I love acoustic pianos- my favorite type is upright spinets. Spinets, in my opinion, have the warmest, sweetest tones to them.
However, right now I’m living in a second floor apartment so having an upright piano seems like it might make enemies of my neighbors (particularly the downstairs one) so i’ve been using my old Yamaha P-88 keyboard I’ve had for 20 (!) years. I’ve taken my keyboard all around the US, from downtown L.A. to Downtown Disney. It’s also been invaluable to me as a recording artist since I use it to record most of my instruments in my recordings via midi.
The thing about my keyboard is that it is, for all intents and purposes, a real piano. it has the three things that I consider essential for learning and playing piano:
88 keys. You can get away with fewer at the very very beginning of learning piano, but you will come up to needing more keys much sooner than you may imagine.
Touch sensitivity. You want the piano to respond to you when you play a key with more force or less force. I have played keyboards without that and it’s nearly impossible to play with any sort of expression. It also undercuts one of the main rules of piano- play the accompaniment at a lower volume than the melody.
Weighted keys. This is something that is especially important if you ever plan on transitioning to a real piano. Since real pianos have hammers that hit strings, the lower toned notes have bigger hammers than the higher toned notes so it takes more strength to play a note further down the piano. That ends up affecting how you play. It’s also so much easier to play fast when there is a little resistance when you press the keys.
Here are a few keyboards that fit the bill on Amazon:
They don’t make my model of piano anymore, alas, as it was purchased so long ago. But this is much less expensive than my keyboard and it has speakers (although, I still recommend getting monitors to get a more satisfying sound).
This piano doesn’t have the name recognition of the others but is a good starting point with all the necessary elements for learning piano. A lot of lifelong musicians rate it highly in touch and sound.
This is what I knew as digital pianos as a kid. This particular model is really nice. I don’t own it but I considered buying this exact model when I was thinking of getting a second keyboard for playing out.
I have a ton of M-Audio gear in my recording studio. This keyboard is super heavy so it might not be the best choice if you’re planning to gig out a lot. However, many professionals swear that this is the absolute best-feeling piano at the under-$1000 range.
Last but not least is Korg. Korg is a company that makes keyboards used onstage by bands and musicians everywhere. This is a simple, no-frills keyboard with a great sound and a good touch.
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