My 8YO son will be beginning piano lessons this fall. He is in therapy for low hand strength. I thought the right keyboard for us was the Yamaha P-70, but he hated it almost to the point of tears. The keys were just too heavy and too hard to push.

So, I see the new Yamaha YPG 525 is advertised as having "lightly weighted keys," and I wonder if that would be a good compromise for us. (He wants an inexpensive touch-sensitive Casio with nice springy keys, but I know the piano teachers don't want the students to learn on those.)

If you've played on a 525, would you comment on the keyboard feel as compared to a fully-weighted keyboard and a touch-sensitive keyboard?

Follow up question: If you know a store in the Dallas Metroplex who has one I can try, I'd like to know about it. Brook Mayes and Guitar City didn't even know about this model yet. Mr. E won't be carrying it.

If you have any other suggestions for a lightly-weighted 88 key keyboard under $700, I'd love to hear your advice.

The P-70 is a weighted keyboard to better simulate an acoustic piano. I have not tried the YPG 525. No surprised that GC hasn't heard of it. They don't always carry the full line. What is light to one person may be heavy for your son. However, if he is OK with the Casio he would probably be OK with most of the Casio and Yamaha keyboard as long as they do not have weighted keys. The lightest touch keyboards I have tried so far has been some of the m-audio keyboards. The ProKeys 88SX is in your price range. It doesn't have the bells and whistles of the casio-types and requires an external amplifier.

So many people start with Casio-type keyboards these days that you may not find piano teachers in your area to be as adverse to them as you think. If the keyboard gets your son enthused about learning it's OK to start with one.

You may want to check out Costco/Sams/BJ's in your area as they often have one-generation back models of these types of keyboards at good discounts.

However, again I recommend that you have your son try anything first to ensure the touch is light enough for him.

i know that Roland (probably more expensive than you're looking for, but look for used if you can) has a lightly weighted keyboard.

the FP-2 has weighted keys that are probably half the weight of a normal acoustic piano, however they are still weighted. i really enjoy the feel, but as mentioned, have your son try it before buying.

Hi, I don't know how the 525 feels. But I just thought that I might mention, for whatever it's worth, that the "light" or sometimes called "semi-weighted" synth type keys are generally not standard piano sized keys but slightly smaller. you can check this by measuring say two octaves on a piano then measure the same two octaves on a synth type keyboard. You'll see the synth type keys are ever so slightly thinner.

Also to watch for is the the top of some keyboards black keys, when depressed fully will be nearly flush with the top of it neighboring white keys which are not depressed. I personally don't like this feel as I don't want to feel the top of the white keys. Most pianos black keys don't depress this far.

Anyway, best wishes on your search Oh and I agree Yamaha seems to have heavier keys than say Roland or other makers.... That's one reason I go with Yamaha. I like heavier keys.

Take care.
Bob
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I was at a Sam Ash store today in PA. They had a YPG 525 on the floor to try. I can report to you that it does have a rather light action as compared to like keyboards.

Thank you for your replies. Robert, thank you for posting here that you tried it. I can't wait to try it myself, and I'm frustrated that I can't find one in the Dallas area. Thank you all for your shopping tips. Lots of good ideas.

Cindy