Casio LK-280 Lighted Key Premium Keyboard Pack with Headphones, Power Supply, and Stand

Wow. I own an Ensniq TS10, two Korgs, and a Roland keyboard, but THIS keyboard has the incredible ability to import ANY blues/jazz piano midi file (.mid) you can find on the internet, and play it in "teaching" mode, at your tempo, so you can learn it. For this reason alone, I rated this keyboard 5 stars, even though it was shipped with a loose connection mentioned elsewhere in these reviews. It's a simple fix. Take the time to browse the internet for the best blues piano licks you can find in midi format. If you find it, you can play it. Here's how to use the free MIDI sequencing program Aria Maestosa to format any midi file to light up the Casio LK's learning keys:Use of Aria Maestosa Midi Sequencer for Casio LK-280 “Learning Files”rev 12-20-15The Casio LK-280's default factory setting is to have the teaching key-light up channel (Navi Channel in the Function menu) set to channel's “3” & “4”. The Navi Channel, selected in Casio's Function menu, is the one that determines which notes show up on the lighted keyboard. Specifically, Navi uses “paired” channels, so when the Navi Channel is set to channel “4”, then channel “4” is paired with channel “3”. It is only the notes present in channel 3 that will light up in the Casio LK for teaching purposes. The Casio will play the notes that are in channel 4, and that are in every other channel, but only notes on channel 3 will light up the keys.So, for each MIDI song you want to learn, use Aria Maestro to ALWAYS isolate the keys to be learned to channel 3. I will explain how below. I always set up 3 midi files for each song I export from Aria Maestrosa, and here's how I name each:First file: 01 LH 3 & 4, in which “01” is my song # (I keep the name short for the Casio's LCD screen), and the LH tells me I've placed the left-hand notes in channel 3. The RH notes are placed in a track that is designated as channel 4 (I'll explain how below). Both hands' sound will be be played, but only LH notes will be lit up for the student to learn.Second file: 01 RH 3 & 4, in which channel 3 contains the RH (right hand) notes and 4 contains the LH notes. RH notes can thus be learned.Third file: 01 Both 3 & 3, in which both LH and RH are in channel 3. The keys for both hands will light up at once. You can learn to play both hands together.Once you've exported these midi files from Aria Maestosa to your PC, you can place them on your Casio's SD card. Make sure you've “formatted” your SD card in the Casio, as formatting creates a required “MUSICDAT” file folder on the SD card. Place your midi files in the MUSICDAT folder for the Casio to read.To set up my 3 midi files for each song using the Aria Maestosa program, open the program and import your midi file of choice by dragging & dropping it from the file folder to the main window in Aria Maestosa. Isolate the TRACKS that have the best LH and RH piano parts that you want to learn. Aria Mestosa has a red button (mute) and a green button (solo) on the track bar of each track. Use "solo" to single out what each track is playing. You may find that both piano parts, left and right hands, are in the same track. In that case you can split the notes below middle C into the LH notes on another TRACK, and those above middle C into still another new track.To set a TRACK's channel in Aria Maestosa, use the main menu bar to choose “Settings”, “Channel Mgmt”, and “Manual”. On the right side of each track bar, a small square box with a CHANNEL number in it will appear next to the the “instrument box”. Click in the box to change the channel of the desired track(s) to channels 3 & 4.Once completed, choose “File”, “Export to MIDI”. NOTE: Any track you mute (small red light in track bar) will NOT be exported to MIDI. Likewise, any track you SOLO (green light in track bar) will be the ONLY track that will export to MIDI. Though it's useful to solo and mute some tracks to isolate the best LH and RH info to put on channel 3, I would suggest that when you prepare to export the MIDI file for use on the Casio LK, you leave no tracks soloed or muted.Run a test of what you've chosen for the left and right hands by playing the files on the Casio LK. If some of the bass notes or treble clef notes are above the Casio LK's range, they can't light up. If this happens, take the file back into Aria Maestosa and move notes as necessary, up (or down) an octave, so they fit the Casio's 61-key keyboard layout.Enjoy!BTW, heres a super MIDI (.mid) Blues file I downloaded, converted, and have the LK-280's keys lighting up instruction for: Do a search on "30 Must Have Piano BluesLicks.mid". It's free, and you'll be amazed. It's not your typical "beginner" piano instructional stuff, it is awesome!

This keyboard is amazing. Amazon delivered it quickly, packaged well, and the keyboard is a good quality.. This keyboard is phenomenol. It exceeds all my expectations. It's so well designed. For exercises and a large list of songs it guides you on what keys to play (lit up), and which fingers to use. There's settings to watch a demo, to play along to and get hints, and to practice. You can learn chords separate from the right hand keys, then put it together. It teaches you in modules, so you learn small parts at a time. I love it! And I've only used about 3 features of it, there's a lot more I don't know about.The headphones are super cool. They don't fit flat on top of your ear and flatten your ear. They leave a space of air inside the cushion. So it's weird, but you hear the keyboard sounds as tho they are coming from outside the headset. It freaked me out, lol. I kept thinking I didn't have the headset plugged in, because when I wore the headphone the sound so realistically seemed to come from outside the headphones. You gotta try them to see what I mean. For 5 minutes I thought I had it plugged in wrong! :)If Casio comes out with a new model, I hope they also add programming logic to help you learn musical notation and what the notes of the keyboard keys are. Like I said, I'm new to it, and haven't tried many things, but I don't think it teaches you these - I think the idea is to plug the keyboard into a computer to let an application teach and guide you on these aspects.I don't write reviews much, but I had to write this to commend Casio on a super product. You will not be sorry to buy it! :) It's one of the best things I've bought for myself in as long as I can remember. I give it 25 out of 5 stars

I chose to purchase this particular keyboard as it is designed for beginners or people who haven’t played for a long time. When trying to decide what keyboard to buy, I looked at number of keys, portability, customer reviews, headphone capabilities, the preprogrammed songs, and the lighted key features for learning.This keyboard has fit my needs perfectly. Since I live in an apartment, it is very nice to be able to plug it into headphones to not bother the neighbors. The portability is also a very nice feature when moving around a lot. It doesn’t take up much space, but doesn’t have a large reduction in the number of keys compared to a regular full-sized piano. The learning features are awesome! This keyboard has the capability to practice one hand for a song, while playing the other hand for you, as to not lose the whole sound of the song. There are great options for the preprogrammed songs as well, but you can import your favorites from the internet if you are not satisfied with their wide collection.This keyboard is great for learning and a lot of fun. The lighted keys are not only great for the learning process, but make playing an even more enjoyable experience. I think this would be a great way to keep kids, who don’t always want to practice, excited about learning. As someone who grew up practicing on a full-size piano, I found the transition much easier than I thought I would. For someone who doesn’t have space or money for the full-size piano, this keyboard is a great option!

worth a purchase lots of features