I used to mess around playing keyboard when I was much younger. As I got older I switched to electric guitar. Recently I purchased a Casio CPS 700 digital piano cheap. It is in perfect condition and plays nicely. When I used to goof around I had a much smaller keyboard as I recall. Now I'd like to really concentrate on learning pop piano. This piano has 76 keys as opposed to the 88 on a typical piano. Will this be a handicap to learning real piano?

Pop piano tends to be played around the center register of the piano, not in the very low or very high parts so you should be fine with 76 keys.

No problem at all. I've been playing for
more than 30 yrs. and I've never played
anything that would not fit on your
keyboard. Only the most offbeat, exotic
kind of music would go higher than the
highest key on your piano or lower than
the lowest key on it. In any case, there's
little physical difference between your
keyboard and an 88-key one: just 7 more black
and white keys in the bass, and 5 more black
and white keys in the treble, on and 88-key
instrument. One rarely ventures into
those ultra high treble regions or ultra low bass
regions on an 88-key piano. The notes just
don't sound that good anymore when you're that
high or that low on the piano, and therefore
composers and improvisers rarely go there.

I have an old Yamaha Clavinova with 76 keys. (Does Yamaha make them with 76 keys anymore?) The missing 11 keys are a handicap, but it's offset by the shorter keyboard, which is much more portable than the full size. It fits in my car so I can take it to places where there is no piano or the piano is marginal. I can almost carry it myself.

I keep the Clavinova for just this reason. Classical music requires all 88, but popular music can be played on 76. If you're planning on toting your own instrument outside of home, the short keyboard is a big plus.

Where did you learn math, Karen?

Whoops you're right. 12. Thanks for pointing that out, I may have reached for that extra key and there would have been nothing there!

I have a 76 key yamaha keyboard. I have found a pice or two I can't play because of the limeted range (Chopin's Prelude in cminor), but all the pop songs I can play fine.

Is it possible to play Freddie Mercury's piano parts with 76 keys?