I am needing some help on this one. I have a 6 year old son taht is going to start piano lessons soon. I am looking into buying a digital piano but would like one that is somewhat child friendly. I know absolutly nothing about pianos but Roland was reccommended to me. Any spcific models I should look into, or does anyone know of another maker that is more child friendly? I don't want to invest alot of money into this right now and am only looking at speding up too 1700.00. Any suggestions would be greatly apprciated.

Hi,
My 7 year old son Arman has been taking piano lessons for about 6 months. At home we use a simple yamaha keyboard (pss250). But after 6 months' progress our teacher asked us for a real piano and suggested it to be a digital one. Because we live in a flat, we do not have any option to buy an upright too (we wish we had enough so buy one of yamaha silent or kawai any time series). I'm also in search of a child friendly, and a good make having near-acoustic hammer action keyboard. After reading some posts in this forum I investigated through Roland's web site for their models. Roland HPi5 and HPi7 models have Wonderland feature which includes 5 and 8 different piano learning/practicing games respectively. Roland KR5 and KR7 also have same feature. One thing we worry about having a digital piano is that being a techno-child ) Arman tries to practice every button on the keyboard, so this may prevent him concentrating on his piano training. One of the good aspects of HPi5 and HPi7 is that they have an lcd screen on the music rest. When the child started to play, they should place their music sceets over the lcd, so this would (could ??) prevent him from involving other digital aspects of the piano.
After all we think that the piano we would buy will not be the last one, and every day new models emerge with lots of improvements. We are indeterminate between starting with a basic one and a techy one. I'm a computer programmer, and look forward to models having a floppy disket or a usb flash disk option for recording what Arman plays. But these add too much onto price tag. In Istanbul (Turkey) digital pianos have price tags ranging from 1150 € for Yamaha CLP115 to 2900 € for CLP170, from 2600 $ for Kawai CA5 to 3700 $ for CA9.
I hope this post could help you. Also could you please inform us about your final decision.
Regards,
Mehmet Ali

Mehmet,

It's going to be impossible to find a better unit without lots of buttons for him to fiddle with. But that usually dies down soon and most players probably seldom use anything but the piano sounds for most of the time.

Some favorites here have been the Yamaha PF500 (to save a little money) or the CLP170. The recently announced CLP270 has some improvements and is (apparently) just now becoming available in Europe (but not here in the US yet).

Personally I don't see a lot of value to the LCD screens to show the music. Printed music is much easier to use IMO.

Of course there are dozens of others to consider, all with their proponents!

Just be aware if you look at other makes, that Yahama's tend to have a bit heavier action than Rolands.

But in all the comparisons I have done, the Yamaha sounds were much more to my liking than the Roland sounds. (your milage will vary) and the action does not really seem to be a problem for anyone that's played my Yamaha.

in the price range you mention, yamaha has a few options..

P120, $1,200 stage piano based on the CLP150, built in speakers, weighted action, excellent piano sounds, built in speakers could be better however

PF500 $2,200, an another excellent piano, based on the CLP170, and has many extended features such as an advanced sequencer, hundreds of XG general Midi voices, improved built in speakers from from the YDP and the P120 and three pedals which are programmable for a few different operations.

May be over kill for what you're looking for, but likely you'd never need an upgrade.

YDP233, $1,300~1,500 depending on sales, this is a console piano based on the CLP120. it's a good home piano, weighted action and would be excellent to learn on,

piano sounds are good, (not as good as the P120 or the PF500) and it lacks many of the features that the P120 and PF500 and others in this price range may have.


Also Casio has several offerings that come in at a lower price break than yamaha,

The Casio consoles are a little dark sounding, but they are quite affordable (under a grand for a few of the more popular sellers) and they also have a Privia series of stage pianos the start at $499. (built in speakers on these are worthless however) All the caiso pianos have 88 weighted keys and you can adjust the weight of the action as well as the touch response which is a nice feature for a young beginner.

I would suggest going to the Roland, Yamaha, Casio web sites for starters, learn about the different offerings, then take a look online to check pricing.

If you are anywhere near a guitar center, they would probably have all of these on the floor ready to try out.

with some good negotiating, you should be able to get a Yamaha CLP120 for the amount you suggested.

If not, the clp115 is a stripped down, basic model digital piano.

not quite the facts. actually, functionally:

P120=CLP120 (or CLP130 at most)
PF500=CLP150

I think....

P90 = CLP120
P120 = CLP130
P250 = PF500 = CLP150
no portable = CLP170

Rodney

Mehmet
I was in Istanbul from Australia) last month for the first time. It is a beautiful city and we were made very welcome.
I have the PF500 and am very happy. The action is heavier than the Rolands though. If possible, get your son's teacher to look at your choices with a growing child's hands in mind. Having said which, I know lots of children do learn on the Clavinova line which has the same action. Good luck.

I guess I had that comparison a little wrong!

DOH,, sorry about that, thanks for the education!

I have a Yamaha YDP-223 which I paid about $1500. for. It is a digital piano, and looks like one. It has the graded hammer action and has served me very well. I think it would be a good piano to learn on (as I am doing).

We just bought a Roland HPi-7. I can't get my daughter off if it!

Like your son, my daughter was practicing on a cheap Yamaha keyboard. We would always struggle with her to do her practicing and really wrestled with the idea of spending such a large amount of money on a digital piano.

Finally, after taking the plunge and having this piano in our home for only a week, our concerns have been put to rest. The progession that I've seen in my daughter's ability has been remarkable. My wife and I cannot believe the difference that we've seen in her playing in such a short amount of time.

One nice feature about the HPi-7 (according to the manual) is that you can 'lock' it into piano mode so that you can't play other voices. I haven't tried it simply because my daughter isn't really interested in the other stuff. She does get into the wonderland stuff from time to time but doesn't stay there for too long.

But, like I said before, I can't keep my daughter off of this piano. I never thought I'd have to tell her it's time to go out and play!

An Ottawa Roland dealer demo'ed to us a HPi7. Our kids love it !!! He gave me a quote of $5400 taxes included for this new model HPi7. Did you pay anything near this price range ??? Is this digital piano worth every penny you paid for ? I am curious since I am on the market to purchase a piano (digital or acoustic) for my 2 kids who are beginners .....

RichMonk posted in may 2005. Sending him a Private Message would have a better chance reaching him. When I clicked his name and "view recent posts" all 4 were from May 2005 though so I don't think you'll reach him.