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The term ‘digital piano’ is often conflated with the term ‘electric piano’, although this is something of a misnomer, as an electric piano is its own entity altogether.
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Electric pianos, like digital pianos, use electricity to work, but they use it in a different way. You see, much like a guitar, electric pianos use ‘pickups’ (ostensiby a magnet wrapped in copper) to turn vibrating strings, reeds, or ‘tines’ into sound.
Electric pianos enjoyed their heyday throughout the late 60’s, 70’s, and early 80’s, though they remain popular today thanks to the resurgence of nostalgiac homages to the music of these eras. The sound of an electric piano is associated with a broad selection of beloved genres, ranging from rhythm and blues, through to soul, Motown, and rock (to name just a few).
Think Ray Charles playing a Fender Rhodes whilst performing ‘Georgia On My Mind’, and you get the idea.
Digital pianos sprang onto the scene in the 80’s, and came about in an effort to provide an alternative to, and effectively replicate, the sound and touch of acoustic pianos, without the additional weight, expense, and maintenance.
Digital pianos started out as simple instruments, but as they developed, they began incorporating numerous features previously found in electronic home organs. This evolution marked a shift in preference from organs to digital pianos.
As well as sounding, feeling, and looking like a piano (at least, within the past 20 years or so), digital pianos were suddenly able to provide a wealth of additional voices (sounds), and generate rhythms and backings (songs that follow the root chord) for the player to enjoy.
In its simplest terms, a digital piano is a piano instrument that relies on digital sampling to produce its sound, as opposed to using strings the way an acoustic piano does.
There is no limit to what can be sampled for use with a digital piano, although typically you’ll find (intuitively) a variety of piano sounds at your disposal, alongside orchestral stringed instrument sounds, brass and woodwind instrument sounds and, somewhat ironically, even electric piano sounds too.
There is, as you might have imagined, a fair bit more to it than that, but let’s focus on that and the myriad surrounding terminology a bit later on…
As opposed to an acoustic piano, a digital piano (for the most part) requires almost no maintenance during its lifespan. It requires no tuning and can be kept (within reason) in almost any climate without issue.
A digital piano is, for the most part, easier to move and transport than an acoustic piano, and even the most basic of modern digital pianos will offer a selection of different sounds and features, such as recording, to assist with both practice and engagement with the instrument.
Digital pianos will offer a headphone connection, so you can practice at any time without upsetting the neighbours. You’ll usually find you’re able to connect your digital piano to your computer too, in order to use it with any recording software you might have.
The quality of the modern digital piano is such that even the most established of examining bodies, such as the ABRSM and Trinity Guildhall, will permit the performance of gradings on digital pianos.
Whilst prices for digital pianos range fairly widely, in the same way as all technology, a basic digital piano will cost you a great deal less than its acoustic analog.
“A traditional-style ‘furniture’ digital piano (dependent on brand and series) will start out at around £750. A new acoustic piano will cost, on average, more than four times as much.”
There is an argument that purchasing a used acoustic piano mitigates this price hurdle to some degree, but this argument rarely factors in the longer-term costs of upkeep such as tuning, which can be as much as £200 a session.
If you consider that tuning is typically required anually, or whenever the instrument is moved, and very soon you’re forking out a lot more than you might have intended, just to maintain the instrument as it is.
Like all areas of commerce, the world of musical instrument retail is littered – festooned, even – with jargon; a meaningless vernacular to those of you who don’t studiously read product manuals, but nevertheless one that is essential to understanding the market itself.
