I'm here researching and hoping someone could offer advice on a keyboard purchase? I have two young sons and we've been teaching them piano for a few years (more seriously the past 18 months). I know nothing about music or instruments so we rely on videos, books, etc. Thus, I am not good at choosing instruments. They're only ages 7 and 10 so they don't know too much about assisting in an instrument choice either. Our Casio LK280 has stopped functioning. We also have a Yamaha ew300. Recently, I bought them an old used upright piano from the 1900s that works pretty good, but they use the keyboards along with synthesia for practice.
The Casio really didn't last long. Instead of another $150-300 keyboard, I thought perhaps I would try to invest in something around $1000. I have been reading a great deal and found various forum responses with others posting similar questions / comparisons over the years (eg comparing Roland DS88 to Yamaha MX88 and trying to choose) etc. One great thread mentioned that if the user were purely interested in piano sound they should consider some other models (instead of DS88) that they then listed some of those options. Since we have a piano too I thought perhaps a synthesizer might open up some opportunities for the boys instead of a purely "piano" type keyboard. Hopefully one or both would want to perform at some point so my thought was to choose something that would be portable and could be used for performance, too. The DS88 seemed to fit this purpose?
What are your thoughts on the DS88? Is there a more updated model or one that would be more appropriate than the Roland Juno DS88? One post from 2017 had mentioned the DS88 lacked Supernatural and has an older version of a weighted key system, but didn't really offer an alternative (and, I'm not sure if those are concerns that would impact us much). I am trying to keep the purchase in a range of 800-1200 or so. Thank you in advance.
P.S. I don't know if their skill level matters in this choice much? And, I am so ignorant of this topic that I am not sure how to communicate that to you all. The 7 year old can almost play most of Linus and Lucy without too many mistakes and the oldest is a bit behind him on that. They can play Jurassic Park theme song mostly. Perhaps that helps yield some context to their abilities (if it's relevant).
The Casio really didn't last long. Instead of another $150-300 keyboard, I thought perhaps I would try to invest in something around $1000. I have been reading a great deal and found various forum responses with others posting similar questions / comparisons over the years (eg comparing Roland DS88 to Yamaha MX88 and trying to choose) etc. One great thread mentioned that if the user were purely interested in piano sound they should consider some other models (instead of DS88) that they then listed some of those options. Since we have a piano too I thought perhaps a synthesizer might open up some opportunities for the boys instead of a purely "piano" type keyboard. Hopefully one or both would want to perform at some point so my thought was to choose something that would be portable and could be used for performance, too. The DS88 seemed to fit this purpose?
What are your thoughts on the DS88? Is there a more updated model or one that would be more appropriate than the Roland Juno DS88? One post from 2017 had mentioned the DS88 lacked Supernatural and has an older version of a weighted key system, but didn't really offer an alternative (and, I'm not sure if those are concerns that would impact us much). I am trying to keep the purchase in a range of 800-1200 or so. Thank you in advance.
P.S. I don't know if their skill level matters in this choice much? And, I am so ignorant of this topic that I am not sure how to communicate that to you all. The 7 year old can almost play most of Linus and Lucy without too many mistakes and the oldest is a bit behind him on that. They can play Jurassic Park theme song mostly. Perhaps that helps yield some context to their abilities (if it's relevant).
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