Whats a good keyboard for beginners?

Question

Thinking about learning to play the piano, just seeing how much i should spend and whats a good piano/keyboard out there. Should i get those 200$ keyboards or a good one? Also where do you buy those microphones that attach to the piano? Do i need subwoofers or amps along with the microphone? thanks

Answer 1

The $200 keyboards are okay, so long as they have full sized keys, just so you get to know where the notes are. The touch, however, is very different from a piano, and you don't get all the keys that a piano does. You don't need any amps for the cheap keyboards (they have their own speakers... and some of them allow an aux input for a mic that can be picked up at any electronics store).

The best thing to do is go to a store and play some of the keyboards and see which ones sound good to you, feel good to you, are the size and budget that you're looking for.

Good names for beginners: Roland, Yamaha. Casio to some extent (but I bet you'll want to upgrade if you stay with it).
You need:
at least 61 full sized keys
touch sensitive
decent piano sound
headphone jack.

Another option, if you have the space, is to buy a used piano for a few hundred dollars (usu. available in classified ads) and have it tuned (~$50 or so) then you have a real instrument that can give you real feedback... and if you don't like it, it's a nice piece of furniture ;)

Answer 2

Casio Teaching Keyboard CTK-574 : A great beggining keyboard that actually teaches you a large variety of songs. The original price on mine was $129.99.