Piano Lessons Thousand Oaks Guitar Westlake Village Newbury Park Moorpark Piano Lessons Thousand Oaks
(818) 303-5261
Instrument Recommendations
If you're thinking about beginning lessons, you'll need a quality instrument that will sound great and enable you to reach your full potential. With our years of teaching experience, we've come across many different instruments. Listed below are a few that we've been impressed with, with different options depending on your budget.
Casio CT-S300 Keyboard - $170
This is a great keyboard for a beginner if you're on a budget. There are lots of sounds to play with, the keys are touch-sensitive, and the package comes with everything you'll need to get started including a stand and headphones. The downside is that there are only 61 keys as opposed to a full 88 keys, and the keys are also not weighted, which means it has more of a light springy touch when you push the keys as opposed to a weighted real piano feel. This would be fine for a beginner for about 2-3 years before it would be time to think about upgrading to a better keyboard.
Casio CDP-S160 Digital Piano - $500
This is more of a serious keyboard, and is an amazing value. We are very impressed with the quality of the feel and sound of this keyboard . It is a full size keyboard with 88 weighted keys, which feel about as close to a real piano as you can get. The sounds are also very realistic too, although there are less sounds than the above Casio CTK 3200. They typically don't sell this as a package though, meaning you'd have to buy a stand and headphones if you'd need them. This would be fine for any player of any level, and would never really get "outgrown" unless you wanted to upgrade to a real acoustic piano.
Yamaha U-1 Upright Piano - $4000
M-Audio SP-2 Sustain Pedal - $20
The real deal! There's nothing quite like a real piano, and this is one of the most popular models out there. These go for over $10,000 brand new, but you can find them used for $3000-4000 depending where you buy from. We own 2 comparable Yamaha uprights, the U-3 model. Even though they are both nearly 30 years old, they look and sound amazing. One plus is that an upright piano only takes up about 10 square feet as its footprint is relatively small, as opposed to a grand piano which can take up half a living room.
An important note is that for most beginners, and even for more advanced players, a real piano is not necessary. It's a large investment that should be made for those that take music very seriously and know they will be continuing for a very long time. Also, you have to be careful where you buy them from, as it is possible to buy a real piano that has defects undetectable to the untrained eye. We'd recommend either buying on Craigslist and take a piano technician along to inspect the pianos, or buying from a reputable dealer.
This is a sustain pedal that can be used with just about any keyboard. You may have either bought a keyboard that doesn't include a pedal, or has a cheaper button-style pedal that doesn't feel like a real piano pedal. This sustain pedal feels very similar to what's on an actual piano and won't slide around like cheaper pedals will.