What musical keyboard should I get my 6 year old?

December 12, 2011 9:32 AM

My 6 year old daughter would like a keyboard (musical) for Christmas. What am I looking for in a keyboard? She is learning some basic songs at school already and is generally familiar with the layout. What features are necessary? What are not?

If anyone has any specific brand names please feel free to post.

Personally, I would prefer it have a headphone jack, a stand, and A/C power.

posted by otto42 to Shopping (4 answers total)

I was just pricing out keyboards this weekend. I would personally get something that is touch sensitive (i.e. it's louder if you play harder), but it does add to the cost, and you can get away without it if you're on a budget. I would stay away from Casio just because I think the Yamaha's feel better. So in this realm there is the Yamaha PSR-E333. Now that's $160 at Guitar Center, if you want to pay less you can get the Yamaha PSR-E223, mostly you lose the touch sensitivity, but it still feels nice to play, and it's only $80 on sale right now.

Both have headphone jacks and AC power. You'll have to get a stand separately.
posted by joecacti at 9:54 AM on December 12, 2011

I second stoneweaver. We went with the Yamaha P-85 for our kids and are very happy. Much like playing a real piano.

We got a Z shaped stand instead of an X shaped stand so we could all sit comfortably. We started with a regular chair and finally bought a dedicated, adjustable stool.

My kids love the (very) small selection of voices to make practicing interesting, and I love the volume control and headphone jacks.
posted by mamabear at 11:41 AM on December 12, 2011

Basically what stoneweaver says. If you want to keep it for a while, the most important things are number of keys (seriously, just get the 88), touch responsive/keyboard velocity, high polyphony (I would aim for higher than 10).

Lots of widgets and doodads do not a good keyboard make.

Keyboards without onboard sound are almost always better, but then you have to buy an amp also.
posted by Lutoslawski at 11:56 AM on December 12, 2011

Response by poster: Thanks for all the helpful comments. I bought the Yamaha p320.
posted by otto42 at 3:49 AM on December 13, 2011