My 9 year old daughter would like to take piano lessons. We don`t have a piano. I would hate to invest in a big, expensive piano only to have her become disinterested. So I was wondering if a keyboard would be OK? I have heard it must be an 88 key model to replicate a real piano. I also heard that eventually I need a real piano because it has pedals. Don`t they have any kind of pedal add on for a electronic keyboard?
If a keyboard is OK to start, what kind do I get? If she plays for a year, I would be more than happy to replace it with a real piano.

Thanks,

MIKE

I started off on a keyboard, but because we are on quite a low income we bought a piano after 2 years. I`m pretty sure you can get pedal plug-ins for keyboards. You definately can for clavinovas (electronic pianos, cost about £800-£1500). I`d suggest buying a keyboard that has MIDI IN/OUT ports becasue with these you can play music from the PC on the keyboard, which translates it to the tones it has, which is really nice. You can also play music on the keyboard and record it on PC. My keyboard had 61 keys, however I found that I couldn`t play lots of piano pieces because the keys don`t go low or high enough. Even though I have the piano now, I still use the keyboard for composition because it has lots of voices and you can record to multiple tracks and play them together. The problem with my keyboard, and lots of other, is that the touch-sensitive mode doesn`t work very well, and is therefore quite useless.
The problem I had with playing on a keyboard was that when I switched to piano the notes were at different volumes because I wasn`t used to touch-sensitiveness. Also, playing the keyboard doesn`t really build up dexterity in your fingers, so if you try and play a piece on the piano which you already know on a keyboard, it will be quite hard and will tire your fingers. After a time though, you will get used to it. I`d certainly recommend buying a keyboard before a piano, not just for playing pieces, but it`s fun and good for composing. My keyboard costs £130, has 61 keys, MIDI IN/OUT, 200 tones, 100 rhythms, but I`m not sure about pedal support. You might want to check if the keyboard you want supports pedals, because I`m not sure where they go.
Good luck with your daughter`s playing!

Of course there are kind of electronic pedals, I do have this stuff but anyway, my opinion is that you cannot compare anything to a real piano and it`s better to start with it. I know it`s quite an expence, so you can buy an electronic piano of course, it is smaller but for me it`s a huge difference - and these which imitate real piano better are more expensive as well. Choice is yours.

i started off using a REALLY bad 32 key keynoard
i then got a good keyboard about a month later.
about 1 and a half years later i got a proper one
anything will do to start with, but theres only so much you can learn with a keyboard, so you`ll have to buy a new one before she gets too far ahead

Mike,
i played keyboard then i new how 2 play piano. and ur
daughter wont get disinterseted in piano, it rox!

Actually, I did start on a very small keyboard too, probably about 32 keys. I could only play `chopsticks` and the like though

Thank you all. I think I will get something like this: http://www.samedaymusic.com/product--YAMDGX500
I hope it is OK for a year or so. I would be happy at that point to get a real good piano.

MIKE