The ULTIMATE guide for practicing on digital pianos

Tons of creative tips for making digital pianos better than the real thing.

⭐ Featuring ⭐

⏰Chapters

00:00 It's hard to be a pianist.
1:50 Tip 1: The electric piano is not a piano
2:12 Tip 2: Practicing articulation
2:35 Tip 3: The keyboard's most underrated feature!
3:44 Tip 4: Tuning and Transposing
4:05 Tip 5: Turning off the sound
4:27 Tip 6: Intentionality
5:05 Tip 7: Physical Realities and Limits
5:46 Tip 8: Avoiding Tension
6:24 Tip 9: Finding the best action
7:16 Tip 10: UNWEIGHTED keys?!
7:32 Tip 11: Sound Output
7:45 Tip 12: ⚠️ WARNINGS!!!⚠️
8:20 Tip 13: Choosing between an upright and a keyboard
8:56 Tip 14: Calibrating to an Acoustic
9:51 Tip 15: ✨The most IMPORTANT tip of all ✨

Other clips from Tar (2022) and The Competition (1980)

This video is about how to best practice on digital keyboards (electric keyboards, synthesizers, midi controllers, etc). Tonebase Artists Daniela Bracchi, Juliana Han, Leann Osterkamp He, and Evan Shinners share several tips, tricks and tutorials for how to best deal with this challenge. Since many pianists have to practice on electric pianos at various points in their career, this video helps to offer piano tutorials for how to do it.
---

#harpsichord #bach #scales #tchaikovsky #schumann #tonebase #electricpiano #keyboard #piano #jsbach #piano #tonebase #tutorial #beginnerpiano #pianotutorial #howtoplaypiano #technique #pianomusic #classicalmusic #pianotutorial

[tonebasePiano]

What are your favorite ways to practice on a digital keyboard?

[jonathanwingmusic]

Living in a small apartment in NYC with a multi-floor walkup, there is no conceivable way I could even have an acoustic piano here. I've been happily using a Roland F701 the past few years, because for 88 keys it fits in my apartment perfectly, feels great (with adjustable hammer action response), sounds really good, and even looks like a nice piece of furniture when not being played. I also enjoy having a built-in metronome that is easy to change on the fly. And finally, I can practice at midnight if I want to without bothering any neighbors. It's a great pleasure when I have the opportunity to play a high-end acoustic grand piano, but for my day-to-day practice it's simply not possible, so my digital piano is literally the only way I can get practice in and for that reason, I love it!

[Yeargdribble]

I like the overall message of this video, but what bothers me most is still the implication that "Now, more than likely you're going to be playing on a grand piano or an acoustic instrument of some kind." As someone who makes a living playing piano, this simply isn't the case. Piano culture likes to act like everyone is training to be a concert pianist, but virtually nobody is making their living doing that. Most hobbyists aren't going to be actively performing on grands regularly, and most working musicians are going to find themselves playing on a HUGE variety of instruments.

I oddly think one huge disservice most schools do to students is that they do always have access to fantastically maintained instruments of high quality... even worse if it's a single-brand (...Steinway). The reality is that, like you said at the top, you are at the mercy of the venue. That venue is almost NEVER a concert hall and even when it is you're rarely playing on a full size concert grand. It's very important to learn to play with your ears and not your hands... not just getting used tot he physics of how your hands feels playing a perfect instrument, but using your ears to adjust and bring out the best performance from whatever instrument you ACTUALLY end up playing on. Even across acoustic instruments the actions, tonal variety, and "EQ" is vastly different... and the acoustic space can vastly change the difference between two pianos of the same make.

You have to learn to very quickly gauge an instrument (often without hearing it ahead of time) and then adjust your mental audiaton to the reality of the instrument in front of you. And that also applies to digital instruments that almost any working pianist who has been playing for any amount of time can tell you they have had to play on.

Also, for working pianists, having an instrument you can take with you to some gigs not only opens doors, but it can also save you from being forced to play on absolutely broken pianos or much worse digitals. There are some gigs where if all you have is an acoustic piano, it might as well be a door stop if the gig venue doesn't have an instrument.

Digital and acoustic instruments are different, but the subtle differences don't matter enough for the average person whether they are a hobbyist or honestly even aiming to work as a pianist. As much as we can get trained to hear and feel the differences on acoustic instruments, those not trained in our instrument can't hear those differences the way we can.

