I'm here today to talk to you about digital pianos.

what is a digital piano how is it different than the keyboard, and

How do you select the right digital piano for you and your family?

A digital piano, by definition would have 88 hammer weighted keys

They're hammer weighted so they're heavier like a real piano. Oftentimes a keyboard..

something that's referred to as a keyboard, or a portable keyboard, or a synthesizer

wouldn't necessarily have that heavier hammer weighted key action.

It'd be a light touch, like a spring-loaded action

for piano performance, for piano lessons to build strength and dexterity in your fingers

what you want, is very specifically, that hammer action.

an acoustic piano has 88 keys

the digital piano will have 88 keys. They'll have that hammer action

What you'll find is that most of them not only have a hammer action, but a graded action.

They're heavier on the left, and as you play up to the right, they become a little lighter.

..and this is exactly true on a real grand piano as well.

digital pianos are available in a variety of styles

and you gonna see some examples of these

right behind me. One of the first questions to ask yourself

when shopping for a digital piano is..

Do you need it to be portable? are you travel with the piano on a weekly basis?

maybe to church, or to your piano lessons.

Or.. are you looking for a piece of furniture for the home?

if you're looking for a piece of furniture for the home

digital pianos are designed and built as a console. Like an upright piano

beautiful cabinetry, built in speakers.. looks like a conventional piano.

If you're in a condo, or an apartment, or you like the idea of a piece of furniture

but you need to save some space

They're also manufactured as a slimline piano. They don't go as deep, they're

quite slim, and the fit in small compact areas quite well.

Both styles of piano are going to have the 88 hammer weighted keys

that you're looking for in a digital piano..

and for the most part, the features and functions are going to be just the same.

We'll talk a little bit more about common features and functions

across the board with digital pianos..

in just a little bit.

Furniture style pianos will typically come with their own dedicated, matching,

furniture style stand, a triple pedal unit..

integrated into the body of the instrument, is the music rest

On a console piano, there will also be a hard, sliding key cover that comes over the keys

to keep them protected when you're not playing

and on the slimline furniture pianos, that key cover is a folding key cover

and again..

the purpose; just protect your keys when you're not playing.

Most of the furniture style digital pianos also include a matching bench.

If you'd love to have a furniture style piano in your home

but you'd still like the option to travel with it, you can have both.

In one of the hybrid pianos. We refer to them as the contemporary pianos.

A contemporary piano can be purchased with the optional dedicated furniture style stand

and triple pedalboard.

Have that setup in your home, it looks great in the living room.

When it comes time to travel, you remove the piano from the furniture stand.

..and you take a portable X-frame stand, which folds up very nicely, neatly, and compact

and very easy for travel.

Typically the furniture style pianos do come with the triple pedal unit.

For the pianos they do not come with a triple pedal unit

many of those do come with the single pedal.

The single pedal will behave as your sustain pedal.

which is the most commonly use pedal on the piano.

You may be asking yourself, "do I need all three pedals?"

If you're an experienced piano player, you probably already know the answer to this.

If you're not; I can tell you that the pedal on the right, that sustain pedal..

you're gonna need, you're gonna use it, all day every day. Can't live without it

That pedal on the left, that soft pedal..

brings the overall volume of the piano down just a little bit..

you're gonna find markings for that in early lesson books.

The pedal in the middle, that sostenuto pedal..

you're going to find indications for that in advance classical music.

So while you may not need that immediately, we have found

that most of our customers prefer the finished look of a digital piano with the triple pedal option.

This brings me to something else:

not all digital pianos have built in speakers.

What?! How do you hear them if they have no built-in speakers?

well, stage pianos: when you go see a major concert

and there's someone playing the keyboards up on stage..

those keyboards, those digital pianos..

typically don't have speakers built into them

they don't need them

they have big speakers on the stage that they connect those to. So..

While you are shopping, if you see something called a stage piano

Stage pianos are portable, they typically don't have furniture stands that go with them.

Its a portable piano. It still has the great action, and the great sound

but no built-in speakers.

The only way to hear a stage piano would be to put on headphones

or to plug it into an amplifier, studio monitors, or your home stereo system.

One the most important things that changes

as you move up the line and digital pianos is the key action

despite the fact that they all have 88 keys, they're hammer weighted, they're graded

and they're velocity sensitive

not all key actions are created equal.

Certainly the key action in an entry level student model

is absolutely appropriate for an entry-level student.

as you move up and up the line..

what you're gonna find is

a faster key return, a heavier key..

in some cases the keys are no longer made of plastic, they're actually made of wood

with a true seesaw mechanism built in.

Just as it would be on a real grand piano.

For a seasoned, professional pianist; that very high-end key action would be very important

Let's talk about some other things that improve as you move up the line in digital pianos.

I talk to customers each day on the telephone here for Kraft Music

and a lot of what I hear is..

"I'm not looking for bells and whistles." ..and while there are a couple models on the market

that are loaded with bells and whistles

for the most part that's not what's happening with digital pianos

as you move up the line

rather than bells and whistles, what's happening is quality is coming up

we already spoke about how the quality of the key action comes up

well, so does the quality the piano sound. Not only the internal sound engine producing

better piano samples, but also the amplification systems, the speaker systems

making just the bigger, more robust, grand piano sound

Last thing I'd like to tell you: as you move up the line in digital pianos..

is that the build quality will improve

not only that, but there'll be some upgrades cosmetically.

Here at Kraft music, we specialize in digital pianos.

We have experts on staff that know the instruments inside and out

and are ready to answer any questions you may have

additionally we have bundles pre-built

for your needs. Whether it's for your home piano, or you're traveling to

church, or your piano lessons with your portable piano

we've got a discount bundle ready to go that's gonna save you time

and it's going to save you money.

once again my name is Adam Berzowski here with Kraft Music.

If you have any questions about our digital pianos, or any of our products..

we certainly hope that'll give us a call, or shoot us an email

because we're always happy to hear from you.

Thanks for watching!