Digital piano vs. acoustic piano

#selectingapiano

I remember I was six years old when my dad got me a Yamaha upright piano. It was the piano I knew, played and loved. Until one day I came across an electrical piano in my school gym when I was twelve, I did not know there were different types of pianos. I was fascinated by the different sound, touch and the mechanical features like buttons, pedals and strange look of it. I dreamed about having one of that kind of pianos to let my imagination go wild on it. The electrical pianos I refer to here are the early models — those you can see on the TV or movies in the 80s.

After many years, the thought about having an electrical piano faded away. I don't know why; in fact, any dreams that did not fit into the intense, and examination-driven education system died away. Sadly, music was completely eliminated from my life after I started junior high school.

It was almost 15 years ago when the idea of practicing piano again crossed my mind. I'd been married with two young kids. I'd moved to a new country, finished my MBA degree and started an accounting job. Everything looked right in my life. But I missed piano. To pick up the pieces of my broken dream, I approached a teacher requesting for Jazz piano lessons, and was rejected. Only classical piano lessons were available. The reason why I asked for jazz was because I thought I could not handle demanding practice from classical repertoire. Afterall, I had a full time job and two youngsters to look after.

It turned out that once I started practicing classical repertoire, I got hooked. It was classical repertoire I was most familiar with as a child. The connection was ingrained in my soul.

I have never owned an electrical piano. In fact, I never considered an electrical piano a "piano". It is more of an equipment that can do a variety of special effect. It is more of something that is fast, exciting, and useful. But when it comes to learning piano as an art, it is absolutely not an alternative to a real piano!

Today digital pianos are so popular that even remote piano exams accept digital pianos. The economic reason behind the the popularity is clear: consumers want them because they are much cheaper, much smaller, and much mobile. Young kids love them. They sound cool.

I'd like to point out that digital pianos are made for digital music, not classical music. If you are learning classical piano, you do need an acoustic piano. A Chopin Nocturne, or a Beethoven piano sonata, or a Bach Toccata can not be practiced and learned on a digital piano. Why? Because these pieces were not written for electrical pianos. Well sure you could play the scores in a digital way, but you will lose the authenticity.

That being said, if you just want to play or create digital music, digital pianos are great. Serious music producers do need a fine electrical keyboard to "produce" audio tracks that can be connected to computers for editing and commercialization.

Do you have young kids who are musical and wish to learn piano? Getting a proper intstrument from day one is the best decision and insvestment you can make. A solid foundation goes a long way. Learning classical repertoire, a lot of it, when they are young gives them all embracing skills that will enable them to play or create any kind of music later. Famous Canadian Jazz pianist Oscar Peterson played a lot of Bach when he was young!