What you genuinely need
Three things, in order of importance.
1. Weighted keys
This is the one that matters and the one most cheap keyboards skip. An acoustic piano key has resistance, and the resistance is how you control volume — which is most of how you play with any expression at all. A keyboard with springy, unweighted keys teaches a technique that has to be unlearned later. Look for “weighted”, “hammer action”, or “graded hammer action” in the specification. If it does not say so, assume it is not.
2. Eighty-eight keys, or at least sixty-one
Full size is 88. A 61-key instrument is workable for a first year and genuinely fine for a young beginner, but a student will run out of keyboard sooner than you expect. If the price gap is small, take the 88.
3. A sustain pedal
Often sold separately for very little. It is needed earlier than people assume — within months, not years — and a lesson that cannot use one is working around a gap.
What you do not need
- Weighted keys and five hundred voices. The demo sounds are for the shop floor. A good piano sound and a decent electric piano sound are all that get used.
- Built-in speakers of any quality, if headphones are an option. Headphones are the reason a digital instrument is often the better choice for a family — practice at nine at night, in an apartment, without a conversation about it.
- Bluetooth, apps, and light-up keys. Light-up keys in particular teach following lights rather than reading music. They sell well and they teach badly.
Digital or acoustic?
For a beginner, a digital instrument is usually the more sensible purchase, and not only on price:
- It never needs tuning. An acoustic piano needs it once or twice a year, and a neglected one is genuinely unpleasant to practice on.
- It has a volume control and a headphone socket.
- It can be moved by two people rather than four and a van.
- A second-hand acoustic piano offered free online is free for a reason. Moving it costs real money, and it may need work worth more than the instrument.
An acoustic piano is a lovely thing and the touch is better. It is a reasonable purchase in year two, once you know the interest is real. It is a poor first purchase.
Buying second-hand
The digital piano market is full of instruments bought for a beginner who stopped after a year. That is unfortunate for them and useful for you — a three-year-old digital piano is essentially as good as a new one, because unlike an acoustic there is nothing to go out of tune or wear.
Check when buying used: every key sounds and none stick, the pedal works, and the power supply is included. A missing proprietary power supply can cost a surprising fraction of the instrument's value.
What about starting with nothing?
Better than not starting. A student with no instrument can do a first lesson, find out whether they enjoy it, and buy afterwards with a much better idea of what they are buying. Nobody should spend money to discover whether their child likes piano — that is what a cheap first lesson is for.
What does not work is continuing with nothing. Practice is where progress happens; the lesson is only where problems get diagnosed. A student who cannot practice between lessons will stop improving by about week four, and will reasonably conclude they are not musical, which will not be true.
Ask before you spend
Any teacher worth booking will tell you what to buy for free, and will look at a listing you are considering. It costs them five minutes and it saves you from the most common beginner purchase mistake, which is spending real money on an instrument with the wrong action.
That advice is free here. Ask before you buy, not after.