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Monday, August 22, 2011

Digital Keyboards For Amateurs And Professionals: How To Choose

By Andrew Strauss Laeddis


Commitment to training, talent and a top notch instrument makes a great pianist. Even the greatest piano virtuoso will find it difficult to reproduce his award winning pieces on a piano that is below par to begin with.

Some do not pursue a piano training simply because they think that pianos are expensive. If you are a beginner, getting a good quality but less expensive digital keyboard would be a much better option.

Digital keyboards have five general types. Digital pianos are good for beginners because they contain less knobs and buttons which can overwhelm a tutee. Arrangers are loaded with features that allow you to be a one-man band, that is, it can provide you automatic drum, bass and chord accompaniment. Those who perform onstage will require the richer tones of a digital stage piano. It typically has fewer functions as an arranger, but offer a more professional keyboard sound. Advanced piano players can tinker around with workstations and synthesizers. More work can be done on these systems such as sequencing, recording or editing music as well as manipulating waveforms. Because they are the most feature-rich of the bunch they also command the heftiest price tag.

There are several digital piano manufacturers out there, but Casio pianos are one of the most sought-after primarily because they are feature-rich yet inexpensive. They are best known for their topnotch beginner pianos which come built in with step-up learning systems. Casio also incorporated a music challenge feature to most of their beginner keyboards to provide a fun learning experience. High-end Casio pianos also have tri-sensor scaled hammer-action and ivory touch keyboards which gives its users almost the same audible and aesthetic delight of a concert piano.

For beginners, getting the CTK-2100 is a wise decision. For less than $170 you already get a 61-key digital keyboard with a huge range of features and functions. Tutees will find the voice fingering guide on the CTK-2100 very helpful during practices. Using AHL audio technology, these keyboards provide almost the same sweet tunes produced by a real grand piano.




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