Instruments for Kids

Choosing An Instrument for a Beginning Student.

Recommendations for buying a piano, keyboard and guitar for children starting music lessons.  And don’t forget a metronome!

Guitar

Acoustic Guitar Package Valencia CG-150K 1/2 Size – For beginning guitar students, I recommend a nylon string classical guitar either in 1/4 or 1/2 size depending on the height of the child. This is a great Valencia 1/4 sized guitar and is a fantastic value at $29!  It comes with a soft case and even a DVD. -Highly recommended.

Yamaha makes quality instruments in every category. This one ooks pretty good. I have a full size Yamaha nylon flamenco guitar which is great and inexpensive – around $100.

Piano

While a quality acoustic piano is a wonderful instrument and can never be matched by an electric/digital one, the maintenance and cost of a high quality upright or baby grand or grand is usually more than most parents of beginning students want to spend. I’ll address acoustic pianos in the future. For now, here’s some recommended electronic keyboards.

Portable Keyboards Below $200

These are not full sized keyboards and may be appropriate for the earliest beginners if you’re not sure the child will continue beyond a few lessons. Still they are playable and can be inspiring and fun thereby creating more interest. Some have their own learning systems with lighted keys or follow me type learning songs where it plays the note and waits until you play the same note before moving on.

• Yamaha PSRE313 61 Key Portable Personal Keyboard Package
• Yamaha PSR-E213 Keyboard + Surv Kit
• Casio LK100 Lighted Keyboard With LCD Display – Fun to play and with lighted keys.
• Casio CTK-2000-STAD 61-Key Digital Music Keyboard

DIGITAL PIANOS – 88 Keys

Casio CDP-100 with stand - 88 keys with piano feel and sound

When you know you are going to be playing real piano pieces I recommend you move to a full size 88 key digital piano or an acoustic piano. Here are a few of my recommended digital pianos and notes about them. Casio CDP-100 - about $400 without stand $500 with stand – a very good value, I have this one and chose it over the highly touted Yamaha P70 and P85 because I like the feel of the keys and think the sound is closer to what I feel an acoustic piano sounds like. Not much in the way of sounds, but very good.

Casio PX120 Privia 88-Key Hammer-Action Digital Piano The Casio PX120 offers authentic piano playability in a compact, lightweight and slim design that can fit in just about anywhere. The stereo sampled Tri-element AIF Sound Source delivers outstanding piano sound and expression. The acoustic resonance system reproduces the resonant effect of a grand piano damper pedal for more realistic piano performances. The PX120 with powerful features is perfect for beginners and professionals alike.

Casio AP45 88-Key Digital Piano You set the tone with the AP-45. The Celviano AP-45 is equipped with the ZPI sound source and thus provides sound in the best grand piano quality -with up to 64 note polyphony. 88 touch-sensitive keys also ensure you will have the original piano feeling when playing.

Yamaha P85 Digital Piano- about $600 Yamaha p70 – about $500 – The P85 above is now replacing the P70 and it has twice the polyphony (how many notes you can play at the same time). Yamaha Clavinova series – these are wonderful and much more realistic sounding as they have larger speakers built in and a heavier wood construction. They start at $1500 and go up to probably $10,000. They don’t sell these online, you need to go to a showroom dealer like Steinway’s showroom, etc. Highly recommended if you can afford it.

Voice

Besides a voice, you will also need an instrument to practice matching pitch. We usually spend about half our time on basic music concepts using a keyboard. You can refer to my recommended choices on digital pianos above or try even using a xylophone or a budget sized keyboard from Yamaha, Casio etc. See above Portable Keyboards.

Metronome

In music timing is key.  A metronome is a device that provides a reliable beat.   Practicing with a metronome builds strong listening and rhythm skills and will enable you or your child to play with others.  (If you can’t play to a beat, you’ll never play in a band!)

There’s no reason to spend a lot of money on this.  Here’s one that has a quartz crystal and is less than $20.  You can play with sound, or just a light or even with an earphone.  I’ve even heard of athletes running with a metronome earphone so they can pace themselves!

Matrix MR-500 Quartz Metronome