Piano Lights for a Quick Piano Learning
For newbies, a digital piano with piano light up keys may appear to be interesting.
Many individuals are seeking for ways to learn to play the piano without having to pay for pricey lessons and also from the comfort of their own homes.
The difficulty of learning to read music while also learning to play the piano may be a significant turnoff for people beginning to play the instrument. Many learners have experienced this, according to some long-time piano teachers.
They are initially thrilled at the possibility of learning their favorite songs, but once they begin to understand the complexities of learning how to read music in order to play their favorites, they become bored. This problem could be solved by using a digital piano with light-up keys. Does it, however, work?
Ultimately, for a beginner, a digital piano with light up keys might be a fantastic alternative. For someone learning to play the piano, it may be considered a very first instrument.
One method to learn is to use piano light up keyboards. It is a technique for teaching others how to play by using visuals. The piano light keyboard, for example, will illuminate the piano notes required to play a chord or the following note in a song. A piano with light-up keys may be a great method to learn to play, and when paired with online lessons, it allows people to study at their own pace.
However, you should be aware that you may grow dependent on piano lights to learn new pieces, so getting out of the habits of using piano light up keys and moving on to a more sophisticated instrument is a smart idea. It is perfectly fine for beginners to use piano keyboard light up keys, and it might even encourage you to keep playing!
The Top Picks: The Best Pianos with Light-Up Keys
CASIO LK-S250 61-KEY PREMIUM KEYBOARD
Casio is known for producing high-quality products, and this piano with light up keys is one of them. This is true for all of the musical instruments they produce. While the company is best known for its calculators and digital watches, they have been producing keyboards since the 1980s, and they are excellent at it. The same may be said about this model.
This piano light keyboard is small and light, yet it seems really well constructed and robust. Casio is renowned for packing a lot of voices and tones into their pianos with light up keys, and the LK-265 certainly does not disappoint, with 400 high-quality tones and 150 rhythms, as well as a Dance Music mode that enable you to create your own music.
Of course, we must never overlook the piano light-up feature; this keyboard comes with 60 pre-installed well known compositions that you may learn and play along with. This piano light keyboard also comes with a fingering guide and a built-in instructional feature.
This is really helpful since it addresses one of the main complaints with piano light-up keyboards: they don’t teach you where to position your fingers. This one fulfills the criteria.
Another significant advantage is that the LK-265 comes with nearly everything you will need to get started, such as a pair of closed cup headphones and also a stand for the keyboard. The Casio LK-265 is an excellent choice for anyone seeking to get started with a piano light-up keyboard.
Pros:
- Good build quality
- Large range of built-in tones and rhythms to choose from
- Connectivity to Casio’s “Chordana” app (note that there is a cost for this)
Cons:
- Much more built-in songs and lessons to choose from would have been nice.
- The speakers are not great; the included headphones or purchasing a different pair with amazing sound deliver much better results.
YAMAHA YPT-260 61-LIGHTED KEY KEYBOARD
As always, a Yamaha is recommended by the majority. Casio and Yamaha both create outstanding products. In most situations, we believe Yamaha beats them to the punch, with much more realistic piano sounds, superior build quality, and a higher overall product quality. These expectations are met by this light piano keyboard.
You get 61 full-sized piano light-up keys, as you might anticipate. You will also get a full complement of tones and voices (392 in total), as well as 100 different accompaniment types. This is a bit less than some of the other models, but we can overlook this given the high quality of the voices.
This piano light has also a transposition feature, which allows you to adjust the keyboard’s pitch to either up or down. This allows you to quickly alter the key of the piece you are playing to match with another instrument.
This keyboard has one of the nicest piano light-up keys we have seen so far. It has 100 songs built-in to practice; this piano light is the most we have ever seen on a keyboard, and all of which are well-known and popular tunes to the vast majority.
You will also get the well-known Yamaha Education Suite that will also instruct you how to play the piano. We tried it out and found it to be a fantastic resource for learning the piano without an instructor.
You receive a stand and a set of excellent quality headphones, much like with the Casio LK-S250. The YamahaYPT-260 is the one to choose if you want your playing experience on a full light piano keyboard at an optimum.
Pros:
- A vast selection of songs; 100 in total
- Yamaha Education Suite is excellent learning software
- Speakers are definitely excellent for the money
Cons:
- Headphones and a stand included in the package could be better.
How does a Digital Pianos with Light Up Keys Work?
You might be curious how piano light-up keys might assist a student learn to play the piano. A piano keyboard with light-up keys, for example, will have many pieces of music pre-programmed into it.
When you pick the learning selection on the piano light keyboard, the notes you need to play next will light up on the piano light led keyboard. It will not go on to the following notes until you successfully perform the highlighted notes.
Does that sound fantastic? Then why would you need a teacher in the first place? You can learn to play the piano by yourself using the piano light keyboard.
And, we have to agree, this may be a really beneficial technique of learning for students who are unsure about reading music or who have trouble getting in touch with a piano instructor.
Students may learn new songs very quickly with the piano with light-up keys, without needing to depend on becoming skilled in reading the notes necessary to play that piece, or not having to depend on an instructor who may prefer that the student concentrate on sight-reading or scales first.
