My budget absolutely does not permit me to spend more than this, so please do not recommend me something over my budget. I am currently going back to school and have just bought a car AND I am desperately trying to start my piano playing. My friend had a $1600 dollar Yamaha that I played on and learned the beginning to a couple pieces, and I would love to learn a lot more. So, I just need something that I can start out my "career" as a piano player. After a year or so when I get my massage therapy license, I can begin to make some real money, at which point I will look into buying a more expensive acoustic.

So please leave me any and all recommendations you might have for me. The keys must be at least lightly weighted so I can gain some sense of feel. The keys must be full sized. Preferably more than 61 keys . Features can be limited and is not a priority for me. I know I press a hard bargain, but if any of you can help me out on this one, it would be appreciated.

You're in luck. There's a perfect digital piano out there for you, and it's just under $400 on amazon.com. Fully weighted, with 88 keys. It's Casio Privia PX110. There aren't any cheaper options, as far as 88 key, weighted pianos in that price range, unless of course you find something used on e-bay.

I don't see anything wrong with a 61-key
unweighted portable. On such an instrument
you can play everything that Bach wrote
and most, if not all, of what Mozart wrote.
I've seen them selling new for 50.00.
If cost is a consideration right now,
then you might look into one of these.
You can get some sort of weighted key
digital for around 400.00 new, but this might
be just the keyboard itself, and you'd
have to buy a stand and pedal separately,
which would be around 20.00 for the
stand and 30.00 for the pedal. If you're
willing to buy used, then you can get
some fantastic bargins. Digital pianos
are essentially computers and they depreciate
like computers. A 10 yr. old digital
will be priced similar to a 10 yr. old computer.
One forum member recently got a 10 yr.
old Roland console--just as good as
a brand new Roland costing more than
1500.00--for less than 400.00.

Piano playing is tricky. The instrument
is easy to operate in principle because there is
no special physical skill needed to make
it sound, like with a violin or guitar
or trumpet. You just press keys and the
internal mechanism automatically produces
the right tone. This makes learning to
play easy and fun in the early stages,
but, unless you have a natural knack for
playing, as the pieces get longer and
more complicated, playing suddenly becomes
exponentially more difficult. On the
adult beginners forum and the pianists
forum you'll see that there are many adult
restarters who played when they were
young (even up to the conservatory level)
and then quit out of frustration
for many yrs. (the record I think is
something like 40 yrs.).

Thank you! It looks to be exactly what I want, although it will still be at least a month before I can order it... sad days they will be.

Gyro - you are right in that respect and I will most certainly look into it. Like I said, I have a little while until I can afford $400, so I very well might look on e-bay and see what I can find. If I do find something, I will post it and see what opinions I can get on it.

I think you should save up and at least get PX110... I got a yamaha YPT-300 (unweighted) and I could only last half a year with it. Then I had to switch to my P120 . If you get something like a px110, you wont have to upgrade unless you are going to spend alot.

i agree! PX110 should be a good starter's digital and you don't want anything less than that.

Thanks for all the input. I really needed it so I didn't drop $100 on something I will be replacing in a couple months.

If you have to wait a month anyway, Casio also makes a model CDP-100 which is marketed by Radio Schack under their own brand name every year during the fall and winter for Christmas. It's about $50-75 less than the PX-110 if you find it on sale. I don't know the difference between the two, but they appear to have the same key action. Either would fill the bill for what you're trying to buy.

CDP100 is a water down version of old Casio PX100. it's better to get a PX110, because it's a newer model and better than PX100 or CDP100.

I've never seen a CDP100, but I know there used to be PX100 - and it was 1 generation behind PX110 as far as sound and touch.

CDP100 is the same generation engine as the PX100 (HL sound source), but is still being sold at Guitar Center. They have it for $399 without a stand and $499 with a stand. You can probably find it a bit cheaper elsewhere online.

From what some people have written online, it is a little bit heavier action than the PX110, but not as heavy as the PX200.

Trixton, look online for ones that include the stand and bench. You need to make sure that comes with it, or it will be an extra expense.

Rich