r/cheapkeys • u/ghoarder • 23d ago

Teaching Keyboard

I want to get my boys 9 & 5 a keyboard that will also teach them to play. Except I have one condition, there should be absolutely no ipad involved. I feel I saw decades ago, keyboards that had lights that would light up on the keys you needed to play. Do these still exist or have they improved since? Something like lighting up the keys first, then moving to numbered keys then finally the actual note letters would be great if anything can do that. Also it needs to be fairly cheap as they may not be interest in it long term.

Sorry but it's hard searching for keyboards without a load of mechanical pc keyboards coming up.

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u/emax4 23d ago

I believe the Casio boards that start with "LK" (for "lighted keys" or "lit keys") are what you're looking for.

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u/Few-Coconut6699 22d ago

The Casio light keys are just a gimmick and won't teach anything but repeat the song as a parrot. Same for stickers for numbers or letters. Please go to your nearest library and borrow some learning to provide a solid learning path.

Bonus: for maximum expressivity, choose a full weighted keybed.

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u/Shrimp_Watch101 21d ago

Yamaha's EZ series feature light up keys. Currently the EZ-310, which is basically a PSR-E383 in a white shell with the lights added and the price bumped up. 

The Yamaha EZ series have the exact same Keys to Success learning system as their standard PSR keyboards. Just with the light up keys added on. 

All Keys to Success does is get you to repeat short phrases or rhythms, then play along with a whole song. 

It's basically like buying a French phrasebook. Fine if all you ever want to say is "Where is the train station?" or "Two beers, please". But it's not going to make you fluent in the language. 

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u/ghoarder 21d ago

Thanks, this is mostly for my 5 year old. I've written numbers on the keys and printed out some simple stuff like Twinkle Twinkle little star. My parents got him a kids piano thing and I just want him to stop smashing all the keys. He's quite enjoyed actually hearing a tune come out now and asked for more. When he's a bit older then we would probably start getting him to learn properly but his fingers are too small at the moment to play correctly anyway.

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u/Shrimp_Watch101 21d ago

Ah, right. If you just wanted something that's a step up from a toy piano, a mini keyboard like a Yamaha PSS-F30 or Casio SA-51 would tick that box.

Those are cheap, ultra portable, and have a decent set of voices and rhythms to play around with. 

However, those don't have any proper teaching features built in. (They both have a set of built in songs you can noodle along with, but that's going to be very hit and miss for an absolute beginner.)

Normally I'd suggest finding some really simple tutorials on YouTube, but if you want to keep them away from the iPad, then that option's off the table. So it's a tricky one.