I think the piano and keyboard are very different instruments (the apples & oranges comparison). If someone has learned to play on a piano, then the "feel" of the keyboard will be very different. Also, the way one plays is very different. The piano tries to play all the parts of an orchestra, but with the keyboard, the left hand, by playing a chord, has lots of orchestral help launched. I'm with Jedi on this. I learned on the accordion, then I played an organ for several years before a long gap. We have a piano in my house, but I couldn't play it very well at all. It's that left-hand thing. On the accordion, the left hand played the chords, but just by pressing buttons. The organ has more similarity to the keyboard as far as left hand playing goes. When I was learning on the accordion, I did all the scales and chords and exercises Scotty talked about, but it was my right-hand only. Accordion players are very big on knowing how to play full chords under a melody with one hand. I find the musical knowledge gained has transferred, but not so much the dexterity. On the accordion, all my chord playing with the right hand was while the "keyboard" was in a vertical position. On the arranger, the keyboard is horizontal. That's a major change for the position of the wrist. However, I haven't found that a great disadvantage, because I like to play a lot of the solo instruments (trumpet, sax, etc) with my right hand, and they sound best playing only a single note, not a chord. My left hand still isn't very agile in terms of being able to play a run up and down the keyboard, but it is getting much better at being able to instantly play any chord I want. So - the apples and oranges -- getting the most out of an arranger can mean playing it very differently than one would play a piano.