There are, however, certain disadvantages, which we shall discuss later in the article.
Is It Worth Purchasing Piano with Light Up Keys?
We have used this word before, but it does not really describe what we are talking about. We had always assumed that there was indeed a digital piano with light-up keys.
We are discussing full-size keys, weighted keys, and other features on digital pianos. However, throughout our research for this subject, we were unable to locate any digital piano models that had these characteristics. Only keyboards could be found.
These instruments may also feature the full-size or touch-sensitive keys, but they lack weighted keys, lack the complete 88 key range of a genuine piano, and the quality of the sound varies dramatically.
So, when thinking of buying any instrument with light-up keys, you must keep this in mind: you should be certain that you will not outgrow it in a few years.
Students who choose these piano lights, in our experience, tend to change them quite soon.
Another point we emphasize is to make sure you get a piano keyboard that has the option to turn off the piano light-up keys. It may get tiresome after a period of time, especially when you reach a point where you no longer require the piano keyboard light-up keys to operate properly.
Some of the drawbacks of piano light-up keyboard.
If you have read this far, we are guessing you are thinking of purchasing a keyboard or digital piano with light-up keys. We would not discourage you from doing so. They may be quite beneficial to a novice who wished of getting to learn play the piano. However, there are a few points to keep in mind, which we will go over now.
They may lead you to use uneasy fingerings as a result of them.
Many of them have taught students who have performed music they learnt on a keyboard or piano light-up keys. The majority of the time, these pianos merely inform you which keys to play.
The piano light on the piano does not indicate which fingers should be placed on which keys. This may be a major issue for these students. To begin with, what works at a very slow tempo when studying the music may not work when trying to play or perform these pieces at a faster tempo.
These learners become irritated because they believe they are missing something when, in reality, the light piano keyboard has deceived them into believing they are doing everything correctly.
Teachers would have to go through note-by-note with some of these learners to show them where to place their fingers and explain why the fingering they had learned themselves on the light piano keyboard did not work for them.
It is not enjoyable for instructors, and it is definitely not enjoyable for students as well. It may be a significant blow to their self-esteem, which is why we advise students to taper themselves off the piano keyboard light up keys functionality as soon as they are ready to do so.
A limited selection of songs is provided with the piano light.
Unfortunately, the music selection on these digital piano models with light up keys is rather limited. The highest number of songs we have ever seen is about100, and the lowest number is around 15.
And there is no assurance that the learner will desire to play any of these compositions included in the piano with light up keys. In which scenario, if a piano light up keyboard was acquired with the aim of teaching the student how to play specific compositions, it was a complete waste of money.
Because you are simply following lights on the keyboard to teach you how to play the song, it makes it incredibly difficult for you to train your musical ear. This is an extremely vital skill for any artist to master, not just pianists.
We have never seen a piano light-up keyboard that allows you to upload your own compositions, or have somebody else play them for you and have its keyboard lighted to teach you how to play them.
We are sure there is a method to accomplish it with MIDI, and we are not so sure if it does exists somewhere, but in all the years of teaching and suggesting instruments to students, we have never come across one.
That implies that if a learner does not have appropriate note-learning skills, they will be unable to learn any more music once they have completed all of the songs on the keyboard. This leads us to the second point we would want to point out.
The light piano keyboard will not teach you how to read notes.
As a matter of fact, there are many pianists who earn a living despite the fact that they are unable to read music. The ability to play the piano properly is neither required nor necessary.
On the contrary, is incredibly helpful. Despite the fact that it is not necessary, being able to read music makes learning to play the piano a lot easier. We can’t tell you exactly what a blessing it would be to be able to take up any piece of sheet music and having the capability to either play it straight away or master it with a few hours, days or weeks of constant practice.
If you can’t read music, you would not be able to obtain that from a piano with light-up keys.
Unfortunately, a digital piano with light-up keys cannot teach you how to really READ music. And that is what is going to provide you a lifetime’s worth of delight from playing the piano.
Because we are able to read music, we can learn whatever piece of music we wish to learn (that our hands can actually play.) Any piece of music may be learned without a teacher’s guidance anymore. To be able to play any music anytime and anywhere, we do not need a piano with light-up keyboard.
You can get to this point without relying on keys lighting up to inform you which notes to play next if you have the strong will to concentrate on learning to read music.
They may cause issues with technique
We mentioned it earlier when we talked about fingering, but the digital piano with light up keys is one of our major pet peeves since it may bring significant technical issues into your playing.
Regardless of fingering, if you are not a knowledgeable pianist with a good understanding of where and why to put your fingers, you may end up twisting and contorting your hands into incredibly unpleasant positions, which can lead to repetitive strain injury or carpal tunnel syndrome if done frequently.
Save your hands by learning to read music and enlisting the help of an instructor!
We are not suggesting you should not buy a piano with light up keys. We recommend purchasing one, but be mindful of the drawbacks of depending on the piano light-up keys for an extended period of time. As soon as you are able, wean yourself off of it.
There are a lot of options for piano light keyboards, but each one offers something very unique. You should conduct some study to determine how many keys you will require and which technological features you will prefer.