If you're a pianist, ask yourself, can you hear the difference between an Eb and Bb trumpet? Tenor and alto sax in the same register? Oboe and English horn in the same register? Can you tell a steel string acoustic guitar from a nylon? If so, can you hear if the player is playing sul tasto? These subtle difference stick out a ton to people who are trained in these instruments, but probably not to you if you're ONLY a pianist... and likewise, the subtleties of an acoustic piano are lost to most of even these highly trained musicians... and they are certainly lost on your average audience. So worrying so much about that last 5% difference simply isn't nearly as big of a deal as pianists want to make it out to be.

Meanwhile, a digital is portable (mostly people are NOT living in their forever home yet), the volume is adjustable, it's always in tune, it doesn't need maintenance, you don't have to be terrified to stick it by a window or near a vent. Probably the most important is the the ability to use headphones, which means you're simply more likely to practice because you won't be psychologically worried about neighbors, siblings, or parents hearing you practice the same repetitive section over and over. Not only are you going to be more likely to practice MORE, but hopefully you'll also practice stuff that actually matters... the shit you suck at. That's also a frequent problem even in college practice rooms. Nobody wants to be heard playing "simple" things badly and if you hear someone in the next room, suddenly you feel like you should "work" on the portions you're already the best at.

A digital removes this psychological barrier that a lot of people have.

Also, digitals just continue to improve. String resonance is a stock feature in almost all of even the lowest price HA digitals. Any reputable brand has string resonance, so that argument is a very outdated one. It's a red flag to me that a pianist/teacher is arguing against digital instruments from 10-20 years ago and haven't touch most modern digitals. I've also caught too many of my piano teacher friends using confirmation bias against students with digitals.

If the student has poor dynamic control, it's because the practice on a digital.... but if a student who practices on a an acoustic has poor dynamic control, that's just because they are practicing dynamics.... or maybe that's the case for BOTH students, but man do teachers love to blame a digital any time the students struggle. Realistically a huge part of the problem of many students is just that adjustment between their home piano and their teachers' piano. That's true regardless of what the students' home piano is, but obviously it's a bigger gap if it's a digital. But those issues can be addressed specifically rather than the student denigrated for their lack of an acoustic.

As to the skill of adjusting to different pianos, that's something I'll often do on my Nord. The samples are fairly solid and so if I know I'll be performing on a Yamaha I'll actually practice with those samples which can prep me for that slightly heavier bass. Or honesty, just playing the same piece with different samples can really make you aurally aware to adjust your touch to get the sound you want out of an instrument that responds differently, which absolutely transfers over to the real-life situation of playing an unfamiliar acoustic.

[foljamb]

lovely and smart video-2 points your team brings up: learning on a digital, and living in an apartment and having to use it for practice--a child should learn on an acoustic, weighted instrument; there are resources available to parents for a child who seriously wants to learn: rental rooms (in north hollywood in mid 60's there were several studios offering that resource to parents; 60 years later i'm sure there're a lot more possibilities of rental practice rooms most places)--practicing on your digital in your apartment: no matter if you're wearing headphones if you have downstairs neighbors they're going to hear you TAP DANCING, and if your digital is against the wall your neighbor is going to hear you DRUMMING--you need to find the place in your apartment that has the smallest floor and wall-contact with your neighbors, and set up there--then you need to raise your digital off the floor with layers of solid and alternating cushion to absorb key impacts (the impacts are propagated down through the stand into the floor and are actually amplified: that's why downstairs they hear tap dancing and we barely hear tiny thudding, while next door they hear how good you're getting at sustained thunder-drumming), and then you have to raise your bench--moral of the story: i'm a lowly ballet accompanist, and for the last 30 years i've had to make do with a clavinova for work at home--and every morning when i prepare for class on that trusty steed i'm grateful knowing that i'm decently prepared for the rickety out-of-tune kawai and everett uprights at the studio, and that my neighbors have no idea what i'm up to

[e.p.s.]

A decent digital piano (not an unweighted keyboard) is an amazing instrument. You can record and listen to yourself, play each hand separately on top of the recording of the other, improvise over a harmony, connect to a computer to compose or train your ear... If the sound and touch are close enough to an acoustic piano, it is worth so so much more than any of them.

[reallynotpc]

I think my favourite point is encouraging users to try other instrument settings. That can absolutely reveal weaknesses and also give you new ways of practicing.

[Alter_Onkel]

I ❤ my Yamaha P45, with touch sensitivity and weighted keys. It's perfect, since I live in an apartment and don't want to disturb my neighbor, who by the way, is wonderful! We have each other's back. If I get a package he often brings it in, and vice versa.

