Electronic Keyboards for Kids
Choosing the best electronic keyboards for a kid can be a difficult and confusing task. The high-end keyboards cost more, and the features they list can seem bewildering and meaningless to an unfamiliar buyer. Getting an electronic keyboard for your child is a good way to get him interested in music, so learning the basics of how to choose a good electronic keyboard can help you find the best one for your child.
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Size
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Electric keyboards come in many different sizes. A standard, full-size keyboard has 88 keys, but this is often not necessary for a kid who is just learning. You can get smaller electric keyboards, and many are available with 49 or 61 keys, which give four or five octaves for your child to use. The more keys there are, the more room your child has to produce different sounds. Smaller keyboards are also cheaper than their larger counterparts.
Keys
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Most electric keyboards are "velocity sensitive," which means that the keys produce a different volume depending on how hard you press them. This gives players the opportunity to add expression and feeling to their playing, and you should try to get a velocity-sensitive electronic keyboard for your child. Electronic keyboards can also have "weighted" keys, which means that the keys have been made to emulate the feel and response of an acoustic piano. This is great for adults used to playing pianos, but it may add unnecessary difficulty to playing for a child. Electronic keyboards with weighted keys are also generally more expensive, high-end models.
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Sounds
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Electric keyboards often have a variety of instrument sounds programmed in. The more instruments available on the keyboard, the more versatile it is. This helps to keep children interested in the electric keyboard, because they not only have a piano at their fingertips, they also have an organ, harpsichord, synthesizer, percussion, brass, woodwinds and a variety of other sounds to play with. Also look for polyphony when shopping for keyboards. The amount of polyphonic voices a keyboard can support means the amount of keys that can play a sound simultaneously. Generally, modern electronic keyboards will have 24 or more polyphonic voices.
Learning
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Many electric keyboards include learning systems that can help kids learn how to play chords and melodies. There are different types of learning system available on different keyboards, but these are worth looking at when you buy a keyboard. Some systems, for example, show which notes to play with lighted keys, or have a diagram on the display screen. These learning systems are interactive, and can serve as a music teacher for your child.
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References
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- Photo Credit keyboard image by bright from Fotolia.com
