Yamaha P71 Digital Piano with Sustain Pedal and Power Supply (88 Keys)

I have played piano for 18 years now and recently moved into my own place. I desperately missed having a piano to play on a daily basis, but I do not have the space for a real piano. I did a SIGNIFICANT amount of research before settling on this Yamaha digital piano, because I wanted a high quality instrument that also did not hugely break the bank. As a professional musician, here is why I decided on the P71:-The weighted keys on this instrument truly feel like the real thing. I’ve played on “plasticy” keyboards before and nothing is more unsatisfying if you’ve played on a real instrument throughout your life. The P71 feels just as genuine as playing a real piano. In fact, depending on piano brand, it feels smoother. The touch sensitivity is wonderful as well, and also adjustable to your liking!-The sound is beautiful with a large volume range. I especially love the way the bass rings out with a gorgeous fullness. The higher octaves seem to be a little thinner, but that’s to be expected since it’s up the keyboard.-There is so much variety on this instrument to play with! There are many customizable options on this piano and I haven’t even dived into everything it can do yet. Sound changes, sound combinations, sensitivity adjustments, tempo adjustments, etc etc etc. I love having the ability to experiment and find what I like for any given piece of music! However, I also liked the simplicity of the customizations; Sometimes, less is more with the amount of buttons and gadgets.-Weight and travel. This piano isn’t “light” per say, but it’s not insanely heavy or difficult to travel with either. It’s a full 88-key size, but I can easily pick it up on my own (unlike some other digital piano brands). I was able to load this piano up into the back seat of my Honda Civic for a gig along with the stand and bench I bought separate. I was able to load all my gear onto one hotel cart and make it up to the rooftop bar in a single trip. Super convenient for me and the staff, since I didn’t have to bother them with setup assistance.-Price. If I truly wanted to, I could’ve shelled out the cash to get a fancier digital piano. However, I felt confident that I would get almost the same experience with this one as well as the convenience factor of being able to travel and gig with it. You can pay more, but you’re most likely sacrificing the ability to leave your home with it without extra arrangements (because at that point you’re paying for something like a Clavinova, for example). I also appreciated the fact that I could set up a short-term payment plan with Amazon to afford this instrument. I am paying 80 bucks a month for 5 months and it’s mine to love on forever. If I did that with a more expensive digital piano, I’d be locked down for a solid year or more.-Brand. Yamaha is a reputable brand in the music world and I trust their products. My professional model flute is a Yamaha (approx. $4000), and it plays better than some of the $8000 flutes I played on while selecting which instrument I would purchase in college. Yamaha=quality and I trust their pianos just as much as their other instruments.Overall, this is among one of the best musical purchases I’ve made for myself. My piano is my self-care as well as a part of my profession, and I enjoy this instrument on a daily basis. You won’t regret it!UPDATE, 8/3/2021: I’ve had this digital piano for almost two years now and I still love it SO much. I continue to play regularly and the quality is exactly the same as the day I bought it. This Yamaha is a winner!UPDATE TWO, 11/22/2023: My beautiful Yamaha P71 is still going strong as ever. I lug this keyboard around for every big band gig I play, and it’s a staple in my music room at home. It continues to perform perfectly for me and has been consistent and reliable over the past four years.UPDATE THREE, 7/16/2025: Approaching six years with this instrument. My P71 is lovingly dinged up in some places from dragging it along to gigs, but it continues to play as beautifully and reliably as ever. It has survived bangs on my car door while loading it, hot temperatures during long outdoor jazz concerts, and MANY hundreds of hours of play time. I have continued to point people to this specific keyboard when asked for an instrument recommendation, and many folks have bought the P71 at my referral and loved it equally. Looking forward to more years with mine!

Purchased primarily for my wife, who has always wanted to learn to play, and secondarily for me to use as a midi controller for virtual instruments in my recordings.First thing that struck me was how big it actually is. Not just the length, which is of course the same as a full size piano, but the height, which I suppose has to accommodate the weighted action. Had to raise my chair a bit to sit in front of it comfortably! If you're purchasing this as a portable keyboard, you'll find it solid and durable but maybe just a bit weighty and cumbersome.Feels and sounds admirably close to a real piano (to me, I'm sure an experienced pro could find more difference). The piano, organ, and harpsichord sounds are lovely. The first electric piano is pretty good, although I would have preferred more of a classic Rhodes sound, and the second piano is probably good if you like that 80s FM piano sound (I had more than enough of it in the 80s!). I also would have loved a good Hammond sound built in, but I'll get that and the Rhodes from plugins anyway so no worries. I can't see getting a lot of use from the vibes, but they're fun to have.Yamaha made it super easy to use, basically hit a button and a key to change anything. Most of these functions are clearly labeled, although some of the less 'daily' functions aren't (transpose, etc), so keep the manual handy. The dual split is fun for my wife and I to play at the same time, so I can give her basic chords and patterns to improvise over and increase her skills.I understand others' criticisms of the sounds of the very high end octaves and am considering buying the stand to solve this and the height issues. The sustain pedal is a bit light and you may struggle a bit keeping it right where you want it. Other than that, we're super happy with the purchase, and would highly recommend the P71 to a beginner or anyone wishing to take the next step up from a smaller and/or 'synth action' keyboard.

