This Keyboard Might Be Perfect for Serious Beginners GA S REGULAR Menu Lifewire Tech for Humans Newsletter! Search Close GO Opinion News > Smart & Connected Life

This Keyboard Might Be Perfect for Serious Beginners

It’s big, it’s cheap, and it feels great

By Charlie Sorrel Charlie Sorrel Senior Tech Reporter Charlie Sorrel has been writing about technology, and its effects on society and the planet, for 13 years. lifewire's editorial guidelines Published on June 1, 2022 11:00AM EDT Fact checked by Jerri Ledford Fact checked by Jerri Ledford Western Kentucky University Gulf Coast Community College Jerri L. Ledford has been writing, editing, and fact-checking tech stories since 1994. Her work has appeared in Computerworld, PC Magazine, Information Today, and many others. lifewire's fact checking process Tweet Share Email Tweet Share Email Smart & Connected Life Mobile Phones Internet & Security Computers & Tablets Smart Life Home Theater & Entertainment Software & Apps Social Media Streaming Gaming Novation’s Launchkey 88 has 88 weighted, velocity-sensitive keys. It costs just $400. A full-sized keyboard allows much more expression than smaller devices. Novation Short of somebody giving you an old piano that is miraculously still in tune, the best way to learn keys might be Novation's new Launchkey 88. Pretty much every cheap synthesizer comes with a keyboard attached, and if you walk into your local music gear store, you'll see a bunch of inexpensive MIDI keyboards that can be hooked up to a computer or iPad to play amazing software instruments. Those keyboards are fine for folks who just need something small and portable or don't care about much other than being able to enter notes into an app. But if you're serious about learning to actually play, you need more. "If you're a beginner who is making music in a DAW, make sure the keyboard has encoders and faders that are built-in. A beginner doesn't want to shell out a bunch of cash for dedicated faders and drum pads, for example. A midi controller with a nice key bed, built-in faders, encoders, and drum pads give you everything you need to create entire tracks in any Digital Audio Workstation (DAW)," singer-songwriter Matthew Scott Ragland told Lifewire via email.

Key Ingredients

There are a few features that keyboard players find essential. One is that the keys are big enough. Smaller keyboards often use narrow keys to fit more into the space available. Another is key feel. Keys can be weighted, so they feel like a piano rather than a toy. This weight should be combined with velocity sensitivity, so you can play louder by hitting harder. Without this, there is no way to add expression to your playing. And finally, you may want aftertouch, where the continued pressure on a key will affect the sound. In a MIDI keyboard, this parameter can be mapped to control all kinds of effects, from volume, to vibrato to pretty much anything your software can do. Novation's Launchkey 88 MIDI controller has a semi-weighted keyboard with adjustable velocity sensitivity, and it has—as the name makes clear—88 of them. That's a full-sized piano keyboard. And then there's the keybed. In a piano, this is the felt-lined bar that stops the keys when you play them instead of letting wood slam into wood. On modern MIDI keyboards, the keybed is what gives the instrument its feel, either cheap or good and responsive. "For me, I want a keyboard that is as close to a real piano as possible. A nice keybed pulls a better and more organic performance out of me. Anything I do on a keyboard is greatly benefitted by a nice feeling keybed. It's integral to the songwriting process to feel the responsiveness of the instrument. And that responsiveness is what weighted keys give you," says Ragland. But semi-weighted keys might not be the best option if you plan on actually playing a real piano in the future. "I'm personally a sucker for fully-weighted keys because I am a pianist first and a keyboardist second," studio and touring pianist and keyboardist Summer Swee-Singh told Lifewire via email. "If you learn on a semi-weighted instrument but then have to perform on a fully-weighted acoustic piano, that touch discrepancy for a beginner—especially for a young child—will very likely be tough to mitigate initially." And here's the kicker: It's only $400. Novation

More MIDI

Now, if you want to learn piano, all you need is this, plus a copy of Apple’s free GarageBand app on your iPhone, which has some amazing piano instruments built-in. But even in that simple case, you will benefit from all the other bits and pieces on this keyboard. There are knobs and sliders for adjusting software instruments without having to look at the screen, plus 16 velocity-sensitive pads for playing drums, or similar duties, pitch and mod wheels, and transport controls for playing, stopping, and recording your DAW software, like GarageBand or Ableton Live. It also runs off USB power. There are other 88-key keyboards that you can buy, of course, but this segment—full-sized keyboards—seems to be aimed at the mid to high end of the market, presumably because if you’re in the market for a huge 88-key monster, you’re not looking for a cheap and cheerful entry-level unit. And yet, it’s that big 88-key canvas that might make all the difference for learners. If nothing else, that’s something you might bear in mind when shopping around, either for used or new keyboards. Was this page helpful? Thanks for letting us know! Get the Latest Tech News Delivered Every Day Subscribe Tell us why! Other Not enough details Hard to understand Submit More from Lifewire iOS 16 Brings 86-Year-Old Dvorak Keyboard Layout to the iPhone, but It’s Not a Big Deal 5 Things to Consider When Buying a Keyboard 8 Best Piano/Keyboards/MIDI iPad Accessories of 2022 The 7 Best Online Piano Lessons of 2022 How to Fix It When a Keyboard Won't Type The 12 Best iPad Apps for Musicians 5 Best Free (and Fun!) Typing Games for Kids & Adults Learn to Play Piano on Your iPad Turn Your Mac Keyboard Into a GarageBand Piano The 8 Best Keyboard Wrist Rests of 2022 The 8 Best Music Production Software of 2022 The 7 Best Beat-Making Softwares to Buy in 2022 The 7 Best Mechanical Keyboards of 2022 Das Keyboard 4 Professional: A Mac-Friendly Mechanical Keyboard with Media Controls and USB Passthrough The 10 Best Keyboards for Android in 2022 Guitar Hero Vs. Real Guitar Newsletter Sign Up Newsletter Sign Up Newsletter Sign Up Newsletter Sign Up Newsletter Sign Up By clicking “Accept All Cookies”, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts. Cookies Settings Accept All Cookies