Electronic Keyboards and the term Keyboards are often lumped into a single big category group, which in fact consists of a number of different types of this device.
The different types of this device that you will come across will be the Electronic, digital pianos, MIDI, MIDI controller, professional arranger workstation and synthesizers.
Learning to play the keyboard can be highly rewarding. By simply learning to play this type of instrument you can develop a great foundation for understanding how to play pretty much any other instrument.
This is the main reason why many people who want to enter into the music business and who also want to know how to play an instrument learn to play this particular musical instrument as a starting point.
Whether you want to become one of the greatest pianist's of all time or simply want to connect as a midi interface to you computer to produce music, the electronic keyboard is a great place to start.
The next step is to decide which one of the devices in this particular family is for you.
There are several choices;
The Electronic, Electronic piano or digital piano, Professional arranger workstation, Synthesizer, MIDI or MIDI controller.
These keyboard devices vary greatly in price ranging from a couple of hundred for an electronic version to a couple thousand and upwards for a professional arranger workstation. On this basis alone, it is important and advantageous to be clear as to what you are looking to achieve as a musician.
Here is a breakdown of the different types of electronic keyboards and some of their uses;
The Electronic or portable versions are entry level musical instruments. These types were very popular in the eighties, throughout all genres of music. You may be surprised that even some very well known producers have this type of device in their artillery to provide some old school flavour to modern day music sounds.
The electronic or portable version is also a great starting point for kids and adults alike who want to learn to play the keyboard.
The electronic piano or digital piano are designed to have the sound and feel of an actual piano. This includes having weighted keys. The electronic or digital piano can vary greatly in cost and can therefore be quite pricey. This is because they range from basic entry level pianos that are designed to mimic acoustic pianos, through to stage pianos that are used predominantly for live performances.
A professional arranger workstation is a small scale design of a full recording studio. Professional Arranger workstations allow a person to create, record and mix their own music just like a music producer would in a full blown recording studio.
Synthesizers come with numerous inbuilt sounds that can be manipulated using the on-board knobs and buttons to generate more new sound.
MIDI essentially offers the capability to connect with different types of gear in order to essentially perform the sounds and voices that you are require. The key difference with a MIDI is that it does not come with onboard sound.
The MIDI can essentially by further classified into three sub-types. All offer similar capabilities.
They are the basic MIDI, the MIDI controller and the MIDI keyboard controller
A MIDI will have basic keys piano type keys, with modulation and pitch bend facilities.
A MIDI controller is a control surface with assignable knobs, buttons or faders.
A MIDI keyboard controller will have assignable physical controls that can control the parameters within Digital Audio Workstations (DAW) such as Logic, Pro tools, Cubase, Sonar and Alberton.
Hope you find this article informative to you in explaining the differences between the available musical keyboards and their uses.
