In answering the question as to whether it is expensive to learn to play the piano, it is like trying to answer the question of how long a piece of string is. Clearly the answer is that you can spend a minimal amount or you can pay thousands and thousands of dollars.
Obviously the most expensive component is the instrument itself. If you have the funds, you could spend tens of thousands of dollars on a piano – and wouldn’t we all like a piano that was worth this price?! You can however, get an instrument that is quite cheap. Keyboards are very much a budget friendly option. Sure, they don’t sound nearly as good as a piano, but they are better than nothing at all.
As far as being budget friendly, being able to get a second hand piano is a really good option. Second hand pianos cost a fraction of their original price. If you want to go the second hand route, I would advise you to do some homework about potential purchases. First of all, you need to check that it has an iron frame – if it has a wooden frame then the piano in next to impossible to tune and stay tuned. You also need to ask the owners where there piano has been situated in their home – if it has ever been put in a shed or garage, or it has been somewhere like a closed in porch or verandah, then don’t even bother. The reason why it matters is that pianos need a stable and constant temperature to stay in tune and if they have been in an environment where the temperature fluctuates significantly, then they are not going to be in peak condition. I once heard of a piano being kept in a shearing shed where the temperature would fluctuate between more than 40 degrees celcius to 0 degrees celcius!
Unless you are getting a second hand keyboard from someone you know, I would not bother with trying to buy a second hand keyboard as you might end up with an instrument that stops working soon after you get it and then you would be wasting your money. Also some people might knowingly sell you an old keyboard that they know is dodgy but want to get some cash for it.
Brand new keyboards are not particularly expensive, and when you compare them to a piano, they are positively cheap. Again, do your homework and do get a keyboard that is touch responsive or touch sensitive. – it is a more realistic piano sound than if it doesn’t have this feature.
When it comes to getting music to play – you can spend either a little or a lot – it all depends on your personal preferences. There are many websites that sell sheet music and there are also websites that specifically can provide music for free. A quick search on Google will help you find some websites that offer free sheet music. A word of warning here – do not try and download and print off music that is not free, as you would be breaching a copyright and leave yourself open to be fined. Even though people would get away with it, there are people that do get fined and I also think that people who own copyrights do deserve to get paid and not essentially stolen from.
The other expense that some people would have is gaining the information to actually play the piano. You could get a piano teacher, who can give you on going, personalized lessons, or you could get a subscription to an online website which can provide you with structured lessons to follow. If you wanted to learn for free, you could potentially do this with using resources available on YouTube.
There are basically 3 type of expenses when it comes to playing the piano – the instrument, the sheet music and the lessons, all of which you could get at zero or very small expense.