Hi I’m new to the music scene and am really interested in getting a good keyboard to learn,
I hoped to one day play piano but its way to expensive to start at the root of that tree, so I’ve decided to look at keyboards/synths as a more fun alternative for a beginner. (please feel free to correct my terminology where necessary)
I have been looking for a good beginner keyboard and have pretty much decided to focus my attention on Yamaha products as what I know of them, they are trustworthy. (again correct me if I’m wrong)
my problem is the crossroads I’m at now. i have seen both the Yamaha PSR and EZ series.
The EZ series has light up keys which could really help and make it easier to learn the keys, or learn songs.
the PSR does not have this but has the YES technology to teach me over say 100 songs built into the boards.
What I’m really looking for is a good beginner board at reasonable cost that teaches me to play songs. Basically a good electronic tutor. has some pc connectivity as i believe some boards now allow me to download extra songs from the net and load them onto the keyboard once i get through the 1st 100 or so (am i wrong about this)
Could anyone point me to some good beginner options or just help sort this mess in my brain that was not there 8 hours ago.
get a Fender Rhodes electric piano. Depending where you live, you can cop one pretty cheap, they sound beautiful on their own AND can be effected like an e-guitar w/FX, wah pedal, & the like. At the same time its got a piano feel, being that it uses hammers & u can play songs without having to learn a complex keyboard first. Check out Bill Evans’ “Left to Right” album for a lovely Rhodes example.
welcome to the forum! Actually to learn keyboard I would suggest to do the old fashioned and maybe difficult way. Which is to learn piano. Even a cheap one could help. My first piano for example I got it for free from someone who wanted to get rid of it. It was not in a very good condition and not able to tune it corretly (half tone below the normal tempered scale) but very helpful to learn how to move the fingers on the right positions with the right timing and dynamic performance.
I think - and that is my personal opinion - all the new YES technologies and help functions on modern keyboards are nice but may be not really sufficiant to give you a solid base for your further musical development. But again, this is just a comment from an old dinosaur and as you now these species are gone already…
There’s a Yamaha forum at http://www.yamahaforums.co.uk/forum/ which may be more geared to the kind of questions you’re asking and therefore more helpful. They’re very friendly and very knowledgable on there.
I’m not familiar with the two Yamaha series you’ve mentioned, but I do know that people who’ve been checking out this type of Yamaha beginners’ keyboard have often been surprised to find that some of the Casio keyboards are equally good, or better. So if you haven’t already looked at Casio keyboards, then maybe you’d find that helpful. (I have a CTK 900, which is supposed to be a fairly basic home musician’s instrument, and it’s actually very impressive).
EDIT: I’ve just looked again at the original post, and the date is four years ago. Hopefully the person who posted found what they were looking for.
Incidentally, while this has come up, the more regular users of this forum may be interested in the music I made with the very unlikely Casio I mentioned. You wouldn’t expect to find a ring modulator built into a keyboard like the CTK 900, but it has one and it’s capable of some very unlikely sounds.
`Birds’ on my website makes good use of the ring modulator and some of the other programmable aspects of the Casio. People have said they’re reminded of ther Radiophonic Workshop and early Tangerine Dream. I also used the Casio on the first parts of Inner Temple Meditation. The tinkling sounds and some of the Tibetan chants were done with the Casio, though I overdubbed my own Tibetan chanting over the keyboard so it’s not obvious what’s me and what’s the Casio. The fact that its chant patch is convincing underneath genuine chanting does suggest how convincing it is, though.
