But, at the same time, nothing is quite like a real piano. The feel of playing one, the sound – hundreds of years of development have combined to bring the sound and feel to its current state and, when it all comes together, there is nothing quite like it.

But that comes at a price. Did I mention tuning? Action tuneups?

So was developed the keyboard – and the keyboard feels like a keyboard – the action is wrong. And it does not have the rich sound of a piano.

So we arrived at the electric piano. Early electric pianos were neither fish nor foul – they were partially mechanical devices that still needed to be mechanically tuned. The actions were more or less horrible. The sound was that of an electric piano, not a real piano.

The Yamaha sounds like a piano – within the limitations of its speakers. Its action? Better than some real pianos and much less likely to need an action tuneup.

And all the benefits that you can get from modern electronics. Full DSP so that you can get simulated concert hall acoustics if you want.

This is an amazing item. It comes with 30 songs programmed into it, and 70 more on an included CD – and if you are inclined to learn them, it can teach them to you. More music can be downloaded using the software provided and your computer can load them into the piano or you can use a thumb drive to move them. You can learn the left and right hand parts separately. It will show you the music, and the corresponding piano keys that you need to press on the little display. You can start slow – and it will wait, patiently, until you find and press the correct key.

(For Christmas I downloaded a number of Christmas Carols in Standard Midi Format – put them on a USB thumb drive and then plugged the thumb drive into the piano – it was able to play all of them as a midi player – and, for at least some of them, it could teach them to you – I believe that it may be a matter of determining how to select the right ans left hand parts, which I have not managed to do yet – the instructions are not simple. But it worked instantly as a player piano).

At the same time it accompanies you, or not, as you choose.

I first tried this piano in a store – it was lined up with a bunch of other electrics and it had the best action of any of them – the action was clearly the most piano like – in fact, I thought that it had a better feel than some of the real pianos, in terms of consistency and smoothness while still being weighted properly.

The triple pedal attachment gives you a soft pedal, a full sustain, and a left hand sustain, just as the better pianos do (this is an option which I recommend).

The ONLY downside, in my opinion, is the size of the display. It is actually rather tiny, and, as far as I can tell, there is no way to attach an external display.

In my opinion, the controls are reasonably intuitive. And there is one button that you can press which says, “get out of my way and just be a piano”.

This is the home piano of the present – frankly, while you need real pianos in concert halls, and even in piano bars, this is what you want in your home – for the kids to play and learn piano on, to plink Christmas carols out on, and to play yourself. Record your music. We need music.

This is the piano of the apartment dweller – because it has a volume control, and a headphone jack. And it can be moved up and down the steps.

I’m not a piano expert. I’m surprising my wife with one of these for Christmas, though. I think she will be really happy with it.

I strongly recommend the optional pedal assembly. The keyboard comes with a portable keyboard style pedal that does sustain, but the triple pedal assembly has a piano pedal feel, and has soft, full sustain, and sostenudo, (which means, in this context, that it will sustain keys you are holding as you press the pedal, but not those that you press after you press the pedal). It takes a few minutes to install, and precisely fits the stand that comes with the keyboard.

We bought this keyboard so that a parent could play along with our kid during practice. We have an upright piano with above-average projection (i.e., loudness). The YPG-635 isn’t as loud as our acoustic upright even at maximum volume, so we find ourselves playing with the volume set to max most of the time.

Most people probably won’t find this a limitation, but if you want to perform for a small group with this keyboard, you may want external amplification.

BTW, this keyboard appears to be identical to the DGX-630, so buy whichever is less expensive.