I ordered this as a potential replacement for a full-sized electronic keyboard that I received as a gift from my parents when I was in college. I was a music major, and it was meant to help me practice at times when I couldn’t or didn’t want to brave the elements to get to a practice room. Understand, I was NOT a piano major, but a voice major, and part of that degree included several semesters of piano, both class and private (I had also taken lessons as a kid). I mention all of that to say that even after all of that, I am not a virtuoso. I was good at whatever I was practicing at the time, to a degree, but it did not become my passion. However, as a professional singer, I sometimes need a reference point when learning a new song, or I teach voice lessons, etc, so it is great to have a keyboard around. The one from college is large, and I keep it stored in a dedicated keyboard bag. It is cumbersome to drag out…so I don’t do it often! My hope for this one was less trouble, thereby resulting in more use.
So, all of that said…
It is amazing that this comes with a stand and a stool. Even the music holder is wonderful.
And the options…WOW. So many voices possible, so many styles possible. (Some of the funkier percussion options remind me of playing on the electric organ in my grandmother’s house as a kid! Ha!) But truly, the sensitivity of the keys, after playing on it for awhile, I realized, “oh my gosh! This feels exactly like the way the electric pianos we used in Class Piano in college felt like! ” So there you have it…it is up to college music department standards for playability, which is pretty awesome. Granted, it is not full size as far as how many actual keys, but there are not many times people truly need those extra keys on either end, let’s be honest.
The LED window screen is cool, but the notation on the treble and bass clefs is not really accurate, so I wouldn’t spend too much time looking there for affirmation or help.
There is some kind of “teaching” tool that I have not even looked into yet, so it seems as if perhaps one can use this to train themselves/teach themselves somehow…
as well as the usual fun things like recording your own songs, looping, etc.
I am not sure how the MP3 connection works…the connector looks more like a charging cable to me, but perhaps I just don’t have compatible mp3 devices…I am not even sure of the purpose there…are we supposed to be trying to play the keyboard sounds through another device, or play the music of another device through the keyboard? I don’t know.
There is also a midi port, for those who use midi (I have not needed to since the 90’s, way back in the day when I was writing music with the Finale program.)
If this were to have cons:
1- The microphone it comes with is cheap. Feels like a toy. And there is no stand for it, so you would need to provide that (or have I somehow missed seeing a hole to plunk it into, maybe? ) Hard to play and hold a mic at the same time.
2- This would be even better if it came with a storage bag. If you are planning on leaving it out all the time, you won’t need one, of course (though you might want to drape something over it to protect from dust). Right now I still live in a little house that does not have enough room for a dedicated music room, but hopefully someday…so this will have to be stored somehow, much like my older keyboard has been (but at least is till take up less space!).
All in all, WOW, WHAT A DEAL. Seriously. I am certain my dad spent at least three times as much and maybe 5 times as much back in the day, and it didn’t come with some of these extras.