ones. Just because a piano has 88 keys and produces sound does not mean that specific piano does it well. So be careful when wanting to purchase a digital piano because you don’t want to make a mistake.
There are various price ranges for digital pianos as well as many cabinet designs and colors. Some of them sound and play like “toys” while other ones are better than many acoustic pianos. So don’t be confused or mislead. The digital pianos out there that we recommended and are on our “Kevin & Katie Keys approved list” are the best name brand manufacturers such as Kawai, Yamaha, Roland, Korg, Casio, and Orla. These digital piano companies produce some amazing musical instruments and they can literally give you a lifetime of musical enjoyment and personal expression in a way that will make you musically happy and fulfilled.
There are so many great advantages these days that many digital pianos offer, and that’s why we primarily concentrate our teaching on and recommending new digital pianos over acoustic pianos. There are many reasons for this, not the least of which is that good new digital pianos can play, sound, and act just like good acoustic pianos, but for far less money along with very important learning and educational benefits. Some of these benefits include that digital pianos don’t go out of tune, unlike acoustic pianos which typically require expensive tunings at least once per year along with other potentially costly maintenance. To be able to practice and play piano and never have it go our of tune is a very big advantage.
Another huge advantage for a good digital piano over a traditional acoustic piano is the piano sound volume. With a digital piano you can play it very loud or down to a whisper quiet tone or anywhere in between. If you want to really hear the beauty and resonance of a beautiful piano sound while playing a digital piano and you want to do it more quietly, you can plug in stereo headphones and play in complete privacy so no one else hears the piano sound except for the player. This is a perfect way to practice and enjoy the music at whatever volume you like and at any time you like without disturbing other people in the home. A traditional acoustic piano is always loud or louder…it can never be played quietly, and that can limit playing time.
Most new digital pianos can instantly and digitally record the music you are playing, save it, and then play that recording back so you can hear how you did and quickly analyze how you you are playing that song and what areas of your playing need improvement. Doing that is like having a teacher listen to you play and then telling you how you did. With the new digital recorders in most digital pianos, now you can do that and it’s a great feature to have. and is great for people at any age or piano playing skill level
The built-in hardware and software technology in many of these new digital pianos can be very useful and help with learning how to play piano in a more practical and stimulating way. Whether it be the new Bluetooth wireless audio & MIDI streaming, USB 2-way connectivity for audio & midi, digital metronomes and drum patterns for proper rhythm & timing, a variety of acoustic piano and instrumental sounds and layers, iPad, iPhone, or Android connected piano learning apps, interactive accompaniment which helps learning to play with “the band,” and so many other things you can do, good digital pianos have many interactive educational and piano playing advantages that our students really enjoy.
To that end and to help you know which specific digital pianos have our “certified approval,” we have put together a list above of specific digital piano models in various prices ranges from all the best brands so that you can know which digital pianos, as of this date, would be the best choices among all the digital pianos out there. This list is not completely exhaustive because there are actually a few more good choices, especially in the much higher price ranges. Nevertheless, our “Approved List” of digital piano models should cover about 80 to 90% of the good ones that you need to know about.
Finally, we love to play good upright and grand pianos, especially the grand pianos. We have and do play Steinway, Kawai, and Yamaha Grand pianos in many of our concerts and will continue to perform on them. Excellent grand pianos have a beautiful resonating piano tone, the keyboard feel and action are especially good, and they are a joy to play. But…they are expensive and loud and they take up a lot of room. This is not to say you should not get one or have one. Our favorite and most consistent playing grand piano brand is Kawai. We love playing on the other excellent acoustic piano brands, but Kawai grand pianos and also their upright acoustic pianos is our personal choice of acoustic pianos for a variety of reasons. If you want to know more about this, then contact us.
By the way, we do not sell digital pianos and we do not work for any digital piano company. If you have specific questions about the brands or models on our approved list of digital pianos then we recommend you contact and talk with the best and most honest digital piano experts that we know of, which is Tim & Erik Praskins, Father & son, from AZ Piano Reviews. Tim has been reviewing digital pianos and advising digital piano shoppers for over 40 years. Along with his talented son Erik, they have the most prominent and respected digital piano review site online for over 15 years. They can help you purchase any of our approved digital piano brands and models for less money, brand new, with factory warranty, and other great benefits. They really are very nice helpful people who know what they are talking about. Contact Tim & Erik through their review website at this link: AZ Piano Reviews