Mikes Music Room – Music Articles

If you ever wanted to learn to play the piano, keyboard or organ, now is the time to give it a try.

There are many people that would like to play a keyboard instrument but never quite got round to it. Traditionally, if you wanted to learn to play the piano, you needed a piano and a piano teacher or piano lessons. Now we live in the 21st century, you can download your piano lessons and you can buy a roll up keyboard for less than thirty pounds.

For many people the expensive involved just to start piano lessons could be immense. For a start, you would need to buy a piano, which before modern keyboards could cost thousands of pounds. Then the cost of piano lessons on top of the cost of buying the piano is already proving to be very expensive and then, what if you don’t take to it, all that money wasted.

Now there is a new way

We live in a time when you can learn virtually anything. You can actually start to learn the piano for less than fifty pounds.

First, you buy yourself a beginner keyboard. This can be a roll up piano, which are incredibly cheap and don’t take up any room, because you can roll it up when you finished with it. Alternatively, you could buy yourself a used standard keyboard with a keyboard stand and there are literally hundreds of second-hand keyboards for sale every day on online auctions sites.

Next, download a piano learning course. Beginner courses start from five pounds to more advanced courses costing up to fifty pounds.

Do you need a piano teacher?

As a piano teacher myself I would have to say yes, but you don’t need a piano teacher right away. If after your initial expense of buying a keyboard and online piano lessons, you feel you could go further then yes absolutely try piano lessons with a teacher and then maybe buy a better piano/keyboard.

What if playing piano is not for you

If learning to play the piano is not for you, then its cost you about fifty pounds and not thousands. At least you can always say you gave it a try. Not everybody will take to playing the piano. On the other hand, what if you do take to it, what if you are a natural talent, you’ll never know until you try. So if you ever wanted to learn to play the piano, whatever your age, in today’s internet age it’s never been a better or easier time to start. You never know, you might have a hidden talent.

In this article, I will discuss those optional extras are they optional or do you actually need them. If you want to read previous articles in this series start with How to buy a keyboard (Part1).

Having read this series of articles you have set your budget, you have seen and listened to your keyboard in the flesh, you have the features you want on your keyboard, so that’s it, your ready to start learning. Right? Not quite.

Now you need to deal with the dreaded optional extra. I do not have a problem with optional extras as long as that’s what they are and not necessary. An essential part of a keyboard is the power supply. Most keyboards in your price range use a plug in power supply and because some of these keyboards can be powered by batteries as well, some manufactures will charge you for the power supply and call it an optional extra. In my opinion, this is very sneaky and very naughty. Before you agree to buy a keyboard make sure the power supply is included in the price. My opinion on this is that if it is a deal breaker so be it. Power supplies can cost about £25.00 and this money can be used for other items you will need.

The next item you will need is a keyboard stand unless you want to place your keyboard on the dining table or the floor (not recommended). Normally you would leave the keyboard in the same place, so it is useful to have a stand. These can cost from £25.00 to £50.00 and I would recommend an adjustable height stand rather than a static stand. I would defiantly barter to get a stand thrown in with the price of the keyboard; it’s always worth a try. This of course should not be a deal breaker as the stand is an extra.

The above items especially the first one are important. Other less important items include a keyboard bench to sit on, not essential if you have chairs at home and an adjustable keyboard stand. A volume pedal and sustain pedal, which are connected to the back of the keyboard, normally using a jack plug. These will be rarely used.
Headphones can be useful for your families sanity during the early learning months.

Finally, the last item on my list is of course optional but I recommend you make it essential, and that’s keyboard lessons. Many music shops will offer a free keyboard lesson to get you started. These lessons are normally thirty-minute lessons and after your free lesson will cost between £10.00 and £20.00 per lesson. You will also need to buy music for your lessons, which again can cost £10.00 to £20.00 but this music should last from six to twelve months depending on how fast you can learn.

I hope this series of articles has given you sufficient information to buy a keyboard and start learning. If your unsure about keyboard lessons then try out my Lesson 1 e-book at Mikes Music Room which will get you started and you can download immediately.