Best Piano Keyboard for a Beginner?

[imadeus]

Hi all!

I would like to start playing piano.  I love classical music and have a good musical ear - I usually know if a piece is played out of key; thus a good sounding keyboard is really important to me.  It's also important that the educational abilities of the keyboard are enough to get me started as I plan on self educating in addition to taking lessons.

I was planning to purchase the Yamaha YPG-235 which I read sounds just like a real piano (many keyboards do not sound "real" to me - too synthesized).

However today I was in Target and they had the Casio LK-100 which has keys that light up.  I was able to play the first 30 seconds of Mozart's Alla Turca in only about 10 minutes from memory.

So 2 questions:
1) Is that pace of learning typical?
2) What methods of self-learning are generally the most effective?  The keys lighting up was pretty neat, but I want to "do it right" and really learn in the most effective way.

Any thoughts are appreciated as are keyboard recomendations ! (It would be great if I could find a good sound keyboard with lightup keys perhaps)

Thanks!!

PS: I am about 30 years old with no music background, if that matters.

[j_menz]

Haver a look through the Instruments board on this forum for further details of various options. Basically you should go for one with 88 keys that are "weighted".

The light up thing is a novelty really and won't be of any assistance in the medium term - it may in fact end up slowing you down.

[moose61]

Roland Rd 700 is the best digital piano as far as touch, key action and sample libraries- although Yamaha does quite well Roland is the best and gives many other usable features-
I am a pro pianist and was raised on Steinways and other fine instruments- I recommend this advice often to people - its the best way to go before buying a 3 legged piano. Good luck-

[sroka]

I personally recommend an actual piano, if it's upright.

An electronic piano doesn't give that actual feel. 

Any upright piano will do, the harder the keys are to press, the better! I noticed big differences in playing my old piano (keys were easy to press) and my piano at college (hard to press).

But for a beginner, anything will do!