Keyboard piano, electric piano, digital piano, 88 key piano: the names get used interchangeably, and it causes expensive mistakes. Here is what each one actually means, from an acoustic piano shop in Faringdon, Oxfordshire with very few digital pianos to actually sell you.

Keyboard

A keyboard usually means 61 or 76 unweighted keys: the keys spring back like an organ rather than resisting like a piano. Keyboards are great for playing in bands, experimenting with sounds, and testing whether a child shows any interest at all. They are not great for learning piano, because the finger technique a keyboard teaches does not transfer to a real piano. Teachers see this constantly.

Digital piano

A digital piano has 88 weighted keys, the same number as a real piano, with a mechanism that imitates the resistance of hammers. This is the minimum for proper lessons. Decent ones start around £400 to £500 new. If you see "88 key digital piano, fully weighted" in the description, it qualifies.

Electric piano

Strictly, an electric piano is a vintage instrument like a Rhodes or Wurlitzer with real moving parts and a pickup, beloved of jazz and soul players. In everyday speech, though, people searching for an electric piano almost always mean a digital piano, so the advice above applies.

The bit most guides leave out

All three are simulations of the instrument your child is actually learning: an acoustic piano. There is a reason every exam, every school hall and every teacher's front room has the real thing. If quiet practice is the concern, a silent piano gives you a real acoustic action with headphones. If budget is the concern, our used acoustic pianos start from under £1,000 and hold their value in a way no digital instrument does. Our digital vs acoustic guide goes deeper.

Not sure which you need?

Come and put your hands on the real thing at our Faringdon showroom. Ten minutes of playing tells you more than ten hours of reading, and we will tell you honestly if a £400 digital piano is the right call for your situation. Plenty of our customers started on one, then brought it back in part exchange.