The Casio CTK-3000 is an affordable instrument with a 61 Key Piano Style Touch Sensitive Keyboard, 400 total onboard Tones, 150 Rhythms and Digital Effects. Packed with great features such as Casio’s famous Step-up Lesson System, audio inputs for a MP3 player, USB port for MIDI implementation and a pitch wheel for additional expression over sounds. All this makes CTK-3000 more realistic and expressive than ever before at this price range. An affordable, full-featured portable keyboard. Click to enlarge. Standard-Size Keys with Touch Response The CTK-3000 features 61 standard-size keys and two sensitivity levels for a more piano-like experience, along with 48-note polyphony (24-note for certain tones). 400 Built-In Tones Find just the right sound with 400 built-in tones, and select from ten different reverb settings to add depth. USB Port For many musicians, the computer has become a music-making center. Connect the CTK-3000 to a computer (more…)

If you follow my recommendations, buying your first keyboard will be an easier experience. Prices for keyboards range from about £100.00 to £5000.00 or more. In this article, we will deal with keyboards that are more than adequate for beginners. As a beginner, there is no point in spending thousands of pounds on a keyboard because you will not be able to use the more advanced features that are included on these keyboards because you can’t play yet.

Before you go and buy your keyboard, you should consider that the keyboard you buy is going to be the first of many or the first and last keyboard you ever buy.

So the first thing you need to think about is budget. For a beginners keyboard I would personally not spend more than £500.00 but would be looking in £100.00 to £300.00 range. Obviously, you need to set your own budget within this range. When you have set your budget, you need to decide where you are going to buy your keyboard.

I would defiantly recommend buying a keyboard from a music shop. I know you can find cheaper keyboards on the internet from various mail order companies and eBay but there are many advantages to buying from your local music shop. The first advantage being that you can hear and see the keyboard you are about to buy. Also generally, the sales staff in these shops know what they are talking about and can play the instruments and show you how they work. Many music shops can also offer keyboard lessons and provide sheet music to get you started.

When choosing your keyboard, it’s important you like the look of it and like the sound of it. There are various manufacturers to choose from, the main ones being Yamaha, Casio and Roland. Many musicians have there own preferences as to which make they prefer, including myself, however, I would urge you to make your own mind up, after all you have got to look at it and listen to it.

So to recap:

Set your budget.

Buy from your local music shop.

Make sure you like what you see and hear.

In part two I will tell you what keyboard features you should expect for your money and maybe some features you don’t need.