Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Is a Yamaha YDP 131 good for a beginner?

Hi,

I'm a beginner at piano and have just been learning myself the last couple of months on an inadequate 49-syth-mini-key keyboard. I've decided to take the plunge and buy a digital piano and would just like to see if anyone had any comments about the one I am planning to order. I'm wanting to learn to play classical music.

I've chosen to go with the Yamaha YDP 131:
http://music.yamaha.com/products/specifications.html?productId=844

This costs around £500/$1000, which is the high end of my budget. I tried it for 20 minutes in a local shop and found it better than the Casio's and Kawai's on offer for around the same price. I've never played on an acoustic before (or really heard one in the same room to be honest), but I liked the feel of the keys, it sounded good when the salesperson played it, it sounded good when I played it (I don't play well though) and the demo songs sounded as good as the CDs I listen too. I had the sales person play on one of the very expensive Clarinovas and I honestly didn't hear much in the way of a difference.

Important features:
- 88 graded hammer action keys
- 64 polyphony
- 3 pedals

Possible cons:
- I've read a comment that it has weak 6 watt x 2 speakers, but it sounded pretty loud to me on high.
- I don't think it has graduated pedals as I'd think this would be explicit ally advertised as such (will this make a huge impact?).

I realise it won't be the best piano ever, but I'm hoping that this will be a good piano for learning on for the next few years. Has anybody played this piano? Does it seem like a good purchase for a beginner?

I've been looking at pianos for about 2 weeks solid now and the stress is starting to get to me! :-S Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I think you saw the thread where I just bought one of these. I'm a newbie also. I'd like to help you out.

I just tried out the pedals. I don't think there is any graduation to the pedal. Also, I just noticed. I don't think the other two pedals do anything on this piano? I'm not sure what the other two are supposed to do? I thought the two outside pedals were supposed to respond to the two sides of the keyboard in lengthening the note(s) (please forgive my proper word for this). I thought the middle one would be a damper pedal? I honestly see nothing in the two left pedals in doing anything to a note. This is a dissapointment to me. Also the right one is not graduated at all. It's on or off.

I do have to say I'm satisfied with the key movement. It isn't bad. But, I finally got a chance to try some others at a guitar center. The higher model yamaha I thought definitely had a better feel to the keys. The biggest part was the bottom of the key. It felt much better bottoming out. Thought the feel was better, more like a real piano key pushing it down. The keys just felt more solid in every way to me in the better model. People have talked much on this board on the better ones. They're the ones with graded hammer effect instead of graded hammer standard on the ydp. Refer to my thread on the yamaha hammers.

I think the sound is ok also. Lets face it. If you really want good sound. Just get a good stereo. Then you can feed it into the stereo. You can also feed your computer into the stereo. Can have a good sound system to work with. Yes, I do like the inexpensive Yamaha receivers. I've had esoteric audio equipment in the past. For affordable and good, also look at David Haffler....Obscenely good clear female voice reproduction.

I'm like you. Wanted something good to learn on. But not too much. I'm definitely staying open on this. Even though it would be a hassle to send it back.

You might also try hard to look at a Kaiwa. There is a guy on here who loves them. The lowest model isn't much more than this price. I need to go look at them. I discovered we have a store that sells them here.

Do you find having the graduated pedal makes much difference when playing? I can't seem to find a model with a graduated pedal unless I spend 40% more. I played the start of a simplified Moonlight Sonata on it with the damper pedal down and it sounded pretty good (way better than my current toy). It's going to take me years to learn sight reading music, using the right touch, rythm, playing fast enough etc. I can't imagine that having a graduated pedal will effect the quality of my music that much and I think it would be easy to learn how to use a graduated one in a few years if I upgrade. I'd rather have it than not but I don't think I can afford a model that has it. If it doesn't make that much of a difference though, I'll sleep better at night.

I don't have much of an opinion on key action as I've no idea how they're suppose to feel. The YDP131 ones felt very heavy and solid to me, but that's because I used to a syth spring action. As long as they're 80% or so as close to an acoustic I think I'll be happy.

What do you think of the YDP131 overall then? Good enough for a beginner for the next few years?

Thanks for the reply!

I apologize. I have the ydp-213. Not the 131. They are so close that the manual I have is for both. I gotta quit posting right after I get up in the morning.. :rolleyes:

I checked on my pedals. Checked the manual as to what they are supposed to do. The middle one is working right. The left one is still not doing anything?

