What's a better investment?

I feel the benefit of weighted keys is training your hands to play on acoustic pianos. It’s like a training exercise, keeping you in shape for the real thing. Not necessary for song writing and theory study.

Touch sensitive for sure. Cause that’s just annoying. it will allow you to be more dynamic/expressive.

88 keys is nice if you’re playing full-range piano arrangements. You’ll probably be fine with 61 for your purposes. 76 would give you another octave, might be fun, but probably not necessary.

Frankly if you take one on one lessons, your teacher will probably insist you get the full 9 yards (88 weighted, touch sensitive keys.)

Whatever you choose, you’re on the right track. Piano study was the single greatest investment in my musicianship. Good luck!

 

It depends, I suppose- how are you with online learning? Can you watch YouTube bass lessons and get something out of it, making progress?

If your goal is not performing, then I’d wager a guess you’ll be ok online. For me the hardest part of piano was reading the sheet music, and synching up the two hands. Teachers help with that, and fingerings too. You can also get a theory-only teacher, who would probably care less about your keyboard.

And if you get something Midi-capable you can:
A) drive sounds with your computer, skipping the cheapo “Casio” sounds and;
B) multi-track record you projects, bypassing the challenge of playing both hands at once.

 

Unless you are playing solo concert piano, you won't be using 88 keys. Stick with what you have for now and learn how to play.

Lessons are great, but you can learn a lot on your own. When I was a teen, all I had were my sister's piano lesson books and my albums/CDs, and I learned how to play well enough for top 40 bands. Depends on how much you want to practice.

 

If you see yourself on stage eventually, a nice keyboard with weighted touch sensitive keys sounds like a good investment. Number of keys is debatable, but if you’re just playing rock/pop/blues, you could adapt anything to a 61-key keyboard. Though weighted keys is not essential, there’s something special about playing one that is weighted....

your theory goals sound easily remedied with some online study and a little old fashioned “pencil and paper” homework

 

How about option #3. Get a relatively cheap keyboard with velocity sensitive keys and take lessons. IMHO you don't need 88 keys or weighted action at this point.

When I was a music major, I was required to take Class Piano. The classes were taught on electronic keyboards, but they did not have 88 keys...way too much real estate for a class room setting. Practice rooms were equipped with acoustic pianos. Mostly uprights, but there were also a few nice grands.

I was also a touring pro for a couple of decades and most of the keyboard players I worked with did not use 88 keys. Most had both synth action and weighted keyboards, but some did not even bother with weighted keyboards.

 

It depends on what you want to do. I played keys back in the 1980s - some keyboards were touch sensitive, some weren't. A Hammond organ isn't touch sensitive.

Unless your goal is to become a piano player, I would stick with what you have until your skills are more developed. Then you will have a better idea of what you want.

 

There are very adorable weighted key keyboards out there from Casio.

I think some great free online piano lessons are from this guy:

Online Piano Lessons for Kids | Hoffman Academy

Totally for kids, but great for adults.

 

IMHO you do not need weighted action at this point. It is nice to have because it is sort of allows you to interact a bit more organically with the instrument. But if you are more interested in learning theory than becoming a skilled pianist it's not necessary. There have been many very high-end synthesizers that did not have weighted action. Many of them even had piano patches and it was possible to play them just fine. Someone who has trained on a piano will of course prefer weighted keys, but some prefer synth action.

The decision you are about to make really comes to personal priorities and opportunity cost. You have a finite amount of money, so spending too much money on one thing will prevent you from spending it on something else. Is it more important to have the nicest keyboard you can afford at this point, or the best learning opportunity? IMHO that is the way you should look at it.

 

You can learn on cheap pianos BTW, some of the worlds finest music was written playing cheap instruments. They are great for inspiration.

 

Do both YouTube lessons AND get a few private lessons ASAP. You’ll know very soon which option suits you best.

Keyboard:- what you have is sufficient for now.

Touch sensitive is a must have for me personally (4 years piano lessons).

Hammer action is overkill.

Sustain pedal option is absolutely essential.

Weighted action is nice but it’ll weigh a tonne to move it. Used ones come up cheap as people get sick of lugging them around. Get one with in-built speakers AND headphone (silent practise) AND line outs (to an amp, DI, etc).

Only get 88 keys for home-use-only keyboards IME - in a road case they are super long, super heavy, and super hard to fit in cars. you’ll just leave it at home in preference for smaller lighter keyboards 98% of the time.

 

Digitally sampled electronic pianos have become so good that for a home on most folks' budget, a really good Yamaha, Roland, or Kawai would be a far better investment than gramma's old upright. Never needs tuning (the rub here is finding a GOOD piano tuner), most have headphone outs (Marriage Saver ! ! ! ), and a lot have onboard recorders and/or metronomes. 88 keys are fine, 72 is OK, and 61's are for synths only.

Steer clear of the wonder keyboards with automatic chords, styles, all that stuff, it'll just get in your way. Good ones have several pianos, Wulitzer, Rhodes, a string patch or two, and usually some sort of harpsichord and/or clavinet preset, occasionally steel drums.

You can find these usually with pretty decent action and a small footprint and all three pedals for less than a grand USD, if the budget is higher, there you go.

That Bontempi is better than nothing, depending on what your definition of nothing is.

Keyboards are great as you can see the entire chart in a way: Bass in the bottom, chords in the middle, melody on top in a simple form. It's so very hard to imagine what a four over a five sounds like when you can only play one note at a time, or hear a diminished or augmented chord, or most anything. With keys you can spell out entire harmonies.

I'd HIGHLY recommend a good teacher or 6 months to a year to get you started. As with everything else, there is good and mighty bad online.

 

Difference Between Hammer Action And Weighted Keys - Joshua Ross

 

A friend of mine just got this:
Casio WK-6600 76-key Portable Arranger
It's incredible what you can get for the money these days...

Get the WK-7600, if you want piano-like action...

 

For songwriting, having a variety of quality sounds at easy access will inspire song ideas. Hard to find patches with billions of hidden features realistically means you’ll rarely use them.

Built in speaker(s) will make it as convenient as quickly grabbing an acoustic guitar for that idea that just popped into your head.

Don’t dismiss battery/wall wart powered keyboards. Convenience means you can play it anytime anywhere.

 

Lessons, lessons, lessons. Viewing a video online is NOT a lesson. You don't know what you don't know and a good teacher can provide feedback on what you are doing right and wrong as well as create a lesson plan based on YOUR goals.