Every musician should learn how to play the piano. For most starters, buying the best piano keyboard for beginners is a good way to start because keyboards imitate the feel and sound of an acoustic piano without the expense and size. For the individuals drawn to the world of keys, there is a lot of online content available for any aspiring pianists and keyboardists that they can immerse themselves into, but before you reach the stage, you have to consider investing in one of the best beginner keyboards.
What is the Best Piano Keyboard for Beginners?
The best piano keyboards for beginners should be a perfect combination of what you want to get from an instrument and its functions and features. Many modern piano keyboards resemble the spaceship controllers than the traditional piano your grandparents played on, and the boost of technology is a plus. Still, you don't need the greatest and latest digital piano to start your studies as a beginner. Despite your budget, there is always a good keyboard that will fit your needs.
However, working out which features are the best for you or the number of keys you need as a beginner can be difficult since some options will offer long term gains and others short term gains. . We have come up with a list that will show you the best piano keyboards for beginners with their pros and cons and also which factors you should consider before making your purchase.
1. Rockjam 61-Key Keyboard with LCD Display Kit
- The RockJam 561 keyboard piano super kit includes a digital keyboard with 61...
- This RockJam 561 piano keyboard features an LCD display panel that both displays and...
- The RockJam 561 electric piano has record and playback functionality allowing you to...
- This music keyboard super kit package includes a keyboard stand that is sturdy in...
- This electric piano keyboard super kit contains a padded seat that is easily folded...
Rockjam is one of the best beginner digital pianos boasting one of the best beginner keyboards in the market. The electronic keyboard piano is worth every penny because of the varied features you get with it. It comes with a full-sized 61 full-sized key digital keyboard and 100 built-in sounds, and a collection of 50 songs, making it one of the best digital pianos. In addition, the RockJam 561 digital piano is one of the best electric pianos because it has a record and playback functionality allowing you to build layers to your sound.
These Rockjam electronic keyboards allow you to compose, record, play and even upload your songs. It is simple and user-friendly, and it is also an affordable and best beginner digital piano jampacked with features that will attract the interest of any new pianist. It also comes with a stool, power supply, headphones, and a stand, ensuring no extra expenses on the buyer's part when it comes to accessories.
2. Alesis Melody 61 MK II 61-Key
- All-In-One Digital Piano for Beginners – Portable music keyboard with 61 responsive...
- Hundreds of Electric Keyboard Sounds - Includes 300 voices: Acoustic Piano, Electric...
- Practice Makes Perfect - Enjoy 40 Demo songs, 300 built-in rhythms and a "Record"...
- Powerful Educational Features - Easily advance your skills with a 3-month premium...
- Everything you Need - Includes an easy-to-assemble keyboard stand, bench with...
The Alesis Melody 61 MKII is another option for the best piano keyboard for beginners comes with 61 piano-style keys, built-in speakers, and 300 built-in piano sounds covering a wide variety of musical instruments such as pianos and woodwinds, percussion, guitars, including various piano sound effects. Furthermore, Alexis Melody allows multiple piano sounds in duo mode or split two sounds across the keyboard in Split mode. The keyboard includes a built-in recorder to record your songs, making it one of the market's best keyboards, digital pianos, and keyboards.
Melody 61 MKII also has 40 built-in demo songs and 300 built-in accompaniment rhythms that enable you to create songs in a wide variety of genres instantly. Furthermore, it comes with three-month Skoove premium membership, where Skoove is a platform offering lessons to help beginners learn piano playing and improve their playing style. In addition, it offers two months of free live lessons for playing piano lessons which allows you to enjoy as many lessons as you wish and helps you learn how to play piano like a pro.
3. Casio Casiotone,61 Key Portable Keyboard with USB CT-S300
- 61 piano-style keys w/ Touch response
- Usb connectivity
- Built-in carry handle
- 400 tones, 77 rhythms, 60 songs
- Included accessories: Power supply and music rest
Casio CT-S300 is a great beginner-friendly instrument jam-packed with great features such as high-velocity sensitivity, pitch wheel, sustain pedal Jack, dance music mode, and USB capabilities. In addition, the Casio Casiotone keyboard comes with a sheet music stand for a better practice and music experience. The Casio CT-S300 weighs 10.93 pounds, making it among the best portable keyboards allowing you to make music from anywhere and whenever you want.
Casio CT-S300 is compatible with Casio’s Chordana teaching app, which has more than enough lessons to keep all the beginners busy, and on top of it all, you get a 60-song songbook with the keyboard. The 61-keys keyboards are the best all-around keyboard for both beginners and also work great for kids.
4. Yamaha p45 88-key Weighted Action Dual Digital Piano (P45b)
- Includes the P45 Digital Piano, power adapter, sustain pedal and music rest
- 88 fully weighted piano style keys simulate the feel of an acoustic piano and provide...
- GHS weighted action is heavier in the low end and lighter in the high end, just like...
- Contains 10 different voices, including digitally sampled tones from real Yamaha...
- Dual mode lets you combine 2 voices together, like piano and strings, for an...
The P45b is one of the lowest cost grade hammer best digital piano that Yamaha offers. The digital piano has basic sounds and features, making it one of the best piano keyboards for beginners on a budget. It features 88 blocked-end semi-weighted keys, built-in speakers, realistic sound, and, best of all, Yamaha's legendary piano sound. The keyboard comes with Yamaha's GHS (Graded Hammer Standard) weighted action, which has a light touch in the high end and a heavy touch in the low end like the hammers inside an acoustic piano, making the piano great for the beginner pianist. Practicing on the GHS action builds the proper finger technique for when the time comes to perform on an acoustic piano.