Luckily, ePianos is here to rescue you from terminology purgatory, with the help of our Jargon Buster – a veritable index of explanation and illumination, designed to give you a head start in your search for the perfect instrument:
| Terminology | Definition (in layman’s terms) |
| Digital Piano | A digital piano uses samples, as opposed to traditional acoustics, to produce sound. These samples are generated by a computer inside the instrument, hence the ‘digital’ nomenclature. An example of a digital piano would be a Yamaha CLP785. More help and information about digital pianos can be found here. |
| Electric Piano | Often confused with ‘digital’ piano, an electric piano is in fact a slightly different animal. An example of an electric piano would be a Fender Rhodes, which uses more of a guitar-style ‘pickup’ for tone generation. More recently, the term has become conflated with ‘digital piano’, though these are really two separate things. |
| Polyphony | Polyphony refers to the number of sounds (samples) that are able to be generated in any one instance. A greater polyphony is desirable (generally speaking 256 is optimal), as a lower polyphony count or ‘sample rate’ can result in some notes being curtailed or omitted, the closer you get to the ‘limit’. A polyphony of 256 is in fact comprised of a maximum of 128 separate stereo tones, as each sound must be sent to both speakers on the instrument. |
| Grading | Key grading refers to the representation of the weight of the keyboard itself as it progresses from bass to treble. On an acoustic piano, the bass notes use longer strings, and accordingly a longer hammer mechanism to strike them, with the inverse true of the shorter treble strings. Verisimilitude is achieved digitally using clever mechanics, with linear grading – where each note is individually weighted – being preferable. Learn more here |
| Voices | These are instruments represented by the instrument, be it a piano, strings, harpsichord, etc. |
| Styles | Styles are a combination of rhythms and voices, designed to give you a headstart in a particular genre. For example, a jazz style might consist of a series of drum patterns with a piano, upright bass, and trumpet voice prepared. |
| Synthesizer | Often used interchangeably with ‘keyboard’, the term synthesizer or ‘synth’ is in fact contextualised by the use of ‘oscillators’ – essentially sound waveforms – as opposed to sample-based sounds. An example would be the Yamaha MODX series. |
| Rhythm | Often used synonymously with Styles, rhythms are in fact more specifically inferred to mean drum patterns. |
| Key Action | The physical mechanism designed to reproduce an acoustic piano’s hammer and key system. This improves with an increase in spend until you arrive at the Yamaha AvantGrand series, which in fact uses a fully-featured acoustic mechanism to trigger its samples. |
| USB to Host | This refers to an instrument’s ability to communicate with your computer’s recording software – often known as a DAW – using a USB cable. Depending on your computer’s operating system, sometimes an additional file known as a ‘driver’ is required, but these are usually very simple to install. Learn more about DAWs here. |
| MIDI | Now more and more deprecated in favour of more modern USB to Host (see above), MIDI or ‘Musical Instrument Digital Interface’ is a method of sending (and sometimes receiving) notation and control information – i.e. key presses and dial turns – to and from an instrument. A MIDI connection is usually a 5 pin circular connection, sometimes with corresponding MIDI in, MIDI out and MIDI Thru ports on the instrument itself. |
| WAV | An audio format, understood by most playback devices. WAV files are usually quite large, operating at 10MB (megabytes) per 1 minute of recording. |
| MP3 | An audio format, also understood by most modern playback devices. MP3 files are ‘compressed’ sound files of a ‘lossy’ (lesser) quality than the original sound file the MP3 was produced from. |
| Clavinova | An umbrella term for a flagship series of Yamaha digital pianos. This term has become synonymous with the phrase ‘digital piano’, in the way that ‘Hoover’ has replaced ‘vacuum cleaner’. More info about the various sub-ranges within the Clavinova range here. |
| Firmware | In the same you (very) occasionally find yourself updating your computer’s operating system, be it Windows or Mac OS, operating system inside digital instruments can also be upgraded, improving reliability, fixing bugs, and even offering new features. You can join up to our newsletter to stay up to date with the latest firmware developments here. |
Each range of digital piano will offer varying key mechanisms and other innovations which will impact your playing experience greatly.
Budget also plays a role too, and each of these digital or electric piano ranges will offer a more inexpensive ‘base’ model, featuring the core features of the range, all the way up to the premium flagship model featuring the very best technologies and design elements available.
Our advice is always to buy the best digital piano you can afford, as this gives you the best possible start and ensures you aren’t missing out on the best technology available to you.
Yamaha digital pianos are more popular than ever before, because using modern technology they so closely replicate the sound and feel of ‘traditional’ pianos that most people cannot tell the difference anymore.
Most Yamaha digital pianos work by taking a recorded sample from a traditional piano and amplifying it through built-in speakers.
But it’s not as simple as you might imagine. In order to accurately simulate the true sound of piano hundreds of samples must be taken, not just of the desired note being played but also the variations in strength and sympathetic vibrations of surrounding strings and the cabinet of the piano too. Learn more about recording piano sampling here.
Yamaha have a rich heritage in making world class grand pianos so they are experts at capturing the required sounds.
Most people cannot tell the difference between traditional pianos and Yamaha digital pianos today. This is because modern technology is so advanced that digital pianos can replicate the touch and feel of ‘real’ pianos so accurately.
Yes. The keys on digital pianos are ‘weighted’ so the way they feel to play and react to your input is just like the real thing. Don’t think that the digital versions feel and sound like that old Casio keyboard you got for Christmas in 1986!
No. Yamaha digital pianos never go out tune, so never need tuning.
Yes. Most digital pianos have the standard 88 keys.
Yes. When you plug headphones into a digital piano the speakers are disabled so only you can hear the sound. This is ideal for practicing late at night or when you don’t want to disturb anyone. Note: The standard jack socket for headphones is 6.35mm. iPhone headphone plugs are 3.5mm so you would need an adaptor.
The price of a piano depends on a number of factors, for example whether the keys are plastic or wooden, whether the speakers are big or small, the amount of extra features it has like rhythms and backings or multi track recordings.
