Digital piano jargon in plain terms: the honest glossary

Manufacturer product pages are an alphabet soup of GHS, PHA-4, polyphony and “escapement”. Here is the dictionary – every term in two or three honest sentences, with a note on whether it decides a purchase or is marketing decoration.

Keys & action

Touch sensitivity: the key measures how fast you press it – soft to loud. Even €100 keyboards have it today. Purchase-deciding only when it is missing (walk away).

Weighted keys / hammer action: small hammers reproduce the resistance of a real piano. The difference between keyboard and digital piano – purchase-deciding for everyone who wants to learn piano. Practically only exists from 88 keys up.

Semi-weighted: spring resistance instead of hammers – a compromise for synth and organ players, no piano substitute. Often hides bashfully in the small print.

Graded / scaled (e.g. GHS, PHA-4, RH-III): the manufacturers’ codes for their action generations. “Graded” means heavier at the bottom than the top, like a grand. You don’t need to memorise the codes – our keyboard comparison tells you how they feel.

Escapement / let-off: the quiet “click” just before release that a grand action has. A nice extra from mid-range up, no must for beginners.

Wooden keys: an upper-class feature (e.g. Clavinova CLP-845): solid wood instead of plastic in the key core. Feels finer, makes nobody progress faster.

Sound

Sampling: the sound is a recording of real grands – note by note, at many volumes. Standard on almost all digital pianos.

Modeling: the sound is computed physically instead of played back – and therefore responds continuously. Common in the upper class and at Roland. Sampling vs. modeling is taste, not a quality ranking.

Polyphony (e.g. 192 voices): how many notes may sound at once before the oldest are cut off. From 64 voices it is easily enough for learning; 192 or 256 are nice, but no reason to buy.

Resonance simulation: string and damper resonances are recreated – the “room” in the sound when you press the pedal. Audible from mid-range up, a marketing word below that.

Concert grand names (CFX, SK-EX, Imperial): tells you which real grand was recorded. Background in our royal class article.

Connections & tech

USB to Host (USB-B): the socket towards computer/tablet – carries MIDI, on newer instruments audio too. The most important port for learning apps; the cable is rarely included.

MIDI: note data, not sound: which key, how hard, how long. It drives apps, DAWs and other sound sources. Details in the MIDI guide.

Bluetooth MIDI / audio: the same without cables: MIDI to the learning app (practical), audio from the tablet into the piano speakers (comfort). Unsuitable for recording – radio has latency.

Line out: the output for amps, speakers or a mixing desk. If it is missing, the headphone jack has to stand in – works, but is the stopgap. More in the connection guide.

Sustain jack vs. half-pedal: every pedal jack accepts a simple footswitch. “Half-pedal” means the instrument also understands in-between positions like a real piano – which needs the matching pedal (e.g. a DP-10 instead of a footswitch).

Auto accompaniment / styles: the keyboards’ one-man band: drums and band follow your chords. Great for entertainers, irrelevant for classical piano learning.

Marketing words to skip

“Concert grand experience”, “authentic touch”, “studio quality”: mean nothing as long as action type, key count and polyphony aren’t printed next to them. Our rule: if the measurable is missing, the touchy-feely is invented.

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