I am shopping for a digital piano to practice on. I was thinking of either the Yamaha p80 or p155. I am pretty much a beginner even though I have taken lessons in my earlier youth.

Is it going to have a detrimental effect on my technique later on if I don't start out playing on an acoustic piano?

And in your opinion will the Yamaha P80 serve my needs at this stage of my piano learning? If that doesn`t do it I am willing to go for a P155. All I know is the most important thing in looking for a digital piano is to have one with the graded weighted keys.

Any other advice you can give me on the sort of piano I should look into will be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

Just bought the P155 a few days ago. If you're looking for graded weighted keys, the P155 is excellent and comparing it with an acoustic will not be a noticeable difference. However, it comes at a hefty price if you're a beginner so you might want to look at a cheaper alternative - it won't really take away from the learning curve in the preliminary stages. I'm not sure how old the P80 is but the P85 is a really cheap and relatively new DP with a pretty solid action for the price.

Hope that helps!

All keyboard instruments--organ, harpsichord, clavichord, fortepiano,
synth, upright, grand, digital, controller keyboard connected
to a pc running piano software, 61-key unweighted portable
keyboard, etc.--are played essentially the same way, and
you can in fact learn piano on anything with piano-style
keys. There is a rollout piano on a plastic sht. that people
laugh at, but I tried it and I was surprised with how okay
it was; I see no problem with learning piano on one of these.
It is in fact marketed on late night tv as a piano learning system.
In fact, since the striking bars on a xylophone are laid out
the same as the keys on a piano, a good xylophonist can
play the piano without instruction.

Therefore I regard your question as not really valid. Either
digital would be more than satisfactory for learning on.
I use a Williams Overture digital that I bought for $600
sight-unseen online last yr. (it now sells for $500). People
with expensive digitals sneer at something like this, but I
like it. I can play anything on it, from jazz improvisation to
big concertos.

A graded (or progressive) action is not necessary. Graded
actions are a rather recent innovation. Before that, digitals
had non-graded actions and that was perfectly fine. Graded
actions supposedly recreate the graded action on a grand
piano, where the treble is lighter than the bass. But this
effect is hardly noticeable. I had yrs. of classical lessons
as a child--when I was 7 the teacher had a big grand in
the studio--and I never noticed this graded effect, and
only found out about it recently when digital manufacturers
started advertising it.

Another thing you don't need is a half-pedal feature. This
is another recent feature that digitals got along without just
fine for yrs. All a half-pedal does is encourage sloppy
pedaling, in my opinion.

Today only economy digitals have the older non-graded
action and non-half-pedal. When shopping for digitals
last yr., I deliberately looked for a less expensive digital
with a non-graded action and a non-half pedal. My Williams
digital has a non-graded action and a non-half-pedal, and I like
it that way. The heavy, non-graded action builds greater
strength, and the non-half-pedal encourages crisp pedaling.

One feature you should get is record and playback. Most,
but not all, digitals have this. If you're buying online, look
for the words: song memory or song recorder.

The P155 is perfect for what you want but I think the P80 is a much older version of the P155 and has the same keys action. It is not to be confused with the current P85 with uses the GHS key action.

If you can find an old P80 (with GH or GHE key action for cheap it would work almost as well as a P155 for (maybe) 1/4 the price.

Also you are going to need a stand. The matching LP140 stand works well with the P155.


If you really do intend to transition to an accoustic piano acoustics are all different and a P155 fits within the range of variability of acoustic pianos. But today, most people will never buy or own an Acoustic piano. They are used in a very few homes, teachers studios and on stage for clasicial music. Are you really planning to buy and play an acoustic piano?