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 
Is it a good idea to practice on a digital piano?
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.
. That’s the primary reason for me to consider getting a digital so I can practice at night.
Rubens I think most people who try both instruments would say the P-525 has a lighter action than the ES920. But what matters most IMO is that you choose the one whose action most resembles that of your acoustic.
Thank you. That sounds like a great idea to help the transition between the digital and the acoustic. The action of our acoustic is on the heavier side, although it’s getting lighter (psychologically perhaps) as the new hammers break in. I may drive to the bigger city an hour away from us to try the digital pianos at a dealership.
One thing that a decent digital keyboard has going for it is that there is some adjustment of touch available. Can't do that with an acoustic, you've got what you've got unless you wanna spend some serious coin.
I say that with a bit of caution because generally, it's not the actual downweight or inertia of the key that's adjustable, but what happens from a feedback perspective can be altered significantly. There is a very wide range of sensitivity that is available on my Roland keyboard all the way from a very heavy feel and having to pound the keys very hard for minimal auditory reaction to a very light feel where even a light key touch will give a much more dynamic auditory reaction. (I've probably not said that quite right but hopefully you'll get the point.)