Hello, I’m one of those “have always wanted to play a piano” people, that is finally learning how. I have only been having lessons for 3 months, but I'm totally hooked. I have been practicing on my 12+ year old Casio at home, and use a Casio CDP-100 at the lessons.

I now want to buy a digital piano. This forum is such a valuable resource, but I think I'm going around in circles trying to take it all in. I’m so disappointed with the selection of colours available to consumers in Australia. Here you have the choice of either black or dark brown. That’s it. Where are the white and light cherry pianos hmm? I have my heart set on a white piano.

I have looked at the Roland and Kawai, and both seem nice to my inexperienced hands. I can tell the difference between the higher end (for example DPs with escapement)but I'm not exactly sure what to evaluatte when I'm sitting down at a keyboard. My budget would allow for the purchase of the fp-f7 (it's white!) but is that wasted on a beginner? I have been into music stores, but get very self-conscious because I don’t really know how to play any music to ‘get a feel of the keyboard’ and staff tend to do the‘salesman routine’ on me.

This weekend there is a big piano sale so I'm eager to make a purchase. Do any of you have suggestions on how a beginner can ‘try out’ pianos?

Hello Nikky, welcome to the forum!

Well, if you're after a white piano, the Roland FP-7F would be an excellent.
I believe the lower priced FP-4F is also available in white, as should the new F-120.

Best of luck with your purchase!

Cheers,
James
x

Some day you will want to sell the piano, then you will be happy yours is black. White pianos are hard to sell. OK if you must have pink, there is always spray paint. Also I know first hand, charcoal grey is hard enough to keep clean. You'd be dusting and cleaning a white piano every day.


Try it out the same way you would use it at home. Bring your beginner books and play the music you are learning just like you would at home. Don't just play a few notes do a full 20 minute practice session. Do the same routine you did on the CDP100

Also to get a feel for how the velocity lawyers work, play soft "PP" and very loudly "ff". You will be surprised at the force it takes to get to ff to the point where you think you might damage it. It should sound bright and metallic when you play hard and mellow if you play soft.



Bring some good headphone with you to the store. They isolate sound in both directions

Hi. I agree with Chris. If I were you I would take along your headphones and your music and play as many pianos as you can in your price range. Spend enough time with each piano to get a good feeling for it's sound and feel of the keyboard. You may be surprised that you will feel and hear differences and likely will eliminate some for one reason or another.

The Fp7 is considered a very good piano for it's price. Personally I find it's key a bit tiring to play on. And yet others love it! So you will see it is very subjective for each person.

As you are hooked on piano you will find you will progress very quickly and you will be happier in the long run with a better sound and better keyboard. Pick the one that feels best to you. Don't get one based on color alone. You will likely regret it.

Good luck!

I think that, for a real beginner - meaning no time on the keyboard, and none in the home, that the advice to go try them is meaningless, and frankly frustrating.

I have been through the same thing. I go to a piano store, sit down, and play my little tune and my scale. It doesn't really help. It might help form some initial impressions, but those might not actually be what matters a couple years out, when you start to appreciate, or be able to deal with some subtleties of feel and tone.

I think that the impressions on this forum that have been given by more experienced players, from intermediate to advanced, are more helpful than my own experience.

Right now, I have an unweighted keyboard that I have been learning on, but if I had been starting from scratch, probably would have gone with something else (weighted, some kind of action feel). If I was starting from there, I wouldn't have even been able to play my little tune and scale, and would really have found the "go out and try them" advice even more useless.

I'm a beginner as well and I completely agree that you need to try a DP (or an acoustic) before you buy it. When you buy a DP, you're spending quite a lot of money on something that will be used a lot. If don't like how the piano sounds and how the keys feel, then your motivation to play will decrease. I'm also shopping for a DP and I'm only considering pianos that I get to play.

When you visit a store you might be able to have a salesperson demonstrate the pianos. Then you can evaluate the sound without concern over your own abilities.

Roland FP7F and FP4F are available in white and are both excellent choices actually if its a white DP you are looking for ...its a no brainier to buy a FP7F and as long as you keep up the lessons and practice its by no means wasted on you.

As was mentioned, bring along a set of good headphones and as an addition, bring along someone whose playing you respect to help you to narrow down your choices.

I think "go try them" does work for beginners. The way you try a piano is to do with it in the store that same as you would if you were at home. and if that means playing very simple pieces and the C-major scale then that is a realistic test.

The problem comes up because the buyer things he will still be using this entry level piano years from now after he because a better pianist. That likely will not happen. As you progress you will sell the piano and replace it. yes you take about a 50% loss. But really a 50% loss on a one year old entry level piano is only $225. $225 is not much to pay to own a piano for a year.

Some people will buy a $2,000 piano as their first instrument. OK if you have that kind is disposable income. But even then don't figure on that being a life time investment. A 10 year old DP is a very old DP.

Point is that beginners don't out-grow pianos, they upgrade them. And it's not expensive if you thing "dollars per day"

I agree with Chris. You gave to play them. The Original poster said they have taken lessons for a few months and have experience on 2 different pianos already.

Getting a good piano will not be wasted On a beginner. They should be aware though that they're needs will likely change over time. Getting a higher quality piano now likely means less switching on the beginning. Certainly if 4-5 years go by then they will be at a very different Place in terms of ability and wants.

And yes to better judge the sound have the salesman or a friend play for you while you listen.

I am not convinced. The original poster is in a similar place to where I am - 3 months of lessons (which is still a pretty raw beginner in my books), and I think I have had more of a chance to play a variety of pianos, acoustic and digital.

