Yamaha YPG-235 76-Key Portable Grand Piano

My kids just starting taking piano lessons, so we wanted to get a portable keyboard to practice on with headphones and to travel with.It never occured to me that this would not ship with a power adaptor! Huh? Anyhow, I have extra power adaptors from my long history of external 5.25" hard drives and they work perfectly (they are generally 12V 3A and the adaptors I saw on amazon for this piano are 12V 1A and the plug fits perfectly).It is also bigger than I imagined in my mind. It is going to take up a lot of space whenever we decide to bring it along during traveling. I probably should have taken out a measuring tape to get an idea so I would not be suprised, however Yamaha does not make a Graded Soft Touch keyboard with 61 keys and I have already ruled out the non-Yamaha keyboard based on quality or price. So there really are no smaller keyboards I would have chosen as an alternative.It is 46-3/8" x 5-3/8" x 16-1/4" and weighs 18 lbsI do not play piano myself (tho I was a musician back in the day), but my wife does and she was impressed with it. There are a TON of options, however all we really need right now is the piano and this keyboard has a very nice "easy" button. It is the only black button on the keyboard. Whatever options you were futzing with, push that button and you are back to a basic piano. Very nice!The GST is not as close to the feel of real piano keys as I had hoped, but I did not really want to spend $500 and up for a "better feel and sound". This is plenty good enough. As it is, you press softly and the keyboard plays softly, you press harder and it plays louder, which is all we really needed.My headphones (Sony MDR-SA1000 DJ Stereo Headphones) already had a 1/4" plug adaptor and via my headphones, it sounds great (not exactly like a grand piano, but close enough).I have not yet tried the USB option, but I shall have to try that out soon.

Okay, so they put the wrong picture in the ad at first. Looks like they've corrected that problem. The other reviewers killed this product, just because it didn't come with the stinking "Survival Kit". They didn't even talk about the actual keyboard. I did a lot of research (as you should do when you buy something online), and knew the "Survival Kit" didn't come with it. Whatever. Other than the AC adaptor, that "Survival Kit" is worthless anyway (I bought it separately. The headphones and pedal suck. Pony up the extra 20 bucks to get a good M-Audio pedal......and some decent headphones, if you need 'em).The bottom line is...you can't beat this product for the money. It's got some great sounds on it! The Rotary Organ and Honky Tonk Piano sound sweeeeeet! Not to mention the awesome Grand Piano sound, strings, orchestra (and over 400 other voices). Plus, tons of effects, drum beats, accompaniments, etc...and a USB port! And it's also got the Yamaha Education Suite that can teach you the basics.We've had it for about a month and are thrilled with it. The only drawback? I wish it had a little more volume. It's plenty loud for practicing around the house...but if you're gonna play with a drummer, you'll definitely need an amp.I will say that this model I am reviewing is the 2011 model (obviously they over-produced). I was able to get mine $50 cheaper than the current model (practically no difference whatsoever...even down to the exact same button configuration and color scheme). I've had no problems at all with mine, thus far. But search around Amazon. If the newer model is the same price (and as of this writing, it is)...I'd get that one.

I purchased this as a replacement for one that was almost identical but twenty five years older and had broken. I'm a novice when it comes to the piano but I've been messing with them for a couple of years now and I'm getting to know a few things about them. This is an electronic keyboard so it comes with a lot of bells and whistles but mine lives on Grand piano. I use the style (drum tracks) to keep me honest. I've been able to compare it to a real nice high dollar electronic keyboard and a number of pianos and I'm going to say this is a real winner. The high dollar keyboard is very nice but as I said "high dollar" 10 times as much. When it comes to real pianos it's more involved. Real pianos are mechanical acoustic beasts and when they are tuned up are the gold standard of musical instruments. The key word here is tuned. That's the biggest issue I've seen with pianos in peoples homes. They are out of tune! If you are learning to play the last thing you want is an out of tune instrument. A child may not know or understand music but they will know when things don't sound right. That's a big advantage for the electronic keyboard, it's always in tune. This keyboard has touch sensitive keys that work real well and they are weighted but not as heavy as any piano I've come across. The bottom line is, if I'm a kid or anyone learning to play, I would love to have this instrument to work with.