with a keyboard even when you push it down very lightly it will still play but with a piano ot doesnt play.
Easy as that

Keyboards have one winning point over piano: it could be connected with computer for interactive learning. Music is a language and interactivity is very important component for beginners. Please, watch the video for more details:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bUeNO6U7tI

Technically, as has already been pointed out, a piano *is* a keyboard. However, a 'keyboard' isn't neccessarily a piano, especially in a rock or pop band - in that context, 'the keyboard' is almost always some sort of electric organ or synthesiser, and is called a 'keyboard' to distinguish it from other instruments like 'drums' or 'guitar'. I assume that the latter is the sort of keyboard being discussed here.

Keyboards are available with various actions, and with or without touch sensitivity.

Actions...

'synth action' - Lightly sprung, no weighting.

'semi-weighted' - An attempt to bring a piano-like feel to synthesisers and MIDI keyboards. These have a small counterwight which gives the key some inertia when it's first pressed (thus simulating the mass that your finger has to overcome when pressing a key on a piano). Spring strength can vary. I think the idea with this kind of action is to keep it usable for sounds that one might normal play on a synth action, but add some feel for piano.

'piano weighted' - the kind of keyboard you get on digital and stage pianos. Heavier keys, and fairly lightly sprung. By all accounts, these are pretty good, although they might not be a perfect simulation of real piano feel.


Almost all modern synth keyboards have touch sensitivity - or *velocity* sensitivity, to be more precise. The harder you hit a note, the faster your finger is moving downwards onto it, and sensors detect this speed and use the result to modify the sound that is sent to the speaker. Usually, only the volume is modified, but some keyboards can change the timbre of the note as well. In my (relatively limited) experience, only cheap keyboards and some electric organs have no velocity sensitivity.

As for whether the original poster should consider getting a piano, that really does depend on exactly what sort of use it's to be put to.

I have a yamaha digital piano which has 88 weighted keys and three foot pedals. It looks just like an acoustic piano but the difference is that it will never go out of tune and need tuning which can be expensive. I have known people with 'real' pianos who have let them go and when you try and play them they sound so out of tune they screech at you. Mine will never go out of tune and these yamaha digital pianos sound just as good as the real thing. Mine only cost £500 which was money worth spent. I have seen second hand acoustic pianos for sale on ebay for as little as £50 but unless you know what you are looking for, it could be money down the drain as there may be all sorts of things wrong with it, ie.. damp hammers, in need of tuning etc.

By the way, I got my digital piano from Chappels music shop in London. Before I bought what I bought, I tried out at least 7 different ones until I found the one that to me... sounded right and felt right.

Good luck with your purchase

I went shopping for a first piano a week or so ago, armed with my almost-complete lack of knowledge of the subject, and tuning was one of my concerns. I'm a guitarist, mainly, and tuning is an everyday thing for us string twangers, so I didn't want to find myself in a situation where I was always having to pay a small fortune to keep a real piano in tune, and this led me to check out digitals.

I subsequently found out that piano tuning is normally only done twice a year, coinciding with the major changes in the seasons, and it costs about £50 per session. At about two quid a week for something that's done twice a year, I decided that the tuning aspect wasn't a big enough factor to influence my choice of instrument type.

As for buying a 50-quid piano with damp felt and whatever other internal horrors pianos are subject to, I would have to say that you get what you pay for - that kind of thing is best left to those who already understand the internals of the instrument well enough to know whether it can be brought back to good condition. If you're going to buy an acoustic, and don't know much about it, buy from a dealer, or take along someone that knows the subject.

The digital piano I liked the best was the Yamaha Clavinova CLP270 - best sound, I thought. However, it costs about two grand, so I decided that I should check out acoustic pianos up to around that price before coming to a decision. I eventually went for a nice Rosler console piano in solid Rosewood for a bit over half the price of the CLP270.

When i was in Chappels... I had a look at the acoustic pianos just out of interest and I agree that a very good acoustic piano sounds superb. I tried a grand acoustic piano that cost £21,000. No beginner would want one of those and only a professional would have one of those and would use it to put in a concert hall. It was nice to play though. There is no comparison between a digital and that one but I had to think of my price range and what i want it for. I am never going to make a classical pianist because I started too late. But I think I will get up to a reasonable standard to play for pleasure

That's the sort of thing I'm aiming for as well. I played guitar for nearly 30 years without being able to read a note (or tab). After a while, a fluidity comes about where you can just play without thinking - produce whatever sounds are in your head. I'd like to get to that stage on piano. There are also a few famous tunes that I'd like to learn, and doing that is encouraging me to learn to read music. I'm finding it very interesting being a beginner on an instrument, and on theory to an extent, but with much musical experience nonetheless. It's a voyage of discovery - I have no idea what direction this is going to go in.

Some people here speak as though their only keyboard experiences are with those low-end beginner keyboards that retailers put on display in their electronics sections. You can buy keyboards with 88 keys, key weighting, and pedal accessories. They can run rather expensive, but they can also get quite close to a piano's sound and feel.

While an electronic keyboard will never be able to perfectly imitate an acoustic pianos, they do have some advantages. They have some bells and whistles (e.g. pitch wheels, other sound settings and instruments, various sound aspects that can be tweaked)that an acoustic piano can't give you. Also, keyboards are infinitely more portable, which is tremendously useful if you're in a band setting.