Acoustic vs Digital

I give him space here because his opinion is representative of most teachers and you should consider what they say when choosing a full keyboard (88 keys) instrument.

Keep in mind what this group of folks has in common… they can already play. They sound good even when they practice, and even when they just fool around trying new things. It has been a long time since they were beginners. And they may not have been beginners with families who object to their TV viewing or their sleep being interrupted, while someone trys to develop their playing skill.

We have the good fortune to live in an era where technology is making a tremendous impact on the world of music. I think we would be foolish if we didn’t embrace it. It will help us learn, and give us more ways to express ourselves and be creative. The digital pianos now available, resolve every argument but one for using an acoustic piano. You cannot play it unless you have electricity.

The number one issue is touch. To be able to properly play an acoustic piano you need finger strength, and the ability to play dynamics from pianissimo to fortissimo. You need a keyboard with weighted keys to do that. Many of today’s digital pianos use the same keyboards in their digital pianos as are used in acoustic pianos.

From personal experience I can tell you this will make a big difference in how you play. My teacher’s acoustic piano required so much more pressure than the digital keyboard I was practicing on, that it interfered with the lesson. After going through this with two teachers, I bought my first digital, a Baldwin Pianovielle, which had the same keyboard as was used in many acoustic pianos.

Within a month, my touch improved to the point that I felt my teachers piano had a softer touch than my Baldwin. To sum it up, make the keyboard your highest priority when choosing a piano. Think about taking your teacher with you when making your choice. (Then take them to dinner!)

Digital pianos all have headset jacks so you don’t interfere with the TV or anyone's sleep. You can play anytime you want for as long as you want.
Digital pianos have volume controls and built-in metronomes and styles to use instead of a metronome. They have many beautiful instrument voices, and many different piano voices. They have built-in CD/RWs and disk drives that you can play along with or make recordings with, and on and on. But most importantly, they should sound like a really good piano and guess what? Many acoustics do not!

My first digital piano was the Baldwin. It was a beautiful, black lacquer, low profile, full piano with excellent touch. It cost $2000 pre-owned, and I don’t think you can find a decent acoustic at that price. I should add that I seldom used anything but the pure piano voice, because I wanted to be able to play any acoustic piano which, of course, would have no digital assistants.

My current piano is a Kawai CP175. I still haven’t used all of its features, but I’m working on it. The Kawai has been an excellent instrument. It lets me record to temporary memory until I get the exercise correct, then lets me copy it to its CDRW drive. I use it to create the files for my practice CDs.

This Kawai, and most any other digital pianos, can make any exercise a musical experience. For scales and chords I use 50s and 60s beats, and turn on the accompaniment. Then I play the root chord for the key I want to practice, press the Intro button and join the band. As long as I stay in key, it sounds great. At the end, I press the ending button and take a bow. It works for scales, chords, riffs, and most of the exercises in the Alfred’s course. Acoustic lovers, eat your heart out!

The ability to stay with the beat is so important when playing, and it’s just so much more fun to keep the beat this way than to settle for the tick-tock of a metronome. Try it, then buy one of those t-shirts that say “I’m With the Band”!