UK Piano Page Piano Forum

Hi, I am david and new to the forum, my 6 yr old daughter wants a piano as she is learning and I am trying to furfil her wishes, sadly I have no musical experience but I am gifted with a van and an ability to wire a plug.

I don't really want to buy a new one as I haven't got the money to spend on something that we may or may not use in the long term, I also don't want to get something that she will outgrow if she keeps up the lessons.

I was about to buy a classenti cdp 10 for £300 but this forum has put me off, any help would be greatly appreciated

I am based in Stanmore if that has any bearing and am also happy to swap electrical work for a piano if anyone has dodgy wiring and a piano they want to get rid of! you don't get if you don't ask!!!


Thanks

David

I would say look for a Yamaha P85 or similar - good basic piano with few frills, hence low cost, but will keep her happy for a good while if she takes to learning. You should find one easily on ebay or Preloved.

I'm an acoustic snob, but for your information, we bought a digital piano as a travelling backup to our acoustic upright and went for the cheapest one we could with weighted keys as it wouldn't get everyday use. We couldn't stretch to a Yamaha and definitely not a Roland or Kawai so we ended up with the Casio CDP-120. I'm sure several people on here will have just had coronaries In my opinionated opinion it hasn't got great sound, though we've only used it with its internal speakers but, it does everything we need it to do and have been very very pleased with it. If anything, it could be more weighted too, but again is fine for what we use it for. Your daughter is very young and she will need to develop the strength in her fingers else she'll find it hard to go between whatever you have at home and whatever her teacher uses. At lessons for us this is a beautiful 19th century Steinway and the difference between that and even the heaviest weight of our keyboard is like going between an old manual typewriter and an electric typewriter.... if you're old enough to remember such things and it can be just as tricky to switch between the two.

So, in my ramblings here, I'm defending the Casio but, if you're not sure if your daughter will continue in the long term, I recon the Yamaha will have a better resale value and will probably have a better action to help her develop her finger strength! Oh, and don't skimp on a stand to make sure its absolutely at the right height for her else she'll find it a real chore...

Good luck, I hope she keeps learning and loves it.