Cheap keyboards

[swarmandal]

I've just started playing piano in the last year, since the school I attend has some in its music rooms. Having nothing better to do in between classes and after school, I've been playing for several hours a day 4 days a week. I have some basics down (Beatles, easy classical tunes, and a little bit of improvisation) but I'm starting to get to the point where I really miss not being able to play on the 3 days I have off. I was thinking about buying a cheap keyboard ($60 huntington with 61 keys on amazon  ) just so I could practice a bit and work some things out by ear that I hear, and just to play with when I feel the itch to play. But I've read a lot of negative things about keyboards, especially since the one I'm looking at doesn't have weighted keys, and I've heard that these can really screw up your technique. Normally, I could just save up and buy a keyboard, but due to certain circumstances I'll be moving in about a year and will have to leave it behind.

So is it worth buying a cheap 'board? Will it mess my technique up beyond repair? Or should I just practice on the school's real pianos and buy one for myself in a few years?

[iansinclair]

You won't find a keyboard like that any help at all in learning to really play piano.  However, that's not to say that it might not be a bad idea in your circumstances, just so, as you say, you could work some things out by ear that you hear, and when you get an itch to play something.  When I was in college (quite some time ago...) electronic keyboards just didn't exist, but I had a guitar for exactly that kind of thing.

Just don't even think that you will learn piano technique on it -- save that for the music rooms!

[swarmandal]

Thanks for the input!

I figured it wouldn't really help develop technique, but do you think it will at least help me coordinate my hands more? My main problem right now is just getting them to play together. If I could work on that more at home, it would be really beneficial and time-saving for the real practice I do at school.

 I do have a guitar (I'm self-taught) but it's really difficult for me to work out anything on the fretboard. The keyboard is just approximately 1 billion times easier to understand than the fretboard.

[iansinclair]

It will certainly help you with hand coordination.  Not a bad objective at all!  And I most totally agree with you -- a keyboard -- any keyboard -- is a lot easier to work with than a guitar fretboard!

I'd say go for it...

[rocklandpiano]

You might consider the new Yamaha NP-30:

https://www.yamaha.com/yamahavgn/Document…

It is probably the least expensive keyboard that actually SOUNDS like a piano.