Alesis Melody 54 – 54-Key Portable Keyboard

Description

• 54 piano style keys
• 300 instruments and backing tracks
• Built-in speakers
• Layer and split function
• 40 songs included to learn and play along
• 30 months premium subscription to Skoove online lessons
• Includes a music rest and microphone for singing along

Alesis Melody 54 key keyboard review

The Alesis 54 is a very compact keyboard which is aimed at the beginner and children market. It’s a budget keyboard coming in at around £55, which makes this very accessible for all ages, and certainly for someone starting out. For those of you wondering if 54 keys is enough to learn how to play the keyboard, I will discuss this further down. Here’s my review!

Sound

The sound of this keyboard is actually pretty good considering it’s very inexpensive. This isn’t something you would worry too much about at this level, but I was quite surprised. The small speakers to a good job of projecting the volume, much louder than you would think.

As well as the main piano sound I also tested out the other instruments – bass, strings, clarinets, flutes, and so on. The ones I really liked were under the section ‘pads’, and they were really cool. So there are clearly a lot of voices to play around with, and whilst they don’t sound like the real thing they are certainly quite close. Which isn’t bad for something so cheap!

Features

The Alesis Melody 54 clearly should have been called the ‘300’, as it has that amount of both voices and accompaniments. This is a lot to get through, and with my limited time I didn’t get chance to test them all out of course. But I had a lot of fun trying!

The Melody 54 also comes with some really nice additional features – record and playback, layer and split, and intros and endings. Let’s start with the recording feature and why this is important. There are two reasons why you may decide to record your own playing. First of all you may want to listen back to yourself purely for fun. To laugh at your own mistakes or to take pleasure from your awesome playing is what a keyboard is all about. Secondly, if you are taking things a little more seriously you may want to critique your playing so you can keep perfecting a song or exercise.

Layer and split functions are also handy to have. Layering means you can play two instruments at the same time. Fan favourites to try out are pianos and strings, and bass and percussion. But with 300 to choose from you can make up your own sensible and even crazy concoctions. The split function allows you to split the keyboard in half so two people can play at the same time, or you can have two different instruments in each half.

When it comes to playing a keyboard you will take advantage of the intros and endings button. Simply press the button to start a song, and press it again to end the song. The keyboard will do that bit for you whilst you worry about what to play in the middle!

But the features you get with this keyboard don’t end there. You also get a music stand and a microphone, so you can hold X-Factor style competitions with your friends or even a little karaoke session. Or, you can simply sing along to your favourite songs or even write your own.

Finally, you get a 3 month premium subscription to Skoove’s online lessons. So don’t waste that freebie and have a look to see what songs you can learn. Oh, and as for the 54 keys, this is perfectly fine for beginners. You won’t stray any further than that for quite a while yet, so don’t worry.

Price and summary

At around £55 this keyboard is fantastic value for money. Sure, you can spend more and get a better sound, and I wasn’t massively blown away with the keyboards speakers. But I have played keyboard and pianos thousands of pounds, so my ear is accustomed to more realistic sounds. But everything comes down to price, and if you want a better sound then you spend double, triple or even quadruple – it’s as simple as that.

But for anyone out there that wants to buy a keyboard as a gift for their child, a friend, or even for themselves to start learning – then you can’t go wrong with this. It’s very inexpensive and offers everything you need to start your journey. If the 54 keys becomes a problem after a year or two then simply upgrade. Spending £55 on something that lasts a couple of years is a bargain in my book.