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Where to start (keyboard)?

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Logan View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Logan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 02 2024 at 13:46
I have a Casio digital piano (about 700 dollars) and some other keyboard. Portability is nice. I wanted one with 88 keys and they keys are weighted to start.

I would like to get a Casio Celviano Grand Hybrid or some other digital "hybrid" piano for my son.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Easy Money Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 02 2024 at 13:12
Re the instrument: Keyboards are pretty cheap these days and are quite good. A 61 key keyboard will last you a long time and should be available new for around $150.
88 key digital pianos are just like the real thing and sound great, they can run up to around $700.
Keyboards do not have touch sensitive heavy keys, but a digital piano does. There are some hybrids that are kind of in between a keyboard and a digital piano.

Edited by Easy Money - April 02 2024 at 14:28
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote moshkito Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 02 2024 at 12:42
Hi,

Get a reasonable midi keyboard ... they are getting cheaper these days and the 48 key ones are not spendy ... from there you plug it into the computer then you go looking for VST's for piano ... and many of them are free, and voila ... you have a piano available to you.

They say that practice makes perfect, and then you find many a musician, that is an individualist and disdains any kind of teaching ... and it goes as far as folks like Keith Jarrett trashing education for not teaching you anything except what is dead and wasted after so many years of repetitions!

To me, and I am a writer, the "muscle memory" is only necessary when you are mechanical in your playing. If you are a person that plays off colors and visionary material, it only has to do with your familiarity with what each note sounds like, and you would never worry about any teaching or chords and a teacher that is not an artist ... he/she is a musician ... massive difference.

If you have a good FEEL for the notes on the keys, musical theory won't enter the equation ... because you are following your own feel for what the notes speak to you personally, which has nothing to do with theory at all ... and you better realize that before you take it up ... because that is the first brick in your head ... you want to play something you can't find ... ditch it ... instead visualize a scene and put your fingers around the keys for it ... 

For a weird/bizarre idea, if you read well check out the folks that are really special in their creativity, and notice how they are not into the chords and notes ... they are into the quality of their feeling via this note and then that note .. has nothing to do with theory whatsoever. And the best joke of all is the one that musicians hate the most ... in the Robert Wyatt book there is a story about Syd Barrett in one of the sessions for his album ... and a guitarist asks Robert what key Syd is in. Robert's reply? "He don't know the chords or the notes. He just plays!" ... a perfect example of the memory of "knowing" what it sounds like when you do this, or that ... and that's what you need to create "music" ... the rest is all notes!
Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told!
www.pedrosena.com
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote JD Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 02 2024 at 12:14
And HOURS...you gotta put in the hours. Ant instrument that needs to be learned (ie: not derived from natural ability) needs repetition. Muscle memory.

Remember he old joke?
How do you get to Carnegie Hall?
Practice, practice, practice.

Somewhere there is a study that says if you want to be proficient at something (anything?) you need something like 10,000 hrs put into it.

Try not to get frustrated with your progress if you're not playing like Keith Emerson after a year. That's not really how it works.
Good luck !
Thank you for supporting independently produced music
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Gnik Nosmirc Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 02 2024 at 07:41
Originally posted by Easy Money Easy Money wrote:


Learning an instrument is hard work and some of the work is boring and tedious, if you can't handle that then I wouldn't bother.


I can handle that, if it gets me where I want to go.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Easy Money Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 01 2024 at 15:58
I make my living teaching piano. Get a good basic beginner book for adults such as the one by Alfreds. Start working with the book and over time you will start being able to branch out and do the things you really want to do.
Learning an instrument is hard work and some of the work is boring and tedious, if you can't handle that then I wouldn't bother.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Gnik Nosmirc Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 01 2024 at 14:58
Hi.

I'm 25. Never played an instrument. I don't know anything about theory. And I want to learn the piano, to play prog rock of course. My inspirations are Soft Machine (early), Caravan, Vdgg and ELP. The first Soft Machine album is a great example of what I'd like to play.

I'll probably start learning the basics of music theory and a few crappy songs to get my head around how the instrument works. But once I understand the basics, where should I go? Jazz? Blues?

Also, do you have any advice for what gear I should buy? Something not too expensive (I'm short on money), something with which I could play with headphones (I have neighbors and I want to play at 3AM), something I can easily carry.

Sorry for sounding like a complete noob (because I am). Hope I didn't ask anything stupid.

Thanks for reading.


Edited by Gnik Nosmirc - April 01 2024 at 15:02
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