[rdw]

Practically speaking, a quality digital today fits much better in daily life. ALWAYS in tune, headphones when needed, and much less space taken up. I've been using the Casio GP 500 since 2018, and any "affordable" acoustic usually sounds like it needs work, in comparison. Where I live, humidity through the course of a year really varies from below 20% up to 90+%. Did I mention ALWAYS in tune? The various voice samples offer a change where acoustic is always the same(not a bad thing), and too often out of tune. The key action on the Casio is excellent while most home acoustic instruments need maintenance(sluggish or sticking keys!). For too many years we had an inherited Gulbransen upright player(heavy to move!!), which was hardly touched after getting our first digital with weighted keys years ago. Even slightly out of tune wrecks any enjoyment or incentive for those with picky ears. With the good digital models available today, getting an acoustic for the average home makes little sense. It's like going back to film with today's outstanding digital cameras. Playing on a really good grand might sway me back towards an acoustic instrument, but then there's all the $$$$'s that would be involved. Not within my budget presently.

[PianoPics]

The challenge of practicing on different keyboard instruments and sounds enhances tolerance towards the various characteristics of pianos encountered in performance settings. For example, keys without weights promote precise striking.

[geoff]

Great discussion. I've kept a digital piano as a second piano since 2006. It is definitely possible to increase technique and learning on a digital, as well as having a lot of fun using what it has to offer. I studied with a student of Vengerova and Llevinne for several years. The most important thing is to keep the arm/wrist tension minimal. Using a proper amount of key resistance is important for this, as well as sitting at a comfortable height (invest in a decent adjustable bench).

[nevetsny]

In the recent documentary Pianoforte or was it Fortepiano, the hotel rooms had digital pianos and IIRC there were scenes where the competitors played them to prepare. The Chopin Competition.

[RodrigoRaez]

Thank you very much for this episode. I have a digital piano, with weighted keys, and it has always been useful for practicing and get me aware of the physicality of any acoustic piano I go to. And of course you feel blessed of being able to afford an instrument that resembles the original one.

[DanSanderson]

Entry-level digital pianos are *so* much better and so much more affordable now than when I was in college. A portable 88-key weighted instrument with headphones will be a lifeline for many beginning hobbyists and students, possibly for many years. Everyone with even a modest interest in music should have one. Even university music majors with access to practice rooms can benefit from an instrument at home.

The remarks about weighted keys are interesting! As someone who plays both a high-end furniture-style digital piano and unweighted synthesizer keybeds, I would insist that they be considered different instruments that develop different skills. By all means play synths too if you can, and I agree you can learn a lot about music in general and even develop some pianism with them. But entry-level weighted options are affordable, and I don't see a reason to favor synth keybeds if your goal is to develop piano skills, especially if it's going to be your primary practice instrument. Not all weighted options are equal, but unweighted synth keybeds are just a different animal.

I'm in my 40's and lucky to own a house, and I'm very much looking forward to someday owning an acoustic piano. But I wouldn't have had nearly as much music in my life if it weren't for digital pianos. Headphones are just too essential when living with other people. Even when I do get an acoustic, I'll probably keep the digital right next to it.

[iampracticingpiano]

Several concepts shared were brand-new for me. Thank you!

[whitelawnick]

here are some things I’ve noticed in my experience. I’m just some rando on the Internet so take this all as you will, but digital pianos can be fantastic for teaching purposes.

Roland digital pianos in particular are primo these days tbh - their technology with weighting and the sound acoustics are actually pretty incredible. they even have stuff like sympathetic resonance and for certain extended techniques (like where you silently depress a key or keys silently and play another note staccato and the other keys will sympathetically resonate).

on the other hand, the onset and decay (or lack thereof) of the note when played on settings like harpsichord and/or organ are really cool and useful to help students have an actual experience of playing something similar to said instruments, especially since your typical, run of the mill students are unlikely to have access to harpsichords/pipe organs very often if ever.

the una corda pedal is unfortunately basically just an on/off switch so you can’t capture the timbre of the una corda the same as it would sound on an acoustic instrument. that said, if I recall correct (I’ll have to check this out later) when you use the 8x4 harpsichord setting, using the una corda pedal gives an effect somewhat similar to that of switching between the manuals which is kinda cool.

for accompanying students, it can be useful - a few years ago, one of my adult trumpet students really wanted to play a transcription of a Bach piece for trumpet with a piano accompaniment written for it, but wanted the sound of an organ since I think it was originally orchestral (I truly do not recall the specific work off the top of my head, pls don’t ask).

