In the last several years electric keyboards have become increasingly popular. However, electric keyboards will never completely replace the piano as there are some aspects of an acoustic piano that are impossible to mimick. But electic keyboards have some distinct advantages and features that are very beneficial as well.

When electic keyboards were first developed they sounded cheap, were expensive to build, and generally had only limited capabilities. However, many keyboards now have weighted keys which makes them feel more like a traditional piano and makes them easier to play. Some companies are even offering expensive keyboads that have built in hammers just like a piano so they feel identical, except there are no physical strings in these keyboards and the sound is generated electronically. Another characteristic of keyboards is it typically is difficulte to control the volume as precisely as can be done while playing a piano. But again, improvements are being made in this area and soon there will be virtually no difference.


While many obstacles have been overcome there is one characteristic of acoustic pianos that will never be able to be duplicated. That is the sustain pedal. In a piano the sustain pedal lifts the dampers off of all the strings so that when played each not will continue to sound even when the hand is removed from the keys. But a secondary but still significant result is that all the strings in the piano will reverberate as long as the sustain pedal is held. This works much like a tuning fork. This contribution of the strings from notes that have not even been played significantly alters the tone of an acoustic piano. While electrical keyboards normally have a sustain pedal it can only sustain the tones of the notes that are actually played and has no way of duplicating the tone of an accoustic piano.

But electrical keyboards offer many advantages to accoustic pianos as well. They normally offer many different tones and sounds that can greatly contribute to the music. They also are very good for recording and can be easily mixed with other instruments. In addition, they are almost always much easier to transport than pianos.





Here is a recorded album of Chopin piano music:
http://www.onclassical.com/artists/poli/chopin-i/
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