If you only buy one practice surface for rudiments, get the Evans RealFeel 12 inch two-sided pad. Its natural gum rubber side returns a realistic, slightly springy rebound that transfers to a real snare, and the harder recycled rubber side underneath gives you less bounce for the slow, heavy double-stroke work that builds endurance. The … Read more
A cajon is a hollow wooden box drum you sit on and strike with your hands, and the name people use most for it is simply the box drum. For acoustic gigs it is the fastest rhythm section you can carry: one person plays kick and snare, it fits in a car, and it sets … Read more
The Meinl Percussion Headliner HDJ3-M is the best djembe for most drum circles, and the reason is simple: a 10-inch head on a carved mahogany shell gives you deep bass, bright slaps and a pre-stretched rope system that survives being handed to a dozen different hands in one evening. At about 9 pounds it stays … Read more
A weighted 88-key stage piano is not a keyboard in the true sense. It is a 20 to 34 kilo instrument with a cast-iron frame inside, and the stand carrying it is the only thing between a full cabinet and the floorboards. Yet the best keyboard stands for heavy stage pianos get picked the way … Read more
A sustain pedal is the one accessory that turns a digital piano from a keyboard into an instrument. Without it, chords die the instant your fingers leave the keys and legato passages turn into a series of disconnected stabs. With it, the sound behaves the way an acoustic behaves, which is why choosing well among … Read more
Spend an hour at a digital piano on the wrong bench and your shoulders will tell you about it long before your fingers do. Most back complaints at the keyboard start with a seat that sits too low, too high, or too far forward of the keys. We spent weeks with eight of the most … Read more
Choosing the best portable keyboards for kids sounds simple until you realize how many of them are built to survive a birthday party rather than a year of piano lessons. We spent weeks with ten of the most popular models, weighing them, pressing on keys, dragging them across rooms and watching what happens when a … Read more
The best weighted keyboard for classical students is the Yamaha P-71. Its 88-note graded hammer action gives you the full Bach invention range, a proper sustain pedal, and a key weight close enough to an upright that moving to a real piano later feels familiar instead of strange. If your child is under ten or … Read more
If your church runs a worship team with more than one keyboard player, the instrument you pick decides whether Sunday goes smoothly or whether somebody is hunting for the right patch five minutes before the song starts. We spent the last few months working through full-range boards, testing key feel against real worship material, and … Read more
The Alesis Recital is our pick for the best digital pianos under 1000, because it gives you a full 88-key board at 15.7 pounds with lesson subscriptions already in the box, and it is the most heavily reviewed instrument in the group. We spent weeks playing the ten models below in home rooms, apartments and … Read more