Digital pianos

[Twilkes]

Any thoughts/recommendations on digital pianos? More classic and jazz than pop and rock, home use only.

£1200ish budget, looking at Kawai CN25 or Roland HP504 - the Roland started behind but might be winning me over. Tried some Yamaha CLPs but found the speakers a bit muffled and muddy.

I've thought about a controller keyboard with software pianos and external speakers, but don't really want to deal with the extra wires and having to start up a computer just to sit down and play.

[Twilkes]

brickwall said:

If it's for mock piano-playing, then get a Yamaha Clavinova. They're the industry standard for that kind of thing. No need for external amplification or speakers, and generally a pretty good touch and action.

Thing is, they're not really any more - they've benefitted from that perception for a long time and hence haven't put the R&D into their technology that the other companies have. Below £1k they're not that great and have got stiff competition from Casio, and above £1k Kawai and Roland have been moving fast over the last decade. A Yamaha won't disappoint, but if you know what you're looking for then you can get better results elsewhere.

But yes, it's home use and I doubt I'm going to push the limits of a digital piano any time soon.

[Twilkes]

Chicken Chaser said:

Kawai, Kawai, Kawai. Yamaha owner for 20 something years. Played several different Kawai's, Yamaha and Rolands back to back in a Piano store which also had several real grand pianos in and the Kawai for feel was quite a step above the rest. It was the grand feel action which I ended up buying in the CS7 but if you can get anything else around that price then I'd go for it. Really happy with mine, beautiful instrument.

Yeah, initial budget was £300ish for a Yamaha P45, ended up with a £1400 Kawai CN35 - sounds great, good speakers, and enough useful bells and whistles to keep it reasonably future proof. Roland would have been awesome for late night jazz, very smooth sound, but was muffled at times and the Kawai was more well-rounded and suitable for straight jazz/classic stuff.

[Twilkes]

Chicken Chaser said:

Excellent. Pleased to hear it! Trying to learn how to play boogie woogie right now, and its like starting over again. Despite playing for over 25 years, the left hand doesn't seem to want to work independently from the right!

Usual tip for stuff like this is to start slow, like really slow, with a metronome. If you felt stupid you could even play as if you were in slomo, moving your fingers really slow between the keys. This trains the brain with the correct muscle movements which you should then repeat until you can do it automatically, and then bring up the tempo. If you can't play it at a faster tempo then it's too fast for you at this time and you'll just be confusing your fingers and bedding in bad habits.

It's better to spend half an hour nailing two bars repeatedly at a slow speed, and the next day nail the next two bars and so on, than wobble through a whole page for days and days, never really getting anything to a good standard.

But yes, Kawai's rock.