How to choose your first keyboard?

A wide price range, a multitude of functions and the availability of many models at a moderate price make the keyboard a very popular instrument. But is a keyboard just the instrument that will meet the expectations of a musical adept, how to choose it and is it suitable, for example, as a gift for a child?

Keyboard, – how is it different from other instruments?

The keyboard is often confused with a synthesizer or electronic organ. It is also often treated as a handy piano substitute. Meanwhile, it is a specialized instrument that can, admittedly, to some extent pretend to be a piano or an organ, but the keyboard of most keyboards does not resemble a piano keyboard at all, neither in terms of the mechanism, nor in terms of scale, and the keyboard’s sound module is designed to provide a variety of pre-programmed sounds.

These are not instruments that specialize in reproducing the sound of a piano or organ, or in programming new synthetic timbres (although there are possibilities to partially create timbres, e.g. by combining them, about which later). The main task of the keyboard is the possibility of replacing the entire team of musicians by one musician playing the keyboard, using a specific and at the same time quite simple playing technique.

Is the keyboard an instrument for me?

As can be seen from the above, a keyboard is an instrument with a specific application, not just a cheap substitute. If the desire of the person considering buying an instrument is to play the piano, the best solution (in a situation where an acoustic piano or piano is out of reach for financial or housing reasons) will be a piano or digital piano equipped with a full hammer-type keyboard. Similarly with the authorities, it is best to choose a specialized instrument, e.g. electronic organs.

Keyboard, on the other hand, is perfect for people planning to earn money on their own performances in venues or at weddings, or simply wanting to have a good time performing their favorite music on their own, be it pop, club, rock or jazz.

The technique of playing the keyboard is relatively simple, definitely simpler than the piano one. Usually it consists of performing the main melody with the right hand, and specifying the harmonic function with the left hand, which in practice consists of playing with the right hand (for many songs, even omitting the dynamics, which makes playing even easier) and pressing individual keys or chords. with your left hand, usually within one octave.

Keyboard – is it a good gift for a child?

Almost everyone has heard that Mozart started learning to play (the harpsichord) at the age of five. Hence, the keyboard is often bought as a gift for a child, although it is not the best choice when we hope that it will be a pianist.

Firstly, because the keyboard of the keyboard is not equipped with a hammer mechanism, which significantly affects the work of the hands and allows (under the supervision of a teacher) to develop the necessary piano playing habits.

Second, the enormous multitude of functions, including auto-accompaniment, can distract and distract from the music itself towards unproductive “figuring out” the functions. The technique of playing the keyboard is so simple that a person who can play the piano will learn it in a few minutes. A keyboardist, on the other hand, is not able to play the piano well, unless he puts a lot of time and work into learning, often forcing himself to fight the difficult and tedious habits of keyboarding.

For these reasons, a more musically developing gift will be a digital piano, and not necessarily for a five-year-old child. Many pianists start learning to play much later, after the age of ten, and despite this, they develop virtuosity.

I am determined – how to choose a keyboard?

Keyboard prices range from several hundred to several thousand. zlotys. When choosing a keyboard, you can actually reject the cheapest toys with keyboards smaller than 61 keys. 61 full-size keys is the minimum that allows for a fairly free and comfortable game.

It is worth choosing a keyboard equipped with a dynamic keyboard, i.e. a keyboard that registers the strength of the impact, influencing the volume and timbre of the sound, i.e. dynamics (and articulation). This gives greater possibilities of expression and more faithful reproduction of, for example, jazz or rock songs. It also develops the habit of controlling the strength of the strike, which is beneficial because after you start learning, you may find that your musical preferences change and it will be a little easier to switch to the piano. Modern keyboards that meet these basic conditions are quite cheap and, as a rule, should be quite pleasant instruments to play at home.

Of course, more expensive models provide more functions, more colors, better data transfer options (e.g. loading more styles, loading new sounds, etc.), better sound, etc., which is useful for professional use, but is not necessary for a beginner, and an excess of buttons, knobs, functions and submenus may make it difficult to familiarize yourself with the logic of operation and operation of this type of machines.

The possibilities of shaping the sound and editing styles in mid-range keyboards are very large for an unfamiliar person (e.g. changing the arrangement of the accompaniment style, creating a style, effects; reverberation, echoes, chorus, combining colors, changing modulation, changing the pitchbender scale, automatic adding other sound effects and much more). An important parameter is polyphony.

The general rule is: the more (polyphonic voices) the better (this means less risk of sound breakage when many are played at once, especially with an extensive auto accompaniment), while a certain “minimum decency” for free playing in a wide repertoire is 32 voices.

The element worth noting are circular sliders or joysticks placed on the left side of the keyboard. In addition to the most common pitchbender, which allows you to smoothly change the pitch of the sound (very useful in rock music, for continuous sounds of an electric guitar), an interesting function can be the “modulation” slider, which smoothly changes the timbre. In addition, individual models have a diverse set of side functions that are not very important and their selection is a matter of preferences developed during the making of music.

The keyboard, like any instrument, is worth playing. Recordings on the Internet should be approached with some caution: some are a good presentation of the possibilities, but for example, the sound quality depends equally on the keyboard and the recording (the quality of the recording equipment and the skill of the person performing the recording).

Summation

Keyboard is an instrument specialized for independent performance of light music. It is not suitable for piano education for children, but it is perfect for home music making for relaxation, and semi-professional and professional models for independent performances in pubs and at weddings.

When buying a keyboard, it is best to get a full-fledged instrument right away, with a keyboard with full-size keys, at least 61 keys, and preferably dynamic, i.e. responsive to the force of the impact. It is worth getting an instrument with as much polyphony as possible and pleasant sounding. If we ask the opinion of other keyboard players before buying, it’s better not to worry too much about brand preferences. The market is changing all the time and a company that used to have a worse period can now produce much better instruments.

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