Is it possible to learn piano by just using an electronic (54 notes) keyboard?

[redwing2024]

 

[pianisten1989]

It's always how good you want to be. Obviously you can learn how to play a few pop songs, or really simple classical pieces in a half good way. But if you want to become really good with a nice tone and stuff, I don't think it's possible.

[quantum]

Yes you can play some piano pieces on a keyboard, but a keyboard is not necessarily a piano.  If you really want to learn piano, practice on a piano, or at least an 88 key digital piano. 

Think of them as two different instruments.  If you want to play keyboard, there is music specifically for that instrument. 

[redwing2024]

 

Think of them as two different instruments.  If you want to play keyboard, there is music specifically for that instrument.  

I understand that electronic keyboard is really different from a real piano, but somehow the keyboard can play some music sounded like the piano (except from some classical piano music  )... If there is a specific music for this instrument, I want to know what is it?... Can you tell me please...

[pianisten1989]

Youtube is something you might want to take a look at..

[leonbloy]

Speaking from my (small) experience, I'd say: hardly.

I'm an amateur guitar player since childhoood, I always felt attracted to the piano but never took lessons. In my distant youth (well, say about 20 years old; I'm 44 now) I got some crappy electronic keyboards to try to self-learn some playing - first a small sized Casio, then a 5-octaves Yamaha with "sensitive"  keys and sustain pedal. Knowing the basics of music theory, sheet reading and harmony, helped - but, even if my goals were very modest, I did little progress,  just got  familiar with the notes on the keyboard and that basics of fingering;  I didnt reach to the point of enjoying the practice and feeling that I were making progress. A year ago I bought a electronic piano (Casio PX-120 Privia), it's rather cheap but  has its 88 weighted keys. A fully different experience, only now I'm feeling that I'm making some progress, and enjoying it.

I'd say that the feeling of the weighted keys is as important as the number of keys - perhaps even more.

[oxy60]

Those 60 note keyboards are just a duplicate of one keyboard of an organ. The bottom C sounds an 8 foot pipe, which is what a small installation would have. Of course larger set ups might have 16 and 32 foot Cs but generally most small home/church organs just have 8s.

Later keyboards tried to emulate a piano and that has progressed until the present. Finally we got an 88 note piano size with a reasonable piano sound.

However those 60 note keyboards remain very popular especially on stage with pop bands.

[redwing2024]

Well, right now, I set my goal to learn and familiarize the basics of piano by using my keyboard.
But my problem is, I really don't know what should I do?.. And after the basic, what's next? And so on...

My dream is to play pop songs or jazz, or even some classical songs on stage while singing along with it... Is that possible? 

[enharmonic]

Here's my take on it:

When I first started playing the piano, I started on a keyboard. I didn't switch to piano until about two or three years later, and I think I'm fine now. So it is definitely possible to learn the basics of piano on the keyboard, because they both have keys and you play them by pressing them down and the hand positions for both are similar.

However, you can only go so far, because they are really different instruments and the more advanced you get, the deeper you get into stuff that's really specific to that one instrument. Even touch-sensitive keyboards cannot respond to your touch the same way piano keys will. With the piano, when you get more advanced, the touch really matters, as well as a lot of other details like how tense your finger is when you press it down, how quickly you do this, how relaxed... all that stuff. And you won't be able to learn any of that on a keyboard.

In other words, if you want to learn how to have an intimate relationship with the piano, if you want to learn the subtleties of the instrument instead of just how to play the notes and do dynamics and stuff, you've got to have a real piano.

On the other hand, the keyboard is an instrument in its own right, and probably has subtleties and personality of its own that I have never discovered.

[pianoplayjl]

It is possible. In the beginning of piano studies a student wouldn't be using a wide span of a keyboard/piano. But as the student progresses he/she would be using more notes and a wider range.

[oxy60]

You will not get too far into the classical piano repertoire before you run out of notes on your keyboard. For example, the first movement of the Moonlight Sonata, which is hardly advanced stuff.

[pianoplayjl]

An 88 note keyboard would be ideal.

[bleicher]

I think you'd be better off learning to play the electronic keyboard than the piano if you only have a keyboard to practise on, especially as your aim in the long term is to play the keyboard in a band, not the piano. Electronic Keyboard is basically a pop instrument although most of the repertoire books contain arrangements of classical tunes too. Trinity Guildhall and Rockschool have exams for electronic keyboard.  There are plenty of tutor books for electronic keyboard, for example the Complete Keyboard Player, Progressive Keyboard Method, Keyquest, Electronic Keyboard Basics.

Later on if you get a piano (digital or acoustic) you could always switch to piano and it will be easier to learn the piano having started on keyboard than from scratch. However it's easiest just to think of them as different instruments, like clarinet and saxophone or piano and organ.

[_achilles_]

I started on a little electric keyboard and I would say it works find for teaching the basics. My advice is to play with the keyboard, and by the time you start learning songs that need more keys you've probably put enough dedication into it to justify buying a decent digital one.

That's what my parents did for me since.. We already had a cheap little electric keyboard, so I started taking lessons playing on that, and since I progressed enough to need more keys my parents bought me a PS-20 (which I still use all the time).

[pianoplayjl]

If you're just learning for the fun of it, it's ok but if you are serious then you need a piano. Either way you will need an 88 key keyboard eventually.