Is five octaves (61 keys) enough for an electrical keyboard?

[StageLeft]

The majority of keyboards you can buy from somewhere like best buy have 61 keys, with only the higher end ones at these stores having 76. Snobbery and $2000 keyboards aside, is 61 keys likely to do a person fine in most cases? I used to play a lot of piano and cannot recall often or ever going above or below the 5 center octaves, but perhaps somebody else has some input...?

 

[Colt45]

real men only use one octave.

 

[fatbaby]

unless you're a professional piano player, you probably won't go above the 5th octave.

I've been playing for awhile and most songs i played span +/- 10 keys from the center

 

[Orsorum]

Five octaves should be enough for any elementary or intemediate pieces you could hope to do. 76-key boards generally come into use with more complex pieces, a wider range of notes, etc.

 

[StageLeft]

Thx