Yamaha P45 Digital Piano Review
We rated the Yamaha P45 a 9/10. This portable digital piano is an excellent starter instrument that many private music teachers recommend. The resistance of the P45 sets up students for success later down the line. The demo songs, along with dual and duo mode, add to this instruments educational value. We took off just one point, because this keyboard has a small sound bank, and doesn’t have a record feature.
$500.00
We rated the Yamaha P45 a 9/10. This portable digital piano is an excellent starter instrument that many private music teachers recommend. The resistance of the P45 sets up students for success later down the line. The demo songs, along with dual and duo mode, add to this instruments educational value. We took off just one point, because this keyboard has a small sound bank, and doesn’t have a record feature.
Overview
If you’re looking for a good full-size weighted keyboard with a quality sound and feel for an affordable price, check out the Yamaha P45 piano. I often recommend this piano to my piano students as a really good piano to start with – and continue with. While it might seem like a better deal to get a less expensive option to begin with, you’re likely going to need to upgrade within six to twelve months. Meanwhile, you’ve spent money on a piano that’s likely got less than 88 keys and had no resistance when you press the keys, which doesn’t feel like a real piano.
When you’re starting to learn the piano, it’s very important to play on a piano that has some resistance and also a pleasant sounding and realistic piano sound. Many 61 key pianos have no resistance and a very electronic sound. So although it means investing more from the outset, it can encourage piano practice because it’s nicer to play. It will also encourage better technique from the start.
Keyboard
The Yamaha P45 is a full 88-key keyboard. The keys are full weighted and GHS (Graded Hammer Standard) which means that the higher the notes are, the easier they are to play and the lower you play, the harder you have to press, which imitates a good acoustic grand piano. The keys are also “touch sensitive” meaning that it’s easy to play softly or loud depending on how hard you press the keys. The amount of touch sensitivity is adjustable to soft, medium, hard or “fixed” which means off.
The black notes are matt to make them easier to play and minimize finger slips. The white keys are normal shiny ones but as they are wider than the black keys, it’s not a problem.
The design is sleek, contemporary and compact. This model only comes in black, but it looks good. There are very few buttons on the front panel and functions are accessed using the “Function” button in combination with the appropriate key on the piano.
Foot pedal
Note that this keyboard comes with a “footswitch” pedal. This plugs into the “sustain” jack and when pressed, sustains the sound as long as you keep the pedal down. The type of footswitch supplied is a bit noisy and awkward to use, often sliding around and sometimes flipping over.
Consider buying a separate foot pedal that looks more like a real piano pedal and has some weight to it so that it stays put. But note that beginners don’t have to use a pedal immediately, but will eventually. Intermediate players and above will need a pedal and it’s well worth investing in a better one than the one that comes with the P45.
Portability
Weighing in at 25lbs, the P45 is light enough to move around or take it to gigs, but heavy enough that it will stay put once set up. Note that this keyboard does not come with a stand. However there is an “H” stand (the L-85), sold separately, which is designed to fit the keyboard perfectly and keep it solidly in place. Alternatively you can use an “X” stand which is useful if you’re planning to take the keyboard on gigs as it folds up in a few seconds. If you are going to be traveling with this keyboard, invest in a good, well-padded bag for transporting it. There are several on the market that will fit.
Sound
The Yamaha P45 has ten built-in voices. Two pianos – Concert and Bright – two electric pianos, two pipe organs, two harpsichords, strings and vibraphone. The main piano sound is a very good sampled acoustic grand sound.
Yamaha uses a technology known as AWM digital sampling to create their piano sounds. It samples different depths of sound and layers them to create the most realistic sound meaning you can get more nuance with dynamics than on many electronic pianos.
Although you may be tempted to look for a keyboard with hundreds of different sounds to choose from, keep in mind that for any serious piano student, a good piano sound is far more important than sound effects. Also, keyboards with hundreds of sounds usually have a handful that are valuable beyond being a bit of fun that soon wears off.
The sound comes out of the on-board speakers which are a decent 6W each with high quality sound. Plenty for a living room. If you need a bigger sound for playing in a band or function room, you can easily connect an auxiliary amplifier.
Features
Demo songs
Each of the ten voices (instruments) comes with a demo song so you can hear it in action. These are all original songs with the exception of the two harpsichords which have demo songs by Bach. In addition, there are ten well-known songs that you can listen to for pleasure. Most of these are classical songs, such as Beethoven’s Fur Elise and Mozart’s Turkish March, but there is also Joplin’s Entertainer Ragtime. You can also change the speed of playback so if you want to learn to play the song, you can slow it down while you learn it.
Dual mode
Dual mode allows you to layer two sounds across the keyboard. For instance, you might want to combine strings with a piano sound for a ballad or emotional piano piece.
Duo mode
This divides the keyboard into two halves, each with the same exact tones. This can be useful for teacher and student situations where the teacher wants to demonstrate and have the student copy. Normally the student would hear the tones in a different octave, which can be confusing. Using duo mode allows the student to hear the exact same tone as the teacher. It could also be used for duets when both pianists want to play the same sounding octave. It does, however, limit the range of notes available.
