Dear forum,

In order to purchase the first digital piano for our home, which will be used by absolute beginners (my son and myself) I wonder in which way the features inside the CVP-307, CVP-407 or even the Roland KR-107 can help improving the learning process faster.

My other option is going for a CLP type of piano....


Even if I am convinced that attending lessons twice a week is a must not to be substituted, it could happen to be not possible with the proper frequency due to work commitments. But a digital with learning features would be there every night and sunday to practice.


Maybe you can tell me your experience about the usability of features like the score display on the screen, the follow the lights thing and the mini-games or test modes....


Thanks everyone!

Andy.

Hi Andy,

Just to preface my comments, I do not have a piano with these types of learning features. I played piano for 5 years as a kid and now am picking it back up as an adult. I have tried computer software that is somewhat similar when I picked piano back up again.

I feel that a lot of the learning functionality in a digital piano is good as a game or toy. You are essentially limited to playing what is programmed into the piano, or maybe can be downloaded to it. It can help with note recognition, but this is such a small part of playing piano that I would not use it as part of choosing the piano I want to purchase. It does not have a way to help with technique or playing musically.

If you choose to take lessons, once a week is often enough. You and your son will probably find that there is more than enough to practice on from lessons to keep you quite busy on the piano until your next lesson. The purpose of the lessons will not be to guide you every step of the way, but to help you learn how to practice, how to listen to yourself, how to solve problems, how to play with different techniques, etc. The software I purchased didn't help with any of this and I really can't see any of the learning features in a piano helping either.

I'm sorry I don't have a different answer, but I don't believe there is any shortcut to learning to play the piano. It just takes lots of time and practice.

Good luck finding the right piano for you.

Rich

Andy,

I have a CVP307, and am learning jazz. In the context of also taking lessons, I've found the "Guide" function to be extremely useful -- not a game or a toy. This is the "follow-the-lights" function, where a MIDI file is played note-by-note and the keyboard waits for you to play the indicated notes before moving on.

I've downloaded about 300 jazz MIDI files from the web and my teacher also creates some for me during lessons. The Guide function allows me to take apart a passage and put it back together again, allowing me to see conceptually what's happening and also get it under my fingers. I catch so much more than I would just listening to the same passage at full tempo. I will sometimes spend over an hour just working with a very short passage.

I certainly wouldn't consider it a substitute for a teacher or other study, but it has been very beneficial for me and contributed a lot to my progress.

Thanks so much to both for your sincere answers I guess there's a lot of wise truth in both.


For some student these features can be of help, for other not needed maybe.

More experiences and points of view will be appreciated.

Best regards,

ANdy.

Andy,
One perspective, if you think you are planning to connect your DP to the PC, you can use a lot of educational software available: Gentle piano, Auralia, etc

Hi,

I got my cvp 407 last week.

The score feature is excellent ( The big screen is worth the extra-that way I went for the cvp 407 over the 405). I can download music form the internet and sight read it. I can just practice the right with the keyboard playing the left,etc. Its very clever how the score features works.

The follow lights also work well. My 2 sons - 5 and 7 have both started plying Twinkle twinkle little star and mary had a little lamb. Something they would not have done on a traditional piano.
As an ex- keyboard /piano teacher I think any thing that gets children playing is excellent. It is not a game or a toy. It does encourage musical playing and technique, since every time you play your technique is also improving!!. Eventually the children will be able to play these tunes without the need of the follow on lights. But it does help at the beginning.Also my wife is using the lights as well!!.

I do however agree with having lessons, there is no substitution for a teacher. But once a week is enough and not too long for young children. But the learning features do help with playing. since it helps make it fun!! which greatly helps with children.

Nigel

Regarding the Roland KR 107, its manual says that due to the size of its LCD some of the notes on the digiscore will be cut off.

When the KR 107 is connected to a monitor through a vga output will I be able to see the missing notes from the dp display? Also, can I magnify the contents of the lcd on my monitor. The reason I ask this is because I have macular degeneration and need to magnify text.

The clavinova cvp 307 has a larger lcd but it doesn't have a vga output. I also think I like the sound of the Roland better.

Any comments or answers would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Anne

Hello,


The CVP-407 does have the 640x480 VGA output port among its improvements. The CVP-405 also has video output, but I don't know the resolution of it, as the display has 320x240.


Regards,

Andrés.

The Follow-The-Lights Feature, is, in my opinion quite useless, unless you cannot read music at all. When someone who can read music sees a two-hand chord on a page, for example, what you see translates to where you put your fingers on the keyboard. The chord is close together on the page, like a word of music or something.

I do not know if it humanly possible to see a chord spread out over two hands with the lights feature. Your eyes only have so much peripheral vision. So I find it completely useless.

The Guide feature is good, and there is really good software from both Hal Leonard and Alfred's that uses this. However, there is also software called Home Concert Extreme (new name which I forget from Time Warp Technologies). This does EXACTLY the same thing, which you can use with any digital piano.

I have a CVP-107. I find the accompaniment function quite useless..it is the magic of the old
on finger playing on home organs. Maybe someone likes this kind of thing, but it will not teach you anything at all.

The wooden keys are probably a good feature on the new 400s. However, I would NEVER pay the current U.S. retail prices of these instruments. It is just not worth it in my opinion..and yes I am opinionated. Save your money..buy a something like
a Kawai digital from the MP8 to the MP9500 or even one of the models with speakers..and use the rest of the money to buy a real piano.

There might be another digital piano that is worth the money that Yamaha dealers want for these new CVP 400s, but I find that the CVPs, by and large, are not worth even a discounted U.S. (hint) retail price.

I have lots of keyboards and 52 inch Kawai upright.