When you're looking for a piano to start playing on, any piano is a good piano! Often you can find pianos being given away on Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist. In fact, the upright piano in our living room right now is an old church piano that was free to a good home.
Some things to look for are keys that are not chipped, and don't stick when you press them down. Those things can make playing piano frustrating. Other than that, just bring it home and call a piano tuner to get it tuned up and ready to go.
Acoustic Pianos
If you are ready to purchase an upright piano, or baby grand, you will be looking at spending between $4,000-$10,000 which is a pretty big range. We encourage you to go to your local music store and get a feel for the sound, feel, size, and look of a piano before making that big investment. If you do just want to bite the bullet and have your piano shipped, this Yamaha is a great instrument.
Digital Pianos + Keyboards
While you're waiting to get that acoustic piano, a digital piano or keyboard can be a great investment. We take our keyboards to play at rest homes for senior citizens, to jam with at friend's houses, to travel to music camps, or to play prelude music at weddings. Regardless of how proficient you become as a pianist, it's great to have a mobile keyboard you can take with you (or set up in your bedroom if your mother wants a break from hearing all the practice). This is an excellent digital piano.
The most important things when looking for a keyboard or digital piano are:
1. A full 88 keys
2. Weighted keys
In order to play and feel like a piano, you want to make sure your instrument is wide enough to play all the pieces your instructor gives you, AND has the weighted feel of an acoustic piano.
Here are our top portable keyboard recommendations. Voetberg Music Academy's piano instructor Kelsey currently uses this one.