Metronome
Yamaha P45 comes with a built-in metronome which makes it easy to practice keeping time. Although it’s not the easiest metronome to use. It involves holding down the function key and pressing the E3 key to start the metronome. To change the speed, press the function key and the notes F3 – D4 to select a speed between 32 and 280. The default is 120. The owners manual explains in detail how to do this and with some practice, it becomes easy enough.
Normally a metronome will have a strong down beat and you’ll be able to select a time signature, however on the P45 it’s a little bit different. To get a strong downbeat, while holding down the function button, use the E or F key to type in the value you want. Once you’ve set a time you’ll get a bell on the downbeat. The default is no downbeat.
Transpose
Yamaha P45 has a transpose function which allows you to tune the piano higher or lower by semitone increments. This can be useful if you don’t want to transpose sheet music at sight. If you were accompanying a singer who needs the key to be lowered, you could just transpose the keyboard as a whole and continue to play the same physical notes.
Fine Tuning
On the Yamaha P45 you can fine-tune your keyboard to get it in tune with another instrument that can’t be fine tuned. For instance, when I’m teaching a student online and their acoustic piano is about a quarter of a tone flat, I can fine-tune my piano just for that lesson so that it’s not so hard on our ears!
Specifications
- 88 fully weighted, graded hammer action, touch sensitive keyboard.
- 10 voices
- AWM Stereo Sampling
- 6W X 6W speakers
- 64 polyphony
- 25lbs 6oz weight
- USB to Host, Sustain pedal jack, Headphone jack.
Who Is It Suitable For?
Beginners
Yamaha P45 is a great keyboard for any beginner, child or adult. To start off learning on a keyboard that’s weighted and sounds good is a benefit over starting off on a small, toy-like keyboard. Although it doesn’t have a huge range of different voices to select from, there are enough to keep things interesting.
It’s a shame that this otherwise excellent keyboard doesn’t have recording capability built in. However, you can connect to a computer and record onto music software, or connect a phone or tablet and record onto there. Failing that, you could just record the sound coming out of the speakers into a phone or tablet sitting nearby for rough recordings.
For beginners, it’s a really good idea to record and listen back as you’ll learn a lot from listening to yourself. It’s amazing what we don’t hear when we are playing live. Often our brains trick us into believing we’re doing much better than we are – but sometimes we’re doing better than we thought! It’s worth a try.
Intermediate pianists
This is also an excellent keyboard for intermediate pianists. For a student who is serious about learning the piano, it can be a good thing not to have too many buttons on the piano! The solid feel of the keys and quality of sound would certainly suffice for practicing late at night with headphones.
A student of piano who is interested in creating music wouldn’t get much creative inspiration from this keyboard, but they could certainly use it as a MIDI controller connected to their computer for music creation.
Experienced and serious pianists
It’s unlikely an advanced pianist would be happy with this as their only piano, however, this may well suffice as an emergency practice piano. Its portability might make it useful to travel with or for certain performance situations. However, it would not make the cut for a solo performance of classical music.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- 88 fully weighted, graded hammer action, touch sensitive keys
- AWM sampling gives realistic piano sound
- Very portable at 25lbs
- Long lasting first piano for the beginner to intermediate pianist
Cons
- Only ten instrument sounds can be a drawback for some
- No built-in recording capability
- Limited buttons makes selecting functions a bit clumsy
Quick View
Keys | 88 fully weighted, graded hammer action keys |
Touch sensitivity | Touch sensitive – adjustable to 3 levels and off |
Sounds | 10 – 2 pianos, 2 electric pianos, 2 organs, 2 harpsichords, strings and vibraphone. |
Recording capabilities | No on-board recording capability. But use USB to connect phone or tablet. |
Metronome | Built-in metronome |
Polyphony | 64 notes can be played/sustained at once |
Speakers | Built-in speakers 6W X 6W |
Headphones | 1 headphone jack |
Accessories | Power cable (not always included – check with your retailer) music rest, footswitch. |
Price point | $500 |
Weight and Dimensions | 25lbs 6oz
52 X 11 X 6 |
Conclusion
For beginner and intermediate piano students the keyboard on this piano is excellent. The sound generated from the onboard speakers is very impressive for a keyboard in this price range and the available voices or instruments you can select, although limited in number, are excellent in sound quality.
The Yamaha P45 digital piano is very well made to give years of service and even take the beating some kids might give it! As long as you set it up securely – either with the optional H stand or with an X stand standing against a wall so it can’t slide around – it should give many years of happy practice.
Being a well-trusted name in keyboards, Yamaha are a really good manufacturer to look at when you’re looking for a digital piano. The fact that it has good built-in speakers as well as high quality headphone output for quiet practice makes it great for a busy household. Adults who like to play late at night will find this a good piano for apartment living. Keyboardists who need to take a piano to gigs will like the portability of this one. It has a lot going for it.
The fact that this keyboard is one of the most sold and highly rated speaks for itself. As long as you don’t need built-in recording capability or a bigger selection of built-in instruments, this is an excellent choice at this price point.
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