How to Play Piano: Acoustic or Electronic Piano?

Does someone at your house want to learn to play the piano? Sometimes the cost of a real piano can be prohibitive. There are cheaper alternatives in the electronic world, but how good is the sound quality? Read this informative article for some guidance before you decide between a real piano or an electronic piano..

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Learn To Play Piano: A Digital (electronic) Or An Acoustic Piano?

By Peter Edvinsson

If I have to choose between buying an acoustic piano or a digital (electronic) piano what is the best choice? let's take a look at the different choices if you want to learn to play piano.

Personally I haven't been forced to make the decision between buying a normal upright piano and a digital (electronic) piano as I have both in my home. I can see advantages in both types of pianos when practicing the art of learning to play piano.

A normal upright piano produces sounds with hammers that strikes the strings. A digital (electronic) piano on the other hand tries to duplicate the feeling of playing an acoustic piano.

Most people are familiar with the normal upright piano but what advantages has a digital (electronic) piano?
First let us describe a digital (electronic) piano.

A digital (electronic) piano consists of a keyboard with weighted key action, sensors that detect the velocity when you play the keys and a set of sounds you can choose from. To make it possible to listen to the piano when you play you have an amplifier and loudspeakers and headphone jacks.
Here are some advantages with a digital (electronic) piano:

1. A digital (electronic) piano doesn't need to be tuned. A normal acoustic piano you should tune once or twice a year. If you can't tune a piano yourself you have to turn to a piano tuner. It can be quite expensive of course. Even a piano tuner has to pay his bills.

2. You can practice silently. A digital (electronic) piano usually has a headphone jack so by using headphones you can practise as much as you want without disturbing neighbours or family members.

3. Midi interface. A digital (electronic) piano usually has a midi interface which makes it possible to connect your piano to a computer and use music software like notation programs or a sequenser program or a software synthesizer.

What then are the disadvantages of having a digital (electronic) piano?

1. The sounds in an acoustic piano are produced by strings vibrating and the different pitches interact in ways that you cannot copy on a digital (electronic) piano. The sound quality of the sounds produced by digital (electronic) pianos are becoming better and better but it is still a completely different way of producing sounds.

2. A digital (electronic) piano is limited when it comes to producing different tone colors by different ways of playing. An accomplished pianist might feel limited by the sampled sounds.

There are many more things to say about choosing a piano but this is a beginning.

As you can see it is not so easy to decide what's best for you. If you can't decide what type of piano to buy you can do as I have done. Have both types of pianos and keep smiling.

Peter Edvinsson is a musician, composer and music teacher. Visit his site Capotasto Music and download your free sheet music and learn to play piano resources at http://www.capotastomusic.com/

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