Common features to keep in mind when buying a Keyboard:
Keyboard
– The Beginners Guide
Learning to play the Keyboard is one of the most relaxing activities which enhance one’ s musical knowledge and performance. Given the huge number of brands and models available in the market, it is imperative to have a clear understanding of each aspect and choose the right one which would suit your style of playing. To make things simpler, let us split the process into 5 steps:-
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1. Common features in any keyboard 2. Knowing your purpose 3. Types of Keyboard 4. The Go-To type for beginners 5. The big decision
Common features to keep in mind when buying a Keyboard:
• Number of Keys:
There are numerous keyboards with a varying number of keys ranging from as low as 13 to as high as 88 just like an acoustic piano. Choosing the correct number of keys depends on many factors like space restrictions, cost and the genre( s) of music that you will be playing. If you are a beginner and learning music from scratch, the recommendation would be to go for a 61 Key Instrument or higher.
• Polyphony:
Polyphony is the number of sounds that a Keyboard can generate at a time. Watch out for this feature as this decides the extent of instrumental arrangement that a keyboard is capable of. One should understand that polyphonic capacity doesn’ t necessarily mean the ability to“ play‘ n’ number of notes” at a time.
To understand this, let us take a simple example of the“ sustain” effect. The sustain effect simply prolongs the sound of a note that is played, for a particular amount of time that can be customized( say 5 seconds for instance). Consider you are playing the strings section of a keyboard with the sustain effect switched on. When you play a 5 three fingered chords continuously within 3 seconds, the first chord that you played still has 2 seconds left to decay( We considered the sustain effect to last for 5 seconds), which means the keyboard is already generating 15“ sounds” by the 3rd second and you are hearing a thick built up sound. The number 15 is only going to increase. Once the polyphonic limit is reached, the sounds get randomly chopped off and you wouldn’ t be able to hear all the notes that you play which in turn leads to a thinner sound. Therefore, polyphony is a very important aspect of a keyboard. Anywhere between 32-64 is a good number for a beginner.
• Dual / Multi Voice feature:
A more technical term for the above feature would be“ Multitimbrality” which is the ability of a keyboard to play two or more different sounds at once. The“ different” is highlighted to emphasize that multitimbrality and polyphony are two different features and are not to be confused with each other.
• Touch Sensitivity:
Also called“ velocity sensitivity”, this feature enables the ability of a keyboard to sense the force with which a key is pressed and produce a sound or a signal accordingly. Most of the beginners level keyboard comes along with this feature while some of them even have the option to select from various“ levels” of sensitivity. Is this feature useful? A definite yes. Having this feature helps you convey the mood of a particular melody in a better way which in turn enhances your overall performance. Is this feature necessary? The answer to this question completely depends on the purpose for which you want to buy the Instrument, which is discussed in the next section.
• Weighted / Semi-Weighted / Non-Weighted Keys:
Weighted keys are recommended for learners pursuing Piano or those who are already Pianists and planning to learn the keyboard. The keys require you to press them with a bit more force than the nonweighted keys, but they come back up faster on their own. Hammer action adds value to the weighted keys providing the true feel of a piano.
Weighted keys imply more weight to the full keyboard making it comparatively costlier and less portable. For the beginner, weighted keys are not compulsory and do not adversely affect one’ s performance. However opting for one will give you an advantage when you later move to learning a Piano.