What is a piano alternative and what is their function? The digital upright piano many of us are familiar with first came into being in the early 1700’s and it has since served greats such as Bach and Mozart, but as with most instruments they started progressing forward into the Electronic Age, and in the 1950’s the first electronic keyboard was released by the Wurlitzer Company named the “100”. Like our ancestors from the stone age to the bronze age piano’s advanced from their conventional non electronic origins to the digital age. Piano alternatives fall under two main categories -electronic keyboards and digital pianos, there are of course also other keyboard instruments such as keyboard synthesizers and MIDI controllers however these are not generally considered to be piano alternatives, but instead instruments that use a keyboard layout for other musical purposes. Piano alternatives like the electronic keyboard – despite the fact that having existed since the 1950’s – only started gaining popularity in the 80’s and were immensely popular during the 1990’s.

The piano alternative is exactly what the name implies – a different – a digital piano and electronic keyboard are in concept not different instruments for the pianoforte but alternatively substitutes; unlike within the guitar family of instruments which contains acoustic and electric guitars, which are different instruments completely unto themselves. In a typical band composition you would obtain an electric guitar playing alongside a bass guitar, but you are unlikely to locate a digital piano playing alongside a regular piano. From the piano alternatives the electronic keyboard could be considered as the biggest deviation from standard as it has numerous additional features the digital piano and pianoforte do not possess, these can include: demo songs, metronome, learning modules – with light and sound aids, effects, recording function and autochord function to mention but a few, but though it may be sometimes specifically employed for its effects and huge sound bank of tones, it is mainly regarded as a substitute towards the conventional piano.

Differentiating factors

Many individuals start off on electronic keyboards or digital pianos when wanting to learn to play the full size piano keyboard, the primary reason behind this is the fact that they are less expensive than conventional pianos, nevertheless it may be because of size constraints – conventional pianos are very large and heavy – so according to where you will require the piano to be placed you could have to make due having a digital piano rather than a conventional piano. Digital piano’s design and build is aimed at persons who definitely are to your relative degree serious regarding their future in playing the piano, so it has certain features to allow for which need.

Digital piano:

Weighted, full-length keys often touch sensitivity is variable

keys numbering from 81 to 88

Contains very few otherwise any rhythms and voices in their sound banks, if offered they consist of the basic principles: Grand piano, harpsichord and jazz or pipe organ.

The electronic keyboard on the contrary is piano alternative that really makes use of its intrinsic electronic nature with far more digitally inclined features.

Electronic keyboard:

Tones can be set to: piano, organ, flute, drum stick etc.

Effects include: sustain, reverb, echo

Additional features like transposition is also common.

Piano alternatives can to this day still not match the complete sound expertise of the traditional piano forte; accomplished pianists often describe a digital piano as sounding fake end “electric” – this has to dofrdp with lots of factors in acoustics, but what is often cited being a major hindrance for your digital piano is its lack of ability to convincingly reproduce the timbre of a conventional piano. Lacking proper polyphony (the piano’s capability to play multiple notes concurrently) is an additional component that enhances the electric piano keyboard and electronic keyboard’s – to the trained ear – often phony sounding reproductions.

Piano alternative technologies have progressed sufficiently enough in order to produce sounds which are pleasant sounding and convincingly real for the ear, the choice only lies in which alternative you want – digital piano or the electronic keyboard.