Casio Lk-280 61-Lighted Key Touch Sensitive Portable Piano Keyboard

Wow. I own an Ensniq TS10, two Korgs, and a Roland keyboard, but THIS keyboard has the incredible ability to import ANY blues/jazz piano midi file (.mid) you can find on the internet, and play it in "teaching" mode, at your tempo, so you can learn it. For this reason alone, I rated this keyboard 5 stars, even though it was shipped with a loose connection mentioned elsewhere in these reviews. It's a simple fix. Take the time to browse the internet for the best blues piano licks you can find in midi format. If you find it, you can play it. Here's how to use the free MIDI sequencing program Aria Maestosa to format any midi file to light up the Casio LK's learning keys: Use of Aria Maestosa Midi Sequencer for Casio LK-280 “Learning Files” rev 12-20-15 The Casio LK-280's default factory setting is to have the teaching key-light up channel (Navi Channel in the Function menu) set to channel's “3” & “4”. The Navi Channel, selected in Casio's Function menu, is the one that determines which notes show up on the lighted keyboard. Specifically, Navi uses “paired” channels, so when the Navi Channel is set to channel “4”, then channel “4” is paired with channel “3”. It is only the notes present in channel 3 that will light up in the Casio LK for teaching purposes. The Casio will play the notes that are in channel 4, and that are in every other channel, but only notes on channel 3 will light up the keys. So, for each MIDI song you want to learn, use Aria Maestro to ALWAYS isolate the keys to be learned to channel 3. I will explain how below. I always set up 3 midi files for each song I export from Aria Maestrosa, and here's how I name each: First file: 01 LH 3 & 4, in which “01” is my song # (I keep the name short for the Casio's LCD screen), and the LH tells me I've placed the left-hand notes in channel 3. The RH notes are placed in a track that is designated as channel 4 (I'll explain how below). Both hands' sound will be be played, but only LH notes will be lit up for the student to learn. Second file: 01 RH 3 & 4, in which channel 3 contains the RH (right hand) notes and 4 contains the LH notes. RH notes can thus be learned. Third file: 01 Both 3 & 3, in which both LH and RH are in channel 3. The keys for both hands will light up at once. You can learn to play both hands together. Once you've exported these midi files from Aria Maestosa to your PC, you can place them on your Casio's SD card. Make sure you've “formatted” your SD card in the Casio, as formatting creates a required “MUSICDAT” file folder on the SD card. Place your midi files in the MUSICDAT folder for the Casio to read. To set up my 3 midi files for each song using the Aria Maestosa program, open the program and import your midi file of choice by dragging & dropping it from the file folder to the main window in Aria Maestosa. Isolate the TRACKS that have the best LH and RH piano parts that you want to learn. Aria Mestosa has a red button (mute) and a green button (solo) on the track bar of each track. Use "solo" to single out what each track is playing. You may find that both piano parts, left and right hands, are in the same track. In that case you can split the notes below middle C into the LH notes on another TRACK, and those above middle C into still another new track. To set a TRACK's channel in Aria Maestosa, use the main menu bar to choose “Settings”, “Channel Mgmt”, and “Manual”. On the right side of each track bar, a small square box with a CHANNEL number in it will appear next to the the “instrument box”. Click in the box to change the channel of the desired track(s) to channels 3 & 4. Once completed, choose “File”, “Export to MIDI”. NOTE: Any track you mute (small red light in track bar) will NOT be exported to MIDI. Likewise, any track you SOLO (green light in track bar) will be the ONLY track that will export to MIDI. Though it's useful to solo and mute some tracks to isolate the best LH and RH info to put on channel 3, I would suggest that when you prepare to export the MIDI file for use on the Casio LK, you leave no tracks soloed or muted. Run a test of what you've chosen for the left and right hands by playing the files on the Casio LK. If some of the bass notes or treble clef notes are above the Casio LK's range, they can't light up. If this happens, take the file back into Aria Maestosa and move notes as necessary, up (or down) an octave, so they fit the Casio's 61-key keyboard layout. Enjoy! BTW, heres a super MIDI (.mid) Blues file I downloaded, converted, and have the LK-280's keys lighting up instruction for: Do a search on "30 Must Have Piano BluesLicks.mid". It's free, and you'll be amazed. It's not your typical "beginner" piano instructional stuff, it is awesome!