their higher end upright models even have different grand piano settings sometimes which is cool, and with a pair of high quality headphones with a super long cord, you can even practice without causing disturbances to others (say, in the dead of night in an apartment with thin walls)

they even have a piano designer function so you can mimic different levels of acoustics, weight of key (not in terms of the actual physical weight/resistance of the key itself but rather via the key’s responsiveness), how open the ‘lid’ is, the reverb (or lack thereof) found in various spaces, among many other things.

the transpose function is useful in a pinch when working with vocalists if they’re working on art song and you want your experiment with a few different keys before picking one out (as long as you as a pianist don’t have perfect or quasi pitch. I’m also allegedly a trumpet/trombone player and I’ve developed quasi pitch over the years and actually struggle with the transpose function as a result)

I’m not super well versed in this regard, but to my understanding, there are ways to connect most digital pianos to your laptop/computer/etc for recording music, and if you want something that’s better than a crappy midi from a music notation software or something without having to do all of the audio engineering stuff that is beyond me, it’s definitely better than nothing if resources are limited and/or if it’s not something worth investing the resources into for a simple insignificant project that doesn’t need to be a concert pianist level of recording.

something else that can be great is that, for example, I live in the middle of the Canadian prairies in a city with a river running through the middle of it. we have +40(c) summers with drastically varying humidity and nearly desert-dry -40(c) winters. the humidity as seasons change or when it rains causes incredible fluctuations. I used to take lessons in a house that was near the river, and my teacher between the weather and the random influxes of high humidity from the nearby river, one year she had to tune her piano at least 6 times (that was her record year for most tunings if I had to guess - I still take lessons with her and she is a dear friend). I have students who have super old grand pianos that have very light actions that are poorly regulated and as a result, they tend to underplay their instruments immensely since it’s very easy to play forte on their instruments at home. early in the pandemic, I learned that one of my students’ pianos had shifted an entire semitone flat across the bulk of the instrument from not having been tuned for so long. I could go on with stories, but IMO, having the precise consistent conditions to practice on with a digital piano can help students learn and understand the instrument to a high enough of a baseline over time that since they know what to expect with consistent conditions, with a few tips, it can be helpful to prepare them for on the fly adjustments on various acoustic pianos since they have a clear idea of the sound they desire and can make quicker decisions on what to prioritize. sometimes people also just don’t want to tune their instruments regularly enough and as a result, they don’t, and it’s not fantastic for long term learning.

tbc I’m definitely not paid by Roland, I just have a lot of experience with their instruments and I’m referencing them specifically because I can’t speak to other brands. an academy I teach at uses them in their classrooms and I have grown quite fond of many aspects of them (though I obviously love playing on acoustics generally speaking)

[yume-e]

Would I choose an acoustic piano over my Roland FP-90X? Sure, if the acoustic was, say, a well-kept Steinway M. And if I had room for one of those. And if the acoustics of that room were good. But the fact is, my digital is better than all the other acoustics I have (or am likely to have) access to. My Roland has infinite polyphony, with acoustic overtones and sympathetic vibrations of strings that an acoustic does (and way better than an upright). Hold down the notes of a chord in your right hand and play different bass notes and you get different overtones. The touch is good and even, but not the best I've ever played, although I'll take EVEN over the potluck variability I experience on many acoustic instruments. Short answer: I don't feel guilty playing a digital. I feel liberated!

[prokastinatore]

I always practice on a digital piano and its progress is breathtaking. The keys got perfect options to balance the sound and if I play after on a real grand piano, it's no problem. I own a "Roland" in Germany and a "Yamaha" in the US. Because of my neighbors I can't replace a real grand piano.

[mfurman]

I have a MIDI controller that I use with piano VSTs such as Garritan CFX, VSL Bosendorfer 280VC, Pianoteq and few other.
I also practice on Yamaha C7 grand piano.

[peter.]

Another great tool on digital pianos, is the fact that you can record a slow practice session, and then play it back fast-forwarded, to see if your slow practice is going to result in the performance you want, or some weird clunky monstrosity.

[sidneyr]

I use a fairly cheap Yamaha digital piano, key feel isn’t great for trills but it’s not bad. Hook up via USB to laptop with a Vienna Symphonic Library Bosendorfer sample piano, hooked up to Adam T7v studio monitors. Almost sounds real, but not quite. Still great though.