Now don't laugh at me, mmm-kay? I have NEVER played keyboard or piano or organ or synth. The only music experience I have has is playing sax in middle school (I am 34 now). For some reason, I got the idea in my thick skull to learn to play. I am thinking about buying a cheap keyboard. So far, I think the Yamaha PSR280 is the one I will go with (around $200). If I can learn, I will probably get a better one later. If not, I will give it to my son as a toy when he is a little older. Is this make and model okay for an absolute beginner? Is it possible to learn without taking lessions? I am also a programmer so doing midi stuff is something I might eventually look into. Thanks for not being too hard with this n00b

Darth... I started to learn to play on a small Casio 68 with mini keys. I just will not admit to how many keyboards I have had since those days, but looking back they all gave me great pleasure, and yes you can be self taught. Its all down to how badly you want to succeed. There are many frustrating times when I did not appear to improving, but then I seemed to take another step up.
I bought the Kenneth Baker Organ books (not the keyboard versions) because its important to learn to read the left hand staff and play full fingered chords, although most of the time you will be playing from busker type chord symbols.

If you wish to purchase from the Yamaha brand I suggest a minimum of PSR350. This is a good low cost starting keyboard with a Floppy drive, which you will find very useful.

Graham UK

[This message has been edited by Graham UK (edited 12-03-2001).]

Thanks. I will look into the 350.

Cautionary Tale

DarthBevis,

The beginning of my saga is not unlike yours. I did some trombone for a few months as a kid; I did some meddling in percussion and recording after high-school with a friend's band. That's my entire musical herritage, but I too decided to teach myself to play piano recently.

I started with a PSR 262, but as Graham sites, the floppy drive becomes desireable fast, so after a couple days I traded it in and got a PSR 550. I strongly suggest you consider a model that has: a floppy drive, GM midi, and maybe even XG midi.

The cautionary tale, is that that was a few months ago. I just ran a tally, and I've spent more than $4000 in the last 3 months. The PSR 550 eventually turned into a Motif 6, and I've just about finished building my recording studio now, hehe. So just be careful!

-Shaz