Hello!
My 5 years old kid has been taking piano lessons for a few months and he seems to enjoy it.
I’m thinking of buying a piano for him so that he can practice at home. However, I don’t know much about pianos and I’m not sure what to buy.
I’m looking at digital pianos mostly since they look cheaper and I don’t have much space at home anyway. I did a bit of research on the internet and I understand I should be getting one with weighted keys. Beside that, I don’t know what brand or model to pick.
Do you have any piano recommendation for a kid who is just getting started?
Thanks!
Digital pianos are fine. You never need to tune them, and your budding pianist can use headphones with most models. What weighted keys do is make a digital piano feel more like an acoustic piano. There’s a more resistance to pushing down a key. “Hammer action” is similar. At 5, I don’t think either is strictly necessary, but if you want something he’ll grow into, go ahead and get something with hammer action or weighted keys. Likewise, consider the number of keys. A full-size piano has 88, but there’s a lot that learners can play with fewer.
The real question is this: do you think that your 5 year old will continue to play piano? If he loses interest, will you force him to practice or will you let him drop it?
If he will continue to play piano, whether forced or by choice, invest in a quality instrument with 88 weighted or hammer action keys.
If you expect him to lose interest eventually and don’t want to buy something expensive that won’t be used, or expect his progress to be slow enough that number of keys won’t be an issue any time soon, then something very basic will be fine. Look for something secondhand - brand isn’t particularly important, just the fact that it plays.
As for personal experience, I’ve been using an Alesis Recital for around five years now. I picked it because it was the cheapest thing with the minimum specs I wanted, and I was broke AF. I don’t have any experience with other digital pianos.