This guide is just a general overview of the type of keyboard and features you can expect for your money and is not a recomendation or otherwise of any keyboard.

£50 to £200 At the bottom end of this price range you will only find toys, possibly with miniature keys suitable only for very young children to play with. At the higher end of this price range there are some quite reasonable keyboards for beginners but you have to be careful about the features they offer. Keyboards with many demo songs, "DJ" functions or electronic "Lessons" with lights to show you where to put your fingers are things that you may tire of easily. Keyboards with these features often have them at the expense of other more useful things but they do have their uses:-

If you cannot find a teacher, the on board lessons may help - a little.

Lights and demo songs are great for encouraging a young child's interest. Later on, you can upgrade to a larger keyboard and arrange for some lessons.

£200 to £500 An ideal price range for both children and adults who wish to learn to play. Keyboards within this price range will mostly have good quality sound and most will offer a wide range of useful features (several will have a memory stick slot or disk drive and song memory).

£500 to £1000 In this price range, you can expect very good quality sound and many good features. A memory stick slot or disk drive is to be expected as well as a sequencer (a very flexible on board recording system). Some models can offer so many features that a beginner will become confused. If you are in any doubt, go for a keyboard which offers superior sound quality above extra features.

Above £1000 Superb sound quality and features are to be expected. Many keyboards in this price range offer many hundreds (even thousands) of sounds and rhythms as well as the ability to create your own sounds or download them from the internet. A memory stick slot and/or hard drive is to be expected as well as a sequencer (a very flexible on board recording system).

Please note -

A few keyboards in this range offer a ridiculous array of features which either can confuse you and constantly get in your way or - you will never use or want to because they are so complicated.