The P45 b has a slim and stylish form with a depth of fewer than 12 inches hence requires little space with a built-in sound system weighing in at 25 lb hence portable and can be easily moved anywhere in your home or even used for performance outside the house. It is a suitable option for on-the-go musicians, and it has a single-button operation feature that allows for various settings to be changed with a single button. However, the P-45, even with its great features like most beginner keyboards, has no built-in recorder, but this can be rectified by using an external recorder.
5. Yamaha NP-12 Piaggero Portable Keyboard
- 61 touch sensitive piano-style keys are the perfect introduction to the feel of piano...
- The controller App for iOS adds a rich, graphic user interface allowing for quick and...
- The USB to Host port allows you to connect and interact with a wide variety of...
- Battery powered. Uses six AA batteries with five hours of life
- Additional upgrades include 64-note polyphony, a song recorder function, and extended...
The Yamaha Np-12 is the best budget digital piano with 61-keys making the piano stylish and perfect for beginners. It comes with great features like built-in speakers,half-damper control with an optional FC3A pedal, and can run up to five hours using six AA batteries. In addition, the Np-12 is a lightweight keyboard, weighing just 9 pounds 15 oz, making it a portable keyboard and can be carried around everywhere.
These excellent beginner pianos are compact and supremely portable, built-in feature speakers, a velocity-sensitive keyboard, and the sounds sampled from a Yamaha concert grand piano voice. However, the Np-12 compact digital piano lacks full-size keys as it has narrow keys that are slightly narrower than your normal keys.
How many keys do you need in the best keyboards?
All the best keyboards come in many different sizes, where a full piano and keyboard will have 88 sports keys with common alternative sizes that are 76 keys, 61 keys, 49 keys, and other keyboards have 25 keys. As a beginner, it's recommended to opt for something that can accommodate two-handed playing from the get-go. Otherwise, you will feel the need to upgrade sooner than you would like.
For this, you will need to have at least 49 keys or four octaves, where 49 keys are adequate, but the more, the better. Notably, choose as many keys as you have room for in your budget, but if you can buy the larger keyboard at the start, it will be easy for you to grow to new sounds with the same instrument.
Factors to Consider Before Buying the Best Piano Keyboard for Beginners
Buying a keyboard is an exciting venture. However, before making the final decision, it is important to consider certain factors to guarantee you get the best value for your money. Below are some tips for buying a beginner keyboard piano.
1. Key Action
This is the mechanism of a piano that produces sound. This includes Hammer action keys, weighted weights, Semi-Weighted Action, and Unweighted Action. Digital keyboards and piano have different physical parts; hence use various techniques to recreate the heavier touch and feel of teal pianos.
2. Keyboard Accessories
Accessories that come with the keyboard are important to consider. Accessories include headphone Jack, sustain pedal input, built-in metronome, stand, and audio input, as well as a headphone output. Keyboard accessories can improve your musical experience and ease the music-making process for beginners.
3. Velocity Sensitivity
Velocity is important when picking the best beginners keyboards. For example, consider real acoustic pianos that when a key is played hard, the result is a loud sound and vice versa. Velocity sensitivity means that it mimics a real keyboard.
4. Keyboard Size
A keyboard with weighted and full-size piano keys is the best for beginners as a starter keyboard. Unlike unweighted keys, weighted keys spring back up like a real piano when pressed down. As a result, learning to play on a keyboard with weighted keys builds finger strength, and adjusting to a real piano is easy.
5. Cost
The cost or budget is a major factor to consider when choosing keyboards for beginners. Good standard electric piano or digital keyboards usually cost between $100-$1,000, depending on the features, quality, and the brand in question. Whether you’re a learner or an expert, buying the best keyboard pianos can be hectic. Beginners will experience more trouble since they are unaware of what features they need to have when choosing the best beginner keyboard.
Frequently Asked Questions on the Best Piano Keyboards for Beginners
1. Will my Keyboard or Piano need tuning often?
No. Keyboards and digital pianos typically work by playing back of an in-tune acoustic piano and, therefore, will need no tuning.
2. Why does my piano sound so bad?
The common reason why some piano sounds are bad is that piano tuners will often tune them too flat or too sharp. Also, it can be difficult to tune the highest and lowest regions of your piano because of the inharmonicity of the quality of the note's overtones being continuously out of tune.
3. Which digital pianos are closest to an acoustic piano?
The Hammer action is the closest representation of the acoustic action from a piano that you can get from a digital instrument. Still, the console digital piano feels also come close. Additionally, the digital console pianos are among the most popular pianos. Therefore, they come close to the acoustic pianos in terms of the main elements like touch, sound, and even look.
However, keep in mind that the digital piano can only imitate the acoustic sound as it is a digital file that doesn't allow the same acoustic nuances. Nonetheless, for the high-end digital pianos, they could sound better than the low-budget acoustics.
4. What is the main difference between arranger keyboards and workstation keyboards?
The major difference between the two is that an arranger keyboard comes with a built-in auto-accompaniment. The keyboard provides backing tracks that automatically match the tempo, style, and rhythm of playing with just pushing buttons.
