If you decide to buy a digital piano, make sure you buy a “digital piano” with 88 weighted keys and not a “digital keyboard.”
The primary difference between digital piano and digital keyboard is again the action. As I said in the previous article, digital piano actions try to emulate acoustic piano actions, but digital piano actions are usually too light and not having the whole range of expressive capacity as acoustic piano actions. Digital “keyboard” action is even worse.
A digital keyboard action has no weight, so your kid will never build up the finger/arm strength necessary for musical expression. A digital keyboard action also has no expressive capacity because no matter how hard or light you press the key it will produce the same amount of sound volume. Moreover, many digital keyboards are equipped with only 76 keys or 61 keys instead of the full 88 keys. A digital keyboard will quickly become a hindrance of piano learning.
Digital keyboards may have other legitimate uses but they are definitely not for learning piano. If you are going to buy a digital piano for your kid to practice, make sure you buy a digital “piano” with weighted keys and not a digital “keyboard.”
This is one of the articles in a series called “Piano Buying Guide for Parents of Young Students“. You can find other articles of the series through this link.