You can listen to what someone else plays on the piano, but you can't feel what they feel.

I do agree a high quality digital piano is not wasted on a beginner. I think that the waste would be buying and rebuying various stages of digital pianos, that have quickly declining values.



It seems to me that from what I have learned on these forums that, amongst the better DPs (Roland, Kawai, Yamaha) that have the better actions from those companies, there is disagreement about what is the best. So, considering that a beginner has little ability to judge between them, the decision is a matter of "first impressions" or random chance as much as anything else. That is fine, as far as it goes (and seeing how there aren't clear alternatives), but we need to admit that, instead of telling beginners that they will be able to judge between those models. Maybe they will be drawn to a DP because of some superficial attraction, which is fine, as human decision making is often driven by such attractions. Maybe that superficial attraction will make the buyer happy about the purchase in the long run, and with no other metric to objectively base the purchase on, why not?

I just wish people would stop pretending that a beginner can make meaningful distinctions between DPs that expert players will disagree on the merits of (besides, of course, aesthetic issues like design and colour).

For me, another thing is important. Try several times.

It is a bit like painting, sometimes you see something that excite your eye, you buy it. But day after day, in the long run, the picture becomes irrating, or boring. Other time, it is just the contrary, you didn't pay too much attention to a painting at first, but the more you look at it, the more you like it, as the beauty was a bit discrete and hidden, a zen thing.

Try one time, lets think about what you have seen, what are the model you prefer and why. Then rest a little, then com again, verify if you first apraisal is the same, how your feeling evolve...

Don't know if others can confirm this, but I need to try several time.

Thanks for all the advice on here... I will follow ChrisA's suggestion and take the book I am using in my classes, (so logically don't know why I didn't think of that). If I narrow my choice down by how they feel to me, and then maybe the salesman could play those models a little for me to hear how they sound when someone plays something properly.

I agree that the individual needs to try each out for themselves before making the final decision, but I get where whitfit is coming from. 3 months is nothing really, and it's a daunting task to buy a DP when you are a beginner, because you worry if you have chosen the right one.

I value the info on these boards, and as a result have considered buying something from brand 'a', only to change to brand 'b' but then I'll read something that will scare me off and move to brand 'c' or go back to 'a'... blah... For example I keep reading over and over how good the Roland FP7F is, with the PHAIII etc. and I also liked the Roland HP302 and 305 I tried in the store. However I read a thread recently where people have had problems with the ivory feel keys, so now I'm cautious about that brand.

It probably sounds superficial to want a white DP, and I certainly wouldn't chose a less desirable model because it was white while a better model was not. (But I will continue to grumble to myself about the CN33 not available here in white! it looks so pretty). I plan to keep this DP for 5 - 6 years, so wanted to avoid a basic entry level and aim for a more decent model. Guess I'll have to visit the store after work this week to try them out in time for the weekend.

Amen. I think beginners in particular need high quality sound and action to inspire them and help get them through the difficult first years, regardless of whatever musical instrument you're talking about (I'm primarily an acoustic guitarist).

If you want decent keys and technically the most realistic digital piano sounds (unstretched, unlooped, and with good sympathetic resonance algorithms) outside of PC samplers that rules out pretty much everything except Roland SuperNATURAL. I'd recommend the FP-7F if you really need internal speakers, and the RD-700NX if you would prefer instead three distinctly different piano sounds and a more straightforward internal architecture.

You should be aware that you're shopping in a really weird market, where 10 year old electronics technology is considered cutting edge. So your choices may seem to be limited to the best of the worst, and you will likely pay a very premium price for that choice. It sucks, but for whatever reason that's where things are right now.

[Yawn]

Change the bloody record mate... :p

Is it unreasonable to expect 6 or so years out of a higher end DP?

Not at all! I had a workstation/synthesizer that I bought new in the 90's and just recently sold it. All it needed wAs a bit of grease for 2 sticky keys. Otherwise it was as good as the day I bought it.

If you get a decent dp now you will avoid having to replace it as your ability advances. Not because the dp will break down. You see many dp's for sale that are more than 10 years old and in excellent condition. What will be different now is the quality of the sound, the keyboard, and other things such as ways to connect to a computer and number of notes you can play at the same time.

At the price point of the fp7 you should easily get 5 years from it and not feel you arr lacking something critical. That is why it is so important to like the feel and the sound of your dp.

Not really it depends more on how you develop and what future innovations come. For your specific situation your option is really limited to a FP-7F as I see it anyhow.
It's got a best sound/keybed combination and its white and its only about $2400 AU which is a good price for a piano with its ability.

where do you go shopping? lowest price I've seen is 2700 and that's not including the three pedal thingy and the stand.

that's my aim

thanks for the advice guys.

Nikky,
Here is my opinion. Way more important than which DP you choose is how well you play. How well you play depends upon how much you practice. How much you practice depends upon how much you enjoy practicing. One not trivial aspect of enjoying practice is having a DP that speaks to you. You like the feel, you like the sound, and yes, you like the looks of it.

Playing piano is more than acquiring technical skill, it's acquiring an emotional attachment to making music. Pick the keyboard that makes you feel good as you take it home. Don't second guess yourself. Don't worry that you will want to upgrade to a better keyboard someday. Just the opposite! If you get the urge to upgrade, that is a good thing! It means you are enjoying learning to play, it has become a passion for you.

Good Luck,
SoundThumb

Whatever you seen advertised as a "low" price take 10% off for the bottom price (negotiate hard and be prepared to walk away ...and walk in with a wad of actual CASH)