The Listenary

People ask me all the time about using a keyboard to practice for their piano lessons. I have several things to say about that.

First, a keyboard is better than nothing.

Second, get the best keyboard you can afford, expecting to upgrade later.

Third, have the touch set at the most difficult or the firmest possible. One difficulty children have in using a keyboard is that it may fail to develop the finger strength necessary to play well on another instrument. We work on that in lesson and my exercises are very important. It's alright if the keys seem very hard to press at first. Your child will grow finger strength. You will help the process along if you will check to see if the firmness of the touch can be adjusted to maximum on your keyboard.

Fourth, at least for the first six months, use the organ setting rather than the piano setting for all practice sessions. Children who learn on a keyboard have trouble remembering to pick up their fingers, and will seemingly hold a note indefinitely. On the electronic instrument with piano setting, the sound fades quite quickly and after the fade there are no consequences of holding the key down.

On the acoustic piano, the results of holding a key down are quite drastic. Even if the sound has faded to our ear, holding the key down releases the damper for that note and lets it resonate freely when other notes are played. The result is a muddiness of sound, a lack of clarity and beauty, and a growing dislike in your child for piano lessons.

You can greatly reduce this difficulty if you will see that the organ setting is activated on your electronic piano. The organ setting lets the key continue to sound electronically until the finger is lifted. This lets your child understand the need to lift the fingers when not needing that note. If your child has already become used to the electronic piano setting, he or she may not like the change to organ because it really doesn't sound good, but if you and your child persist, the sound will clear up and the skills gained will be transferrable to any instrument.

Here I have discussed the purchase of electronic versus acoustic piano for the purpose of learning piano/keyboard. In my next article I wish to discuss the question of electronic or acoustic use in church and other musical venues. In order to do that, I will need to explain a bit about resonance, which we just mentioned here. Next . . .