Yamaha NP12 Piaggero Digital Piano

Description

• Yamaha NP12 keyboard with 61 keys with touch sensitive box shaped keyboard (non-weighted)
• 10 voices which include a stereo grand piano sound
• Transpose function and dual voice
• MIDI in/out connection

Yamaha NP12 Piaggero Digital Piano review

Sound

Yamaha have done a fantastic job of capturing the sound of a grand piano and putting it into something much smaller. The other sounds that you get with the Yamaha NP12 are also great, especially the electric piano.

As a digital piano for a beginner, you cannot go wrong with the sound that you get. You are also able to connect a sustain pedal, so the sound is even more realistic when compared with an acoustic piano.

It may be difficult to believe that something so small, portable and inexpensive can sound great, but have a listen for yourself by watching this vid:

Touch and feel

Although the keys are not properly weighted like the more expensive higher model Yamaha P-45 and above – I still found it nice to play! Someone who’s played the piano for many years may of course prefer to go for a higher model which has weighted keys, but for a beginner this is absolutely fine.

The keys are certainly not the same as a keyboard (which are thin and extremely light), and I would say they are kind of in between a keyboard and a digital piano.

They do have some weight to them and I did like the bounce of the keys. Again, quite surprising to find how nice it played when you considered they are not weighted.

Yamaha have done a great job of including a great sound with a good touch and feel to the keys for something which is between the £100-£200 price range. For so little money, I would be more than happy to recommend this piano to a beginner, and I have already had 2 students purchase one in the last few months.

Price

At around £180 this digital piano is perfect for a beginner and would easily take you up to grade 3-4 with the Associated Board practical examinations.

Most people who start out learning the piano from scratch take, on average, a good year or so to build up to the first grade, and then typically take a year for each grade after that. So you can see that this digital piano has the potential to last for 4-5 years easily before an upgrade would be required.

So if you are on a budget (and aren’t we all!), and you want to see how fun it is to learn the piano before you decide to spend some serious money, then the Yamaha NP12 Piaggero may just be for you.

Adding a stand, stool and sustain pedal will firmly see you set for many years without the need to spend any more. And don’t forget that you would still get a reasonable amount of money for this piano when trading it in if you choose to go for a higher model further down the line.

Yamaha pianos always hold great value, and they do not depreciate like mobile phones or cars do. Someone is always looking to buy a digital piano, which makes this a good investment if you are worried about selling it in the future.

Summary

One of the concepts behind this relatively small and extremely light digital piano is that it is easy to move and store in a room that usually wouldn’t allow a piano to be present. A lot of people struggle when it comes to space for a piano in their home, so this is why the Yamaha NP12 is a great choice.

This is the perfect choice for a beginner who wants to hit the ground running with a piano that provides more than enough to enable a great learning experience, as well as spending a small amount of money.

A piano for £170 just doesn’t seem possible, but having seen and played this numerous times in our local shop, I can confirm it’s more than possible!