The wrong question

Almost every new student arrives with the same question: "Which model should I buy?" That is the wrong question. The right one is: what will you actually practise on during your first year, and will that instrument support you or hold you back? I have had students start on a €250 keyboard and quit, frustrated, eight months later. Not because they were unmusical. Because their instrument gave them nothing back. And I have students who started on a plain €350 digital piano and play Chopin today. The difference was not price. It was three properties.

The three things that matter

88 keys. Not 61, not 76. Hammer action. Not "touch-sensitive", not "semi-weighted". A headphone socket. Sounds trivial. It is not. Everything else — voices, accompaniment rhythms, Bluetooth, a display, a record function — is pleasant but decides nothing. An instrument with those three properties will carry you through your first years of serious work. If one of them is missing, you will notice.

Why 88 keys and not 61

The usual objection: "I'm a beginner, surely I don't need the full range." You do, surprisingly soon. Even in simple pieces the left hand moves into the low bass, and arpeggios run four octaves upward. On 61 keys you hit the edge in month three or four — and then the relearning starts. That is the real damage. You adapt to a keyboard that stops in the wrong place, and your spatial sense builds itself around that edge. Sit down at a real piano later and your instinct for "where am I" is simply wrong. That costs weeks. Buy 88 keys once, and never again.

What you can safely ignore

The numbers printed largest on the box are the ones that mean least:

• "600 voices" — you will use two. Piano, and perhaps electric piano.
• Accompaniment rhythms and auto-chords — fun once, then never again.
• Light-up keys and bundled "learning apps" — they teach you to follow lights, not to read music. That is a different skill, and not the one you want.
• Built-in songs — you do not need them.

An instrument that advertises these things is usually not advertising its action. That is a reliable signal.

What to budget

Budget roughly €330–400 for your first instrument. That is the band where digital pianos with real hammer action start — the Yamaha P-45 sits at the bottom of it. Below that the choice thins out fast, and not because of brand politics but materials: hammers, weighted levers and a rigid frame cost money, and they are the first thing a cheaper keyboard leaves out. I know that is not what everyone wants to hear, especially for a child who might not stick with it. But that is exactly the error in the reasoning. An instrument that makes practising feel bad answers the question "will they stick with it?" all by itself — and the answer is no. If the budget is tight, the used market is good. A six-year-old instrument with hammer action beats a new keyboard without it, comfortably. Play it before you buy, though — key contacts, pedals, speakers and power supplies do wear out, even though digital pianos are robust overall.

My beginner standard

I have recommended the AdYamaha P-45 ↗ to most new students for years. 88 keys with Yamaha's GHS action, a clean piano sound, a headphone socket. At 11.5 kg two people can move it between rooms without ceremony. It is not an exciting instrument. It is an honest one. The action is a little lighter than an acoustic piano, but it works on the same principle, and that is the whole point. If the budget stretches further, the AdRoland FP-30X ↗ is my favourite. The PHA-4 action is noticeably closer to an acoustic piano, the tone carries further, and the speakers are strong enough that it genuinely fills a room rather than chirping into it. For students who practise daily, that difference is worth every euro. Both are listed with current prices on my recommended instruments page.

The three things nobody mentions

This is where beginners actually lose time — not in choosing a model. Seat height. Your forearms should be level, wrists at the height of the keys. A kitchen chair is almost always too low or too high. An adjustable piano bench costs €60–100 and prevents tension that otherwise builds over months. If you are going to economise somewhere, not here. The pedal. Nearly every digital piano ships with a small plastic footswitch. It can only do on and off. A real piano pedal is continuous — half pedal, a quarter pedal — and that is musically decisive. A decent sustain pedal costs €25–40. Buy it at the same time, or you will train yourself into on-off thinking. Headphones. Cheap headphones make the treble shrill and the bass muddy. That is not just unpleasant; it makes you strike harder to force clarity out of them. Closed studio headphones in the €60–90 range change how practising feels more than most people expect. Together that is about €150 of accessories — and it will shape your first year more than upgrading from the P-45 to the next model up.

When to upgrade

Not after a fixed period. When you notice the instrument limiting you: when quiet passages will not go quiet enough, when fast repetitions do not speak cleanly, when the sound stops giving you anything back. For most people that happens between year two and year four. For some, never — and that is entirely fine.

How to decide

If you are unsure, go into a shop and play three instruments in a row, even if you cannot read a note yet. Press a single key slowly, then quickly. You will feel the difference between real action and a spring immediately, without anyone explaining what to listen for. Why that is so, I have written up in why I insist on hammer action. And if you live in a flat with thin walls, read how to practise in an apartment first — it changes the shortlist. Every situation is different: budget, space, goals, neighbours. If you like, write me a line describing yours, and I will tell you what I would buy in your place.