piano lessons, weighted or non-w keys?

So, I'm soon planning to start my 6 yr old daughter on piano lessons. I have a Korg M1 and a few other synth controllers now. Is it important for her to start lessons on a weighted keyboard, like a real piano, or are the non-weighted keys acceptable?

The sooner you get her on weighted keys the better. Piano is all about dynamics, and the sooner she learns that the better.

But ya know, if it's not financially realistic right now to get her a digital or upright piano, unweighted will be fine for her first year or two. they barely touch on dynamics in the first year, it's all scales and notes and 'mary had a little lamb'

A weighted keyboard would be best. It will help her develop finger strength and learn correct technique.

If she starts off with a non-weighted keyboard, weak technique and bad habits could easily be overlooked. Since she's so young and her brain is still developing, any bad habits that she learns now will be extremely difficult to correct later.

Do I really need 88 keys for the first few years, or would a smaller size suffice? i.e. At what point do you need "all the keys".

Weighted. For all the reasons Rooftree stated. Finger strength and proper technique are important right from the start.

And no, you probably don't need all 88 right from the start, but a weighted keyboard with less than 88 is a bit of a rare find.

I'm a piano player. Weighted keys are a must for piano students.

o.k. Can someone recommend a good weighted 88 controller that's not gonna break the bank (or my back)?

Could you make room for a real piano? You can get them for cheap or free on craiglist. I'm a bit of a retro grouch, but i really think even a lower quality real piano will be better than a high quality digital. But if you really have major size constraints or you move often, go for the full 88 keys weighted. If you think she'll take up piano, you don't want to have to buy a new keyboard in a couple of years.

Casio PX-130 has a great keybed and is less than $500.

I spent hours testing dozens of keyboards at Sam Ash and the PX-130/330 would've been my second choice. The only keybed I liked better was the one in the Yamaha CP33 / P155, but they're probably not worth the extra money for someone who's just starting.

You'd also be hard pressed to find something with less than 88 keys that's weighted.

I also second the PX-130. It's a brand new board from Casio. It's got scaled hammer action, a recorder, 16 Tones, Reverb and Chorus Effects, 128 Polyphony, USB Connection. Not a bad board at all.

If you want to look upwards a bit, the newish Yamaha P155's are nice, but they're double the price of the Casio.

HEAVY KEYS. if you are planing to be a piano virtuoso piano player

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Casio keyboards are ok if you are on a budget. Like everybody else said, you would want to have the keys to be heavy enough to train your muscles, but not too heavy to break the kid's fingers OR your piggy bank lol.

The best solution is to get a real piano of course. You can find used ones on CL for example, just make sure that it's in good shape. Otherwise, go for casio or yamaha entry-level stage pianos. Personally, I recommend Alesis Fusion 8HD - the action is awesome, not too heavy but heavy enough.

We have no room for a full size piano. I always thought of Casio as being toys, but I'll check that one out. Also, the Alesis and other suggestions. Mostly likely, we'll do the first few lessons on my Korg M1, until I'm sure that she's going to stay focused. Then, I'll look into the weighted key models. Thanks for all your suggestions.

look for a good used weighted key digital piano. newer models come out with the same designs but increased polyphony. i doubt she'll need 192 voices just yet.

i bought a kawai mp-5 about 2 years ago after a lot of searching. its great

I'm a piano player also. Weighted keys are a must for piano students for finger development. In fact I am buying a piano formy girls daughter this weekend.

Some of the Casio digital pianos and keyboards are not really toys. I am not really familiar with them, but the other guys here talk about using them as decent inexpensive keyboards for practice, church band, kids, and even gigging. I don't go to church but my "polling place" is in a big church that has a rock band that has a Casio keyboard on the altar along with the drum set, amps, and sound system. The guitar center that is close to my house has the Casio pianos in the same area as all the other digital pianos. Yamaha also makes some decent digital pianos that are under $1000.

I should caution that if you do buy a digital piano that if you need to put it away for an extended period of time due to lack of space, you should store it lying flat and not standing up on its side or edge. We have heard from others here (can't remember the thread just the info) that storing some "hammer-action" keyboards on their side for extended periods of time can cause lubricant to leak out from the key bed. I am not sure if that is still true for the most modern designs but it is a precaution that I would take.