I chose to purchase this particular keyboard as it is designed for beginners or people who haven’t played for a long time. When trying to decide what keyboard to buy, I looked at number of keys, portability, customer reviews, headphone capabilities, the preprogrammed songs, and the lighted key features for learning. This keyboard has fit my needs perfectly. Since I live in an apartment, it is very nice to be able to plug it into headphones to not bother the neighbors. The portability is also a very nice feature when moving around a lot. It doesn’t take up much space, but doesn’t have a large reduction in the number of keys compared to a regular full-sized piano. The learning features are awesome! This keyboard has the capability to practice one hand for a song, while playing the other hand for you, as to not lose the whole sound of the song. There are great options for the preprogrammed songs as well, but you can import your favorites from the internet if you are not satisfied with their wide collection. This keyboard is great for learning and a lot of fun. The lighted keys are not only great for the learning process, but make playing an even more enjoyable experience. I think this would be a great way to keep kids, who don’t always want to practice, excited about learning. As someone who grew up practicing on a full-size piano, I found the transition much easier than I thought I would. For someone who doesn’t have space or money for the full-size piano, this keyboard is a great option!

This keyboard is amazing. Amazon delivered it quickly, packaged well, and the keyboard is a good quality.. This keyboard is phenomenol. It exceeds all my expectations. It's so well designed. For exercises and a large list of songs it guides you on what keys to play (lit up), and which fingers to use. There's settings to watch a demo, to play along to and get hints, and to practice. You can learn chords separate from the right hand keys, then put it together. It teaches you in modules, so you learn small parts at a time. I love it! And I've only used about 3 features of it, there's a lot more I don't know about. The headphones are super cool. They don't fit flat on top of your ear and flatten your ear. They leave a space of air inside the cushion. So it's weird, but you hear the keyboard sounds as tho they are coming from outside the headset. It freaked me out, lol. I kept thinking I didn't have the headset plugged in, because when I wore the headphone the sound so realistically seemed to come from outside the headphones. You gotta try them to see what I mean. For 5 minutes I thought I had it plugged in wrong! :) If Casio comes out with a new model, I hope they also add programming logic to help you learn musical notation and what the notes of the keyboard keys are. Like I said, I'm new to it, and haven't tried many things, but I don't think it teaches you these - I think the idea is to plug the keyboard into a computer to let an application teach and guide you on these aspects. I don't write reviews much, but I had to write this to commend Casio on a super product. You will not be sorry to buy it! :) It's one of the best things I've bought for myself in as long as I can remember. I give it 25 out of 5 stars

I like this keyboard. I decided to take up piano again after having taken it for a year 62 years ago. I can’t believe how much it can do for such a low cost and it sounds pretty much like a real piano. Although I played around with using the built-in lessons, I’ve spent almost all my time going through the lessons in “Piano Book for Adult Beginners” by Damon Ferrante . The keyboard does have a few drawbacks. One is that the music stand is rather pathetic. There was no way to support the book I mentioned. I clipped the book onto a clip board, but even then, it wouldn’t stay on the music stand. I added some rubber feet to the top of the keyboard to keep the clipboard from sliding down, but it was still awkward. I finally broke down and went to a copy center to have the binding cut off and have it spiral bound. It stays on the music stand much better now. Still, the stand’s single wire won’t support my iPad. I may have to use the clipboard for that. Another issue is that it doesn’t seem to have as much dynamic range as a real piano, although I don’t have a piano to give it a fair comparison. It just doesn’t seem like the difference between the softest and loudest notes I can play is very much. It has an adjustment for where the range is centered, but not for how wide it is. At least, I haven’t been able to find such a setting. But, I love having this keyboard. I’ve been practicing for an hour or two a day for almost a month and I’m really enjoying it. Maybe I’ll get good enough to justify buying a good 88-key keyboard someday and I won’t regret the modest investment I made with this one. I think it is an excellent choice for beginners. And, maybe I’ll learn how to use all the built-in features.

I love this keyboard. The light up keys/teaching features are wonderful and go at your own pace so even my 5 year old can play Moonlight Sonata. Good build quality, touch reaponsive keys. The sampling feature was a bit confusing, but fun once I learned how to use. Its great as a MIDI controller in Reaper DAW. Easy to set up, and 61 keys is perfect size for my corner studio space (see photo). The stand that came with the kit is good, though I wish it had the latches that screw in to bottom of keyboard. Will be upgrading stand at some point. The headphones that came in the bundle are trash. Feel like they are made of cardboard. Extremely low quality and uncomfortable. Still was an OK deal for $20 more than the keyboard list price because the First State (think thats the brand) stand is worth around $20 by itself. Picked up a Donner Sustain Pedal for $10 which I highly recommend.

