A quick post today - a friend of mine and user of the Yamaha P95 has just released a song on itunes, which you can check out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdxifDLlh7Q. 

If you like what you hear, the good news is that it’s available on most online stores. Plus, you can check out his personal website at http://www.tunecore.com/music/jacobpiccioni 

He tells me that we should also keep a look out for new material soon. If you want my opinion I think he’s got real talent. Who knows? A few years from now we could be looking at the next great musician!

Anyway, hope you’re all doing well,

Bye for now!

I’ve read some useful articles in my time and wanted to share with you some of the things I’ve learnt about digital pianos.

Here are three quick tips for buying a good digital pianos

1. Can you afford it? - It sounds silly, but so many people waste time looking at pianos they just can’t afford. If you don’t have thousands of dollars to shell out on a Clavinova, stay away from them! Focus on P-series, instead, for example. You can always upgrade later in your piano journey
2. Does it have weighted keys? - The chances are you fall into one of two groups: (A) You really want “weighted keys,” (B) You don’t care about weighted keys. If you’re in (A) then you should focus on pianos that have “Graded Hammer Action” or “Progressive Hammer Action” or “Scaled Hammers” as Casio say. If you don’t care about weighted keys, then by all means feel free to look at other digital pianos. You’ll miss out on the piano feel, but you will save yourself some money
3. How big is the actual keyboard? - There are two things to consider here. Firstly, the number of keys the digital piano has. Secondly, the dimensions of the keyboard. Obviously they are closely related. If you’re a beginner, you may be able to get away with 61 or 76 keys. If you’re more advanced and want complete flexibility and range you’ll probably want 88 keys. Just remember, the more keys you get, the bigger the instrument and the more space it will take up.

That’s all for today’s post. Hopefully these three tips have been useful. I’ll try to come back and post a few more soon. I know that having a handy checklist like this can really help you buy the best digital piano for your needs.

And if you have one already, I hope you’re making the most of it and loving the experience!

Lately I've been particularly interested in one digital piano - the Yamaha P95. It's a very popular model for a number of different reasons. Many of these reasons are mentioned in digital piano reviews that you can find all over the internet. But I'd like to mention a few of the mains here:

 This is what the Yamaha P95 model looks like.

• It’s a portable digital piano. Yes, there are even lighter models out there, but they don’t have the same quality of sound. Nor do they have 88 weighted keys, as the P95 does. In terms of digital pianos with 88 weighted keys, it’s hard to find one that’s more portable than the Yamaha P95
• It has a great grand piano sound. This is one of the most important factors you have to consider when buying a digital piano. Does the piano voice sound authentic. In the case of the Yamaha P95, the answer is a resounding “Yes!”
• It has a nice “feel” - This, like the sound, is subjective but most people who play the P95 agree that its Graded Hammer Action makes for a very nice piano action and “feel.” It’s very similar to what you’d experience if you were playing an acoustic piano
• It’s pretty easy to use - Nowadays digital pianos often come with an enormous number of functions, rhythms, voices and lots of “bells and whistles.” Many of these simply complicate matters and mean that the user struggles to find his way around. The Yamaha P95 isn’t like this. It has a smaller number of voices (10) and makes it very easer for even new users to select from these and find the sound that matters.