I am a beginner/intermediate player who hasn't been able to play on a "real" piano since COVID shut everything down and my piano lessons had to start through Zoom haha. I originally had just a simple touch sensitive keyboard from Casio to practice on as it was very cheap and seemed good enough for just keeping my skills up at home. I found that I immediately missed the feeling of playing on real weighted keys however so I found myself doing extensive research for affordable keyboards that a) could fit in a small apartment and b) had the feel of an actual piano. I am so glad I stumbled upon this. Reading all of the glowing reviews had me sold, but I was still wary because of the negative ones. So, with my fingers crossed, I lucked out and ended up purchasing a used - like new model that Amazon Warehouse had for sale to save a bit more cash.Let me just say, I LOVE this keyboard. I did have to play around with the settings to get it just right, but the touch sensitivity and the WEIGHT is NICE. It has a pretty slim profile since there's not that many keyboard features but it has all of the necessities and again, it feels GOOD to play on. The sound is great - maybe more on the quiet side but that's fine for me since I live in an apartment anyways. Everything seems to work as it should and I'm just so happy I get to feel like I'm playing on a "real" piano again!I highly recommend this keyboard to those who have a smaller budget for a nice practice piano. While the casio keyboard was about half the normal price of this, I honestly got what I paid for and wish that I had found this first!

I'm a classically trained amateur pianist. After years of being without my acoustic upright, I bought the P71. It lived up to my expectations of a weighted digital keyboard made by Yamaha. Yamaha's reputation for putting out quality musical instruments is still intact for me. It doesn't feel like a Steinway acoustic piano (my dream piano) but I can recommend it as an excellent starter for beginners. I think it will serve you well until you can get a good acoustic piano.I had no trouble playing for example, the third (rondo) movement of Beethoven's Sonata 14 (AKA moonlight Sonata), a very fast (Presto Agitato) piece that would have been difficult if not impossible with some cheaper weighted electronic keyboards I've tried. The same goes for Mozart's Rondo Alla Turca, the rondo from Beethoven's pathetique sonata (Op 13) and Schubert's Piano Sonata No. 20 In A Major, D.959 - IV. Rondo (Allegretto).I think that it's essentially equivalent to the Yamaha P45 so if you find that acceptable you should also find the P71 acceptable. Please don't take some poor salesman's time at a brick and mortar store only to buy the P71 online. Because IMHO that's essentially stealing time.There are less expensive keyboards and in my experience they were completely inadequate for intermediate and advanced pieces of music. If you're a parent buying a digital piano for your child to learn on, buy this one or better if you can afford it, otherwise you risk having to buy a new one in a couple of years when the keyboard action is too slow.I gave it perfect over all rating even though I found the travel of the keys to be a bit far, the experience taught me why I found a Steinway easier to play. But I think that it would be years (if ever) before anyone would have an issue with this. By then, they should be able to get an instrument that suits them better.At a bargain price, I found it to be as good as I could expect from an electronic instrument.Addendum to my March 8, 2022 review:November 2, 2023I still stand by my earlier evaluation as the P-71 being an excellent beginner keyboard.There appears to be a significant flaw that serious musicians should know about. The P-71 communicates with a digital audio workstation (DAW) without issue. I've done it with Fairlight (the DAW in the Davinci Resolve video editor), Ableton Live and Cubase. I also used it with Native instruments stand alone software.I noticed that it was strangely less expressive when using it with a DAW. Pressing harder on the keys did not make it go louder as it did when playing the P-71 by it's self. This ability to communicate playing loud and soft on a musical instrument digital interface (MIDI) is known as velocity sensitivity. This makes sense as an acoustic piano is a percussion instrument on account of the strings being struck by a hammer linked to the keys. When you swing that hammer faster the note is louder.This velocity is communicated to a MIDI as a number that ranges from 0-127. Further investigation revealed that compared to another digital keyboard. What should have been a strong fortissimo (ff in musical notation) only got a velocity number of 70 while another keyboard gave a velocity of 100 for a comparable pressure, a more reasonable result. In Steinberg's Cubase I could mitigate this problem by adjusting the Midi modifier comp to 150%. Steinberg is owned by Yamaha.It is disappointing the company the made the KX88 back in the 80s would have a midi response that is problematic like this.This strikes me as something Yamaha could fix with a firmware update. Failing that I wish I could open up the P-71 and possibly adjusting a potentiometer (that's essentially a variable resistor). As an engineer who has worked on electronics I would be open to fixing it myself.It is still useful as a MIDI controller and I plan on using it for that purpose for a while until I'm ready to get something better. I would have to suggest trying a different product if your primary goal is to control other electronic or virtual instruments. However, at this price point adjusting a MIDI modifier like compression to around 130% may suffice. You'll have to experiment for yourself.It's still great as a stand alone entry level digital piano.

Absolutely love this keyboard. I’m just a beginner, but the sound is amazing.