The cabinet design and finish is a factor too. Small portable pianos tend to be cheaper than the more traditional looking non-portable ones. This digital piano guide is designed to help you spend as much as you need on the right instrument.
Many of the Yamaha digital pianos and keyboards allow connection to an iPad/tablet now for various purposes. Yamaha have developed a lot of apps for their instruments, you can read more about them on the App Store.
We are an independent shop but choose Yamaha and Korg digital pianos exclusively because they are regarded as the best in the world. You will find Yamaha and Korg digital pianos in most music schools, colleges, and universities, and teachers nearly always recommend Yamaha because of how authentic the touch and sound are.
Yes, Yamaha also manufactures some of the world’s finest concert grand pianos and have a rich heritage over 100 years making pianos. The technology they have developed is shared into the design of their digital pianos to make them the most authentic digital pianos in the world.
Therefore when you practice on a Yamaha digital piano it will prepare your technique for passing exams.
Yamaha digital pianos are also endorsed by some of the most-established grading associations, such as Trinity Guildhall and the ABRSM.
Portable instruments offering the quality and touch of a digital piano in a compact format.
The basic components of a superb digital piano.
The ultimate alternative to an acoustic piano; Yamaha’s flagship digital piano range.
The Yamaha ‘smart’ digital piano works in conjunction with your tablet and the Smart Pianist app; a fantastic choice for beginners.
Yamaha’s performance-oriented digital piano series, complete with industry-leading rhythms and backings.
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These items are sold on behalf of Yamaha, and are sent to us on a per-order basis, typically within 5-7 working days, unless an ETA is otherwise stated.
We'll contact you the moment your purchase arrives with us to organise delivery, based on your selected option.
Example products: Yamaha DGX670, Yamaha P-525, Yamaha YDP-S55, Yamaha Clavinova.
These items must be sent with a heavy-goods courier (typically APC or FedEx). On occasion, depending on which is fastest, we will drop-ship directly from Yamaha to your address via Dachser.
Tracking will be provided by the haulier, with a typical arrival time of 1-2 working days.
*If you have included the optional £180 "Yamaha Premium Service" home delivery & setup option offered on selected products, we will contact you regarding arrangements after purchase.
**The Yamaha CSP Series, Yamaha CVP905 & CVP909, Yamaha CLP875, 885 & 895GP, and Yamaha NU1Xa are all sold on behalf of Yamaha and arrive with us on a per-order basis. As soon as your piano has arrived, we will contact you to organise the appropriate dispatch method. ETA for stock is shown on the product page for those items.
***If you have included the optional £99 home delivery & setup option offered on selected products, we will send your details direct to the installation team, who will contact you within 48 hours to make arrangements.
Depending on which option is most appropriate, we will either contact you to discuss a bespoke ePianos delivery surcharge for goods we can’t package for a 3rd party courier, or otherwise dispatch goods via FedEx or APC.
If a courier is used, tracking will be provided by them directly, with a typical arrival time of 1-2 working days.
Example products: Yamaha PSR-SX920, Yamaha P-225, Yamaha NP-15.
These items will be sent via courier (typically APC or FedEx). On occasion, depending on which is fastest, we will drop-ship directly from Yamaha to your address via UPS or Parcelforce.
Tracking will be provided by the courier, with a typical arrival time of 1-2 working days.
Smaller items, such as books, discs, etc, will be dispatched via Royal Mail second class.
After purchase, you can download the file either from the order confirmation page or the "Downloads" tab in "My Account".
If you have selected the option to receive a pre-loaded USB stick, then this will be dispatched via Royal Mail.
We will contact you regarding any pre-ordered items, and let you know when they arrive so as to arrange delivery with you at a convenient time.
Used items can also be purchased using either of the following options (minimum loan amount of £250 after deposit):
Total amount payable: £893.32
Available finance options are displayed at checkout. Alternatively, please get in touch and we’ll be happy to discuss the options, or email a finance application to you. Find out more by clicking here
Our seasonal opening hours are as follows:
We are closed on all bank holidays, therefore the processing of sales and deliveries will be delayed.
For orders of any stock displaying a 7-10 day lead time, we will contact you as soon as the item arrives with us to schedule a delivery with you.
Occasionally, there may be availability issues with our suppliers, in which case we'll get in touch with you to see if you're happy to wait, or if you'd like to cancel the order and receive a full refund.
This is a special order "agency" item, and comes to us directly from Yamaha on a per-order basis.
It typically takes 7-10 days for this item to arrive with us, whereupon we'll contact you to discuss the arrangement of delivery.
For any pre-orders, we will contact you as soon as the item arrives with us to schedule a delivery with you, and update you with an ETA.
Occasionally, there may be availability issues with our suppliers, in which case we'll get in touch with you to see if you're happy to wait, or if you'd like to cancel the order and receive a full refund.
*Cashback amount varies product to product, as indicated.
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