Sorry to sound ignorant to people who are already pros at the piano! But I want to learn how to play the piano, and i don’t have one but I want to get a keyboard so i can learn at home. This may be a silly question but is the piano and keyboard basically the same thing? Except for the much better sound quality of a piano of course, but still, would a keyboard be ok to learn the piano on? You use all the same notes and chords on the both of them, right? Thank you so much for your help!
If you are even mildly interested in playing the piano WELL, it is vastly preferable to learn to play this instrument rather than the electronic substitute…
The electronic piano is a rather bad attempt to reproduce the acoustic instrument, and there are so many really important shortcomings with the electronic instrument that a knowledgeable pianist will rarely advocate the electronic instrument even at the beginning of learning.
The ARE some features of the electronic substitute that are attractive, though.
Some are:-
[i] They rarely go out of tune
[ii] They are Compact, lightweight, highly portable
[iii] By use of headphones, they need not disturb people nearby when being played.
[iv] They cost less than an acoustic piano.
Negatives
[i] Longevity is quite pathetic. A real piano lasts about 120 years. The electronic instrument about 10 years (?)
[ii] The touch is remotely similar to a piano, but control of tone is not really achievable on these instruments. Generally, the touch is far too light!
[iii] They always produce an ‘average’ piano sound and, when a note is struck hard, they produce this same average sound at a higher level of volume. This is nothing similar to what occurs with a real piano.
[A perceived increase in volume on a real piano is mostly achieved through an increase in the harmonic development . (i.e. the tone alters ! This alteration of tone is quite different to a higher level of volume applied to the same tone...)]
[iv] ‘Sympathetic resonance’ (certain other strings vibrate in sympathy with the strings being struck) is a feature of the piano that electronic instruments certainly don’t possess.
This resonance is about the most obvious thing about the piano, a feature no other instrument (apart from the harp) seems to possess. The electronic piano doesn’t even TRY to emulate this sound!
If piano playing was mostly about putting ones fingers on keys, etc., about ‘notes and chords’ in your words, the electronic instrument would be a reasonable substitute during learning. This is most certainly NOT the case, however.
Anyone learning the piano without devoting due attention to the production of appropriate tone is hardly learning music at all, surely?
To assume that learning of ‘notes and chords’ is at any time predominantly significant is to belittle the art of piano playing, I feel.
It is sad to comment thus, but, if anyone needs a really good piano to play, it surely is the beginner!
To make a study of ‘notes and chords’ without consideration of tone is a parody of music study, I feel.