While it took 3 different orders to finally receive the right Casio LK280 keyboard. Firstly, you have to be careful reading the reviews of the Casio keyboards since on the same web page you can choose from various models: the LK175, LK260 or the LK280. When viewing your model of interest, the reviews attached to your selection will unfortunately include the reviews for all 3 models. This seems to be a departure from Amazon's typical model of information. So, if you're not careful, you might be reading a wonderful review of the LK280 when you're thinking it's for the LK260, or a lesser expensive model. This is what happened to me. I ordered the LK260 thinking it had all the attributes I was interested in but they belonged to the Casio LK280. In fairness to Amazon, they did precede each review with the appropriate model number but in very small font. Again, this is a departure from the norm: one product and only reviews pertaining to that product. My LK260 keyboard order arrived safely packed in another protective shipping box but was promptly returned in favor of the LK280. That ordered, however, arrived without a protective shipping box. It was shipped in the manufacturer's 4-color commercial store shelf box. As you'd expect with heavy Christmas orders, the box arrived damaged with a gaping hole in its center. I returned the keyboard but not before contacting Amazon's Customer Care department. I spoke to the rep to register my concern and they investigated the shipping problem and apologized for the inconvenience and promised that my re-order will be packaged correctly (meaning in a protective shipping box, like they did with the model LK260 keyboard. After all, keyboards are a sensitive instrument). Unfortunately, my replacement LK280 keyboard arrived again without an outside protective box. However, no visible shipping damage to the container was evident this time. I unboxed the instrument and inspected it. No apparent damage was noted. I set it up, plugged it in and played it. The sound and feel of the keyboard was exceptional. I highly recommend it. I purchased the unit for my wife who wants to learn to play the piano and with keyboard lights, this one is a no brainer. This model has many tones (600 to be exact), lots of rhythm modes and built-in songs, plus a 6 track recorder. How cool is that? At this price of $200.00, it's a steal! Especially when you search around the internet, you'll find this model selling for $400.00!! Now if Amazon could get its packaging problem straightened out, great. Otherwise, it might be a hit and miss game. Good luck.

I only had a day but it seems real good. Only thing I didn't like was the kind of generic display that was not backlit. I knew when I ordered it though. A whole lot of stuff on it. Haven't seen any whole song but I think there might be 1 or 2. But you can hook up SD card on it with songs. USB, pedal, mic and head jack. learned twinkle, twinkle real quick. any other song probably take me a year but lit keys is main reason I got it. I wanted Yamaha because they were a lot cheaper but they seemed real generic. There were reviews that said keyboard stand and headphones are crap but stand is very strong and it is easy to put together. Screws are not in package but in holes already. Bolt wrench and allen wrench included. Just tighten everything and put together right or it may be wobbly. Headphones look real good, just cheap looking plastic. Adapter for headphones included. Don't think they would stand up to child because of jerking wires from headphones. I have done it too. I haven't messed with it much but there are a lot of videos out there. Have fun...

So. First things first let me tell you why I'm knocking 2 stars off. The headphones? I expected them to be low quality. What I didnt expect is you literally cannot use them with this keyboard. They do not plug in all the way to the audio output jack because of the way they're made. So no matter what you do, the keyboard plays out loud and you can't practice privately without buying a whole new set of headphones. To some of you I'm sure this isnt a big deal but to me this IS a big deal. I expect the items that come in a bundle to at least be COMPATIBLE with each other. The keyboard itself is great for a beginner, sounds good, easy to learn, many many many sounds. Seller needs to replace the headphones in the bundle. Happy with the keyboard, angry about the carelessness.

The piano is great. I researched a large amount of pianos that lit up for beginners. This was the cheapest without sacraficing brannd and quality. However the limited songs that are available that it teaches you defeats the purpose of learning any song you want.

Love it I got it for my wife but I've been on it for an 1.5hr and of swear it felt like 30mins... Going thru all the songs and trying to memorize them is really fun! The keys are solid like a real piano feel, the headphones are actually pretty decent for what u need them for! All in all i love highly recommend however my skill set is completely Newb! So im sure Mozart would scoff at this....or maybe he would be simply amazed by how great it sounds coming from a small and portable keyboard?!? But i digress...ha

Excelente piano para empezar a aprender a tocarlo funcional,

Easy to set up. Little window is hard to see. I would recommend.

De muy buena calidad, buen precio más aún con las facilidades de pago No he tenido ningún problema Cumplió mis expectativas