Costco has one on sale right now - a Yamaha I think. It is not the greatest but it would be fine for a child starting out if you don't want to invest much money before finding out if the child likes it. I would say that you definitely want one with weighted keys as that will provide a more realistic piano-like feel -- my kids and my neighbors kids both take lessons from the same teacher. My neighbor has a digital piano and I see that her child sometimes struggles because the touch is so much different than the acoustic piano that the piano teacher has at her studio. So I would say to look for one that has weighted keys and the most realistic touch you can afford. If the budget allows, you may also want to look for one that has a sustain pedal (I think the current Costco one does) as my kids started playing music that needed a sustain pedal about 1-2 years into lessons.

I often see digital pianos on sale inexpensively on Craigslist if used is an option for you. I would stick with a name brand in that case - Yamaha is a good one. Their Clavinova series is very good and sometimes appears on Craigslist. My neighbor paid $100 for hers but it is not a Clavinova and as I said, the touch differs quite a bit from a "real" piano.

Good luck!

We bought a Yamaha Clavinova CLP series when my daughter was taking lessons back in 1986. We passed it along to her 9 years ago and her three children are playing it.

Edited to add: her 3 year old is learning to play on an iPad app.

I would ask your prospective piano teacher. I did and, based partly on my saying that I would not force my kid to stick with it if he did not want to continue lessons past the summer we had agreed to, he recommended that we start with an inexpensive keyboard off Craigslist or from Costco. He said if ds stuck with it for a year, then he would suggest switching to a digital piano with weighted keys or looking into a rental of a regular piano. I know other teachers have different views.

Ikplatow,

thanks for the feedback. I am in canada but our costco also has some models. I will take a closer look at them.

Brush works, sure sounds like you got a lot of mileage out of yours.

crl, thank you. I have not found a teacher yet but when I do I will ask their opinion. It seems to me that for a young child it might be the way to go.

thanks

We also have a Yamaha Clavinova series at home and recently bought two additional less expensive Yamaha's for our sons to have in their apartments now that they are in college and grad school. I talked with some music and piano teachers before we bought the first one. The general advise was to get an accoustic piano if you were serious about piano playing and had a place to put one. My sons both wanted a piano to support vocal and instrumental music, theory and such and we didn't have an appropriate place for a piano on our fiirst floor. The digital was smaller, ligher and easily moved upstairs.

If you are going digital, know that there is a huge difference between a digital keyboard and a digital piano. If you want to learn to play piano, you want a digital piano with a full size (88 key) keyboard with weighted key action (that means that like a real piano, the keys make a softer sound when struck lightly and play louder when struck with more force). A digital piano will havw more of the sound of a true piano while an electronic keyboard will sound electronic.

A digital piano can be moved more easily, won't require tuniing, but it has electronic parts that can wear out and it will have a somewhat limited lifetime. Maybe not short, but you aren't likely to pass it down to children and grandchildren. And obviously, you need power to play a digital one where an accoustic or mechanical one does not. You are likely to find more traditional pianos for sale used and they can be checked out while fewer digitals will be sold used and it might be harder to know how well it will hold up for you.

Yamaha and Rowland were the brands we heard about and saw over and over. The least expensive ones with thr weighted action -- at least that I remember seeing, ran about $700-800 and they go up into the thousands. I would expect to pay $1000-1500 or a little more for something solid that will grow with your playing skills. Above that, you get more bells and whistles. You can even get built-in lessons or links to lessons on your computer or tablet. But you can also wind up paying more for a digital piano than an accoustic piano.

Hope that helps you get started.

I would recommend buying a used one. I bought a new one for my boys to take lessons. After taking lessons for about a year and getting tired of trying to force practice time, they quit.

Our Clavinova is at a local shop and we will get a check when they sell it on consignment. It is like new but they depreciate quickly. Someone will get a bargain when they purchase ours.

We just bought the Costco one referenced above (Yamaha p45, weighted keys, comes with stand, bench, sustain pedal, and headphones). It was $400 on sale.

Brief background, I was a relatively serious musician from elementary school through college, played all-state orchestra, etc. Always wanted to learn the piano but we didn't have one. My parents bought one when I was in 7th grade. I played and practiced a lot in my high school years, but I'm not great by any means. I haven't played much music at all since I graduated college, but I do really enjoy it still.

My mother is holding on to the piano for now, which is a high quality upright, but she doesn't play and I'm pretty sure when they downsize in 5 years or so she will give it to me. But I didn't want to wait and this was a good compromise.

So far (I've had it about 2 weeks) I am really enjoying it. Like I said, I am competent but not a great player, and I haven't played frequently in a while, but the keys feel pretty real to me. My kids are little and they enjoy banging on it, and my 4 year old likes singing along while I play. We are hoping that in the next few years they can become a little bit more focused about it. If one of them gets serious, then we can have my parents' piano, but for now, this is just the thing.

LASCATX, butternut and ilovered, thank you for your helpful responses. I am learning a lot here and will take all this into consideration.

Lyban, I went to look at what Costco currently has -- they only had one option back when school started, so this is mostly a seasonal item, in case you want to buy there. Those are pretty good options and good prices.

They have two Yamahas at 399 and 499. We bought the one just above the $499 one. Looks like the $399 one is a pretty basic model while the $499 and the one we got have more voices and effects. If you just want to play piano, you don't need those. We got them for the school pianos so the boys could do more with aranging and such. hTe sound on those will not be as good as the upper models, but it would certainly be good enough for a beginner and light use. When you get ore experienced, you might want something with better sound and by then you would have an idea whether you would care about any other features.