I bought a Roland digital about 6 years ago to relieve my family of practicing on the acoustic grand. I don’t use it that often, but I agree with others that it won’t produce bad habits. I use the Roland mostly for starting a new piece, learning the notes and coming up with fingerings. I also use it to record sections I’m working on. (I use a Zoom recorder with the acoustic).I’m working on some 2 piano repertoire and record my partner’s part and play along with it so I know how the parts fit together. So, for me, the Roland provides some added value to my practice sessions.
Is it a good idea to practice on a digital piano?
My favorite thing about digital pianos are the HEADPHONES! My wife and even the cat agree. Not only does the piano sound fantastic but you can practice away in your own little world right in the same room with anyone doing just about anything: Meditation? Sure! Reading? YES! Watching television? OF COURSE! Hot yoga? Well, let's not get crazy here!
I've had a digital for a while now. I bought an Kawai ES110 several years ago to go along with my grand. I sold the grand and knew I'd be without an acoustic for a while so I upgraded to a Yamaha P525 so that's all I have at the moment but I think they compliment an acoustic marvelously as long as you get a good one with a great action.
rogerch i’m so glad to hear that. I am a late beginner, and still learning basic skills. That’s why I was worried about forming habits on a digital that can hurt my playing on the acoustic. So glad to know that the newer models nowadays can actually help improve techniques. I’m sure my family will be happy that they no longer have to listen to me repeatedly playing scales 
cheeeeee That’s great to know. My plan is to only practice on the digital at night. Our family bedtime starts at 9. So being able to have a digital for silent practice will give me an extra hour or two practice time.
You should take note, however, that some digital pianos have pretty loud keys. My Roland for instance makes so much noise just from the keys that it would annoy someone trying to sleep in the room next door.
APianistHasNoName Thanks! I’m considering between Yamaha p525 and Kawai se920. Haven’t been able to try either though.
That reminds me of a funny anecdote. When I was working on a contract a couple of years ago I had lessons during lunch time on Thursdays and would tell my project manager that I was unavailable at that time. She always joked that I must be having hot yoga classes on Thursdays during lunch. I think I never told her the truth and for the several months I was there I was known to be taking hot yoga classes on Thursdays. 
Sgisela That sounds another positive point of having a digital piano. I rely on spatial memory and visual cues a lot playing the piano. So when I have to pay on someone else’s piano, I sometimes get totally lost, especially when I’m nervous 
. I’ll be using the digital piano for late night practice.
Rich-Galassini Thank you, Rich. Very interesting advice about how to practice on a digital. I’ll try it out when I have one!
Bellyman Totally agreed! I recently went to play at my university’s piano practice rooms a couple of times. The pianos are kind of worn. The keys are uneven and it’s very easy to play loud and very difficult to play softly. I had to compensate by playing very lightly/slowly. After that, I noticed that I started to make ghost notes on my own piano.
PianogrlNW Very cool! I never thought about using the digital for practicing duets. Being able to easily record a piece in the learning process is also a big plus. My teacher suggests that I do it regularly to hear what I did right or wrong, but I haven’t been able to. Thanks!
I have a Yamaha grand which I quite like. It is somewhat boisterous so the household noise it generates while practicing was an issue and I was semi-consciously curtailing my practice time and also always striving to play as softly as I possibly could (do NOT do this - bad habit!!!).
Since I got my digital Kawai MP11, both my practice time and consciousness issues went away 
. I do love having both and you could not take either one away from me. Easy to record yourself on the digital too for those self-criticizing moments. I always find it easy to go from one to the other even though they both have different keyboard feel, but close enough not to be a serious problem.
In terms of sound and expressivity, the grand wins every time of course but the digital is surprisingly rather convincing in its imitation. But it does remain just that - an imitation.