I really don't know enough to advise you on a graduated damper. It would be nice to have everything working the way it should. I can see in a piece I'm looking at that I really want to play. I couldn't do it right without my damper and my Sostenuto pedals. I do know you can buy a graduated damper pedal from yamaha. It will work even on the P70.

If I were to get just a keyboard that requires a stand. What I've seen...I'd have to build a stand myself. Those things just aren't good enough.

I can understand your viewpoint on the keys. I find my to be acceptable for now. That is always with the thought of getting better in the future. That thought causes me to consider my buying decisions.

Overally, I do want this to be good as a beginner piano. (if I can get this left pedal working) In this price range...I really can't advise you that it is a good beginner piano. It appears there are trade off's in this price range. Either a better key with lack of pedals and a good stand. Or what we have. None in this price range will have a good speaker system. Although I think ours has an adequate speaker system. I did buy mine thinking it is a good choice for a beginner piano.

so called 'gradual pedal' is what technically speaking 'half-pedaling', which is important. what a simple keyboard pedal you'd see is basically a On/Off switch with one level of sustain being turned on or off. what an acoustic piano's sustain pedal is doing is create different levels of sustain from the lowest to highest. a digital piano's pedal which supports half-pedaling is basically simulate such acoustic piano pedaling effect. so, of course that's exactly what you want.

I just found that the left pedal is working. I had to go to Harpsichord to find it. It is supposed to play softly. Well..I found on the yamaha website that it won't do much on Grand piano. They say that is the way a Grand piano is. To be honest, I can't find it doing anything on Grand piano...period.

EDIT: I just posted another thread on dynamic range of pianos. You might look at that.

Thanks for the reply.

How important is half-pedalling to a beginner though? For instance, if somebody played a classical piece with a pedal that allows and one that doesn't allow half-pedalling, how would it change it's a reviewers rating out of 10 if the player was very good? I don't know what half-pedalling sounds like but I imagine it would only change the rating of the piece by a point or two and not half it.

Like I said, I'd rather have it than not, but I don't have unlimited money. I seem to have enough to learn to keep me busy for years so I don't think I'll stress about it too much. Does this seem sensible?

There's always trade-offs with everything though. A grand will be better than an upright, a upright will be better than an digital piano, a digital piano will be better than a syth keyboard etc. At some point, you have to just draw in a line at a price point for a hobby or you'll never start it. It's not like we couldn't buy new pianos later if we find out we spend all our time on them. :-)

I was originally shocked at the prospect that I might spend £80 buying a new electric keyboard, this rose to £130 so I could get one with 88 keys, this jumped to £250 to get hammer action, then this jumped again to £500 to get pedals, stand and speakers. Hopefully this piano is good enough for me to learn on for a few years and see how much I really like piano.

you're right for one thing: "I'd rather have it than not". so, a good pedal is important for any pianists, and even for a beginner. you might not notice any difference now, but you will once you can play piano better. there're a lot of pedaling techniques to use for intermediate-advanced music. if you would get a teacher later on, he/she would teach you such things gradually.

The piano I'm looking at is £500, which is a lot of money to me. The piano's I found that allow half-pedalling are 40% more expensive. Is the need for half-pedalling so great that I should save for a year and get a better model? I think it would be more productive to learn on this model for a couple of years and then re-evaluate how much I like playing and possibly fork out for a new model (maybe an upright).

"The best is the enemy of the good". I don't really think you need fancy pedaling right now, and a lesser piano with good action would do you fine.

I will also be a heretic here and suggest that you might consider renting (hiring) a decent acoustic piano for half-a-year or so, and do your initial learning on that (unless you must have silent headphone practice ability). Then you'd be sure you'd want to continue, and would have more experience to be able to select the next piano.

monstermunch, if money is an issue, then choose the best one you can afford. but remember that a good digital could last years, and it's wise to choose a really decent one you can find for your money.

Thanks for all the replies. I've decided that I'm going to order the YDP 131. I reckon that I can replace it in a year or two, depending on how my playing goes; £500 is probably too much for me to spend as it is and I cannot afford £800 or so.

Anyway, I'm very excited and it should arrive tomorrow! I've stopped learning the last few weeks after out-growing my keyboard so I'm really excited to start learning to place piece that weren't possible for me before.

By the way, is it possible to replace the sustain pedal with one that supports half-pedalling later or is this something that needs to be built into the piano?

Congratulations, monstermunch...

Taking everything on this thread into consideration. I think you probably made a very good decision.

I do know yamaha has a graded pedal a person can buy. I'd write yamaha and ask. I know it would take some "custom" work. From what I know, it should take it ok?