Digital Piano

[mischa18]

Hi All,
I learned to play the piano growing up in England and now that I'm older; approaching retirement, I'm taking it up again.  I don't have room for an upright piano so I ordered a digital piano (Roland GO: Piano 88-Key Full Size Portable Digital Piano Keyboard with Onboard Bluetooth Speakers (GO-88P).  I have osteoarthritis in my fingers and wrists and I was told that this particular model has a pretty light touch but I'm still finding that the amount of pressure I have to put on the keys is a bit more than I'd like. I have to keep this digital piano as it's past the return date but apart from changing the key sensitivity, is there anything else I can do?

Thanks so much in advance.

[j_tour]

I have to keep this digital piano as it's past the return date but apart from changing the key sensitivity, is there anything else I can do?

Not really.  At least from the keyboard actions I've taken out of digital pianos, there's slight weight added physically to each key that you might be able to remove or trim down.

That would be for each individual key, after fully disassembling and removing the action.  That might take half a day or so of pretty tedious work, if it's even possible on the Roland mechanism (most keyboard actions come from one or a small handful of manufacturers, regardless of the brand of keyboard, though).  And that's from memory a long time ago.

Your other option you already came across:  adjust the velocity parameters such that you don't have to depress the key fully to create tones.

AFAIK, those are the two options.

/* EDIT:  well, there's a third option, which is to buy a new keyboard!  I used to have a Kurzweil SP-76 (I think it was called), which had a "semi-weighted" action.  It wasn't like a synth keyboard, i.e., pretty much unweighted, but it was close to a spinet action.  It used some kind of springs in the action, but I never opened it up to look.  Very light, very good sounds for the time, and had lots of professional features like advanced MIDI capabilities.  It was actually pretty easy to play something resembling full-on classical music on, despite it having been a very light action.  Something like that, probably.

OR, you could buy very cheaply an unweighted MIDI controller (that is, something with no sounds, just a slab of unweighted keys and a few buttons to control various things), plug it in to use the sounds from your Roland, and maybe gradually over time start switching over to the weighted keys.  Any old keyboard that has MIDI output should work just fine, even a child's toy, something you'd find very cheaply indeed.  */

[lelle]

Hi All,
I learned to play the piano growing up in England and now that I'm older; approaching retirement, I'm taking it up again.  I don't have room for an upright piano so I ordered a digital piano (Roland GO: Piano 88-Key Full Size Portable Digital Piano Keyboard with Onboard Bluetooth Speakers (GO-88P).  I have osteoarthritis in my fingers and wrists and I was told that this particular model has a pretty light touch but I'm still finding that the amount of pressure I have to put on the keys is a bit more than I'd like. I have to keep this digital piano as it's past the return date but apart from changing the key sensitivity, is there anything else I can do?

Thanks so much in advance.

One thing I have heard that I don't know if it's true, but that I'm just going to throw out here, is that for some people playing some piano can help with arthritis symptoms. Maybe that is something worth asking your doctor about?

[j_tour]

mistaken post

[volcanoadam]

Hi All,
I learned to play the piano growing up in England and now that I'm older; approaching retirement, I'm taking it up again.  I don't have room for an upright piano so I ordered a digital piano (Roland GO: Piano 88-Key Full Size Portable Digital Piano Keyboard with Onboard Bluetooth Speakers (GO-88P).  I have osteoarthritis in my fingers and wrists and I was told that this particular model has a pretty light touch but I'm still finding that the amount of pressure I have to put on the keys is a bit more than I'd like. I have to keep this digital piano as it's past the return date but apart from changing the key sensitivity, is there anything else I can do?

Thanks so much in advance.

Hi Mischa,
Light touch can be quite misleading. Lighter keays mean also you have less dumping of the energy you use. However, I do not have arthritis, I suffered a lot from finger pains when I played exclusively on a digital piano. When I switched to much heavier acoustic one my fingers got much better.
Most traditional DPs also use quite strong springs and while keys are depressed they push fingers upwards with a lot of force (very important when holding keys down, which certainly is an important factor for a beginner), that doesn't happen in acoustic pianos - they have very light return springs.

[quantum]

Most traditional DPs also use quite strong springs and while keys are depressed they push fingers upwards with a lot of force (very important when holding keys down, which certainly is an important factor for a beginner), that doesn't happen in acoustic pianos - they have very light return springs.

Very true.

I have played gigs in the past on digital pianos, and certain models have proven to be exhausting to play.  Playing or practising on acoustic pianos for long hours is far less fatiguing to me, even those pianos with heavy actions.