Roland GO:PIANO 61P Digital Piano

Description

• 61 keys – full size piano keys with expressive touch response
• 10 unique piano sounds
• 14 electric organ and electric piano sounds
• Free 3 months subscription to Skoove
• Unlimited songs and lessons free to stream from your smartphone
• Portable and lightweight – suitable for any room in the home
• Includes music rest
• Mains and battery powered – play anywhere
• Headphone connection
• Features include – metronome, transpose, and record and playback
• Built-in speakers

Roland GO:PIANO 61P digital piano review

Check out my review below of the Roland GO:PIANO 61P digital piano!

Digital pianos are extremely popular nowadays, and for three main reasons. The first is that a digital piano is far easier to ship and assemble in the home. The delivery costs involved with transporting an acoustic upright or baby/grand piano are high, and the weight of them requires numerous people to move them. An acoustic piano has to stay downstairs which also limits your space and flexibility. Then there’s the cost to tune 3-4 times a year which can be a pain, especially when you’re waiting for it to be done. So maintenance in general is an on-going cost if you want to keep your piano sounding fresh.

Lastly, in my opinion you get a better sound for your money with a digital piano. The Roland GO:PIANO 61P is only £230, and it would be impossible to find an acoustic piano for that price, unless it was on its last legs! New acoustic pianos typically go for thousands of pounds, which instantly puts a lot of people off wanting to learn. So if you don’t have money to burn like most of us and you want to start learning to play the piano, then a digital piano is your only option – and a great one too!

This leads us on to Roland GO:PIANO 61P which is a lightweight and compact digital piano designed for the home and to fit in any room. Read on to find out what I thought!

Sound

Roland have their own unique sound, and I would easily be able to pick one out from other makes, like Yamaha and Casio. For some this is a bad thing, but for me it’s all good. I really like what Roland do with their piano sound, and I like the uniqueness and the variety you get. Yamaha always go for the perfect, traditional concert grand piano sound, which is of course fantastic. But Roland pianos always sound a little different – but in a good way. I can’t quite put my finger on what it is, but it clearly stands out and creates a different choice for the piano enthusiast.

The Roland GO:PIANO 61P doesn’t break the mold and continues with that tradition. This digital piano only has 61 keys, but I found that not a problem even though I’ve been playing for years. That’s not to say that I would choose to save money and buy a 61 key piano, as I would always choose 88. But what it does mean is that anyone playing from scratch or to a very good standard can easily accept 61 keys and find no problems at all.

The sound is good – not great, but good. Which is exactly what you would expect and want from a £200 digital piano. Anything around this price range offers you exactly what you need to get started. You may want to consider an upgrade if you progress through the exam grades, but you will certainly be good for quite a few years.

The main piano sound is usually the best, but you also get mellow pianos, bright pianos, and so on. You may like to use these from time to time depending on the style of the song, so you have a lot of versatility. The bass sounds good and I especially liked the top half of the piano for the bright and rich sound. I would recommend watching this video below to see what you think – but I think you will be pleasantly surprised!

Touch and feel

The 61 keys are meant to be the same size as a real piano. Although I thought they were maybe a couple of millimetres smaller. It could be just a placebo because this thing looks so small (which is the idea). It isn’t anything that bothered me when playing that’s for sure!

The keys are semi-weighted. So not as heavy as a real weighted action you’d find on a more expensive digital piano or real one. Again, this comes down to personal choice really. If you are a beginner looking to get started then you wouldn’t have anything to compare it too. An advanced player would maybe not consider this anyway. But it would still be a great idea to have one if you are on the road a lot and wanted to keep up the practice.

The keys are very responsive and of course of touch sensitivity. This means that they play as loud as you want to hit them. Overall, the touch and feel of this piano was very good, and although I would personally prefer more weight I can see how this would actually be more attractive to a beginner who could struggle with the heavier standard keys you find on a real piano.

Features

The organ and clavi sounds stand out for me, and if you’ve watched the video you can see how fun it is to play around with these other voices. You can play slide organ, bounce around like Stevie Wonder on a clavi, or choose a harpsichord sound and play like Bach!

Not only do you get a lot of extra sounds, you also get a metronome, a transpose function, and also recording and playback options. There is so much packed into this small and lightweight digital piano!

You also get free 3 months subscription to Skoove’s online lessons. So if you are starting from scratch and want to find some inspiration to learn, this is a great place to start. You will likely want to continue the subscription once you realise how well you can play within a few months – practice makes perfect!

The Roland GO:PIANO 61P is very cheap for a brand new digital piano. Whilst it doesn’t offer the full 88 keys you will still be get many years of play with 61. There aren’t many songs that need to go that far. So it isn’t a huge problem until you get to a certain level.

If you have a small apartment or find it difficult to carry a full 88 note piano around, then this digital piano could be your only option. It’s great that Roland have decided to target this market and allow anyone to enter it.

The Roland GO:PIANO 61P will obviously plug into the mains. But you can also slot batteries in and take it wherever you want. So you can busk in the summer sun! Or you can take it on holiday and entertain (or annoy) your family. The kids can also take it school or piano lessons if they want to learn on their own instrument. You can also easily move it around the house to play wherever you like!

Headphone connection makes it easier to practice if you don’t want to be disturbed, or if anyone else in the house or your next door neighbour wants peace and quiet. It’s much more motivational to practice if you know you can have the piano in any room you want and play when you want with headphones.

Price and summary

The Roland GO:PIANO 61P is very cheap for a brand new digital piano. Whilst it doesn’t offer the full 88 keys you will still be get many years of play with 61. There aren’t many songs that need to go that far. So it isn’t a huge problem until you get to a certain level. If you have a small apartment or find it difficult to carry a full 88 note piano around, then this digital piano could be your only option. So it’s great that Roland have decided to target this market and allow anyone to enter it.

The price is just right for me – not expensive but not too cheap. I would recommend this to a beginner as it’s a great place to start. Not just because of the price, but also because of what it offers. The piano sound is very realistic and the touch is good. You have enough keys for quite a few years, and it is very lightweight and can be played and put just about anywhere in the home.

The Roland GO:PIANO 61P has a bigger brother – the Roland GO:PIANO 88P. Click on the link to check it out!