Hot answers tagged keyboard
20
Digital pianos really have come a long way from where they were 15 years ago, when I started playing.
I started on an unweighted 61-key touch-sensitive keyboard (touch-sensitivity is, by the way, essential, but implied on the weighted keyboards. You cannot play classical piano music even remotely musically without touch sensitivity. Organ music is a ...
16
Most keyboard instruments of the baroque Era as well as early pianoforte had fewer keys than the current 88-standard (some modern piano like the Bosendorfer Imperial have 97 keys, 9 additional keys in the bass), and much of Bach keyboard works for instance can be played on such a restricted keyboard.
With restricted high notes you will have difficulties ...
9
There's no hard rule to say that you shouldn't use your thumb on black notes - some pieces would be near-impossible to play without doing so!
However, there are some reasons why you might be better off by not doing so.
One is that the thumb is shorter than the rest of your digits, so it makes sense to reserve it for the easy-to-reach white keys. You ...
9
Most classically trained pianists can gloss over arpeggios (and all their assorted variations) because their teachers made them do the repetitions you're describing beforehand. More generally, when you see pianists pick up complicated figures quickly, it's usually because they've seen them before, either in exercises or pieces they've already learned.
Along ...
9
Your drummer should be capable of playing along to a rhythm set by another instrument rather than leading the tempo all the time. Can he drum along to a metronome?
If the problem is that the keyboard isn't always sounding the beat (maybe you have a couple of bars without playing, or just holding a chord without rhythm?) then you need to add something for ...
8
Logic Pro has built-in controls for using different temperaments. Check out the link below:
http://documentation.apple.com/en/logicpro/usermanual/index.html#chapter=43%26section=6%26tasks=true
It allows you to either select a pre-configured tuning system, or customize your own. MAX/MSP is another solution, but if you don't have programming experience, ...
7
Your little brother seems to believe that the EQ is the only part of the amp that can color the sound. Sure, keyboard amps aim to reproduce the sound of the instrument as faithfully as possible, within their design constraints. But that's just as true of home stereos---does he believe all home stereos sound the same?
The preamp, the power amp, and ...
7
There is no standard for converting musical notes into colors. This would be an arbitrary process as there is no way to convert say "A" 440 Hz into a specific wave length of light. It might be interesting to perhaps make up your own. Many artists have tried to correlate color with sound so it is definitely a notion that has been around for a long time.
...
6
The vertical positioning is almost correct, although every dot should be either exactly between two lines, or exactly vertically centred on a line. The top F is OK (assuming this is a treble stave) but by the time you reach the E at the bottom of the clef, positioning errors have accumulated and it's difficult to tell at a glance where the note is supposed ...
5
While there may be an element of truth in this (certainly you hope for a flatter EQ in amps designed for keyboards/synths as you really want to define your tone using the instrument) there is enough variety I would really recommend trying out a few amps first.
All types of amplifier have slightly different responses over frequency / power and you may find ...
5
This is a deep subject. I can tell from your initial question (before we edited it) that you are unfamiliar with the concepts involved with using a MIDI controller keyboard with a computer, with virtual software instruments, and with interfacing the audio output of a computer with a PA system or amplifier. You need to learn about all these concepts.
You ...
5
Considerations
Touch sensitivity (this is a must)
Number of keys you usually use
Polyphony - the higher, the better if you play anything remotely complex
Whether you need lots of sounds or really only piano sounds
Size and weight if you plan on traveling with it.
Built in drums/accompaniment or not (good for practice, more fun than a metronome)
Built in ...
5
4-2-3-1 or 3-1-4-2 repeated should do it. The second might be a little easier due to the placement of the sharps.
That's if you want to use only your right hand, though! The left's not doing anything so you might as well take advantage of it. Something like the below:
5
As a pianist I balked immediately upon seeing your image, mainly because the notes do not have exactly the same diameter as the vertical distance between the lines; and some of the notes do not line up perfectly centered on the line or in the space between.
The absolute worst is the 4th and 5th dots from the left. One seems to be hanging off the bottom ...
5
You are not completely wrong.
The size of the dots needs to be larger, so that one note fits exactly between two lines.
The notes must be exactly centered on a line, or fitting exactly between two lines.
The dots should not be circles, rather tilted or skewed ellipses. See the examples at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musical_notation .
The notes lower ...
5
There are a lot of points, but I'll try and name the main ones.
You're not the centerpiece of attention-- the newlyweds-to-be are. This kind of sums up many points others will make here.
Don't mess up. No pressure, but this is the most important day of their lives to some people in the room.
Be able to alter the tempo of the piece and still make it sound ...
5
Assuming you're playing for a formal service (you mention an organ, so I assume it's a church-like setting, not background music for a hotel reception or similar):
Familiarise yourself with the order of service; if there are hymns, which comes first?
Make sure you have plenty of 'filler' music as a non-intrusive prelude to the service whilst the guests ...
5
The full huge range of sounds available from synthesisers means that the subject is enormously broad. Typical keyboards behave differently depending on the virtual instrument you are playing.
For example, a piano patch isn't likely to respond to aftertouch, and might not respond to pitch bend; a strings patch will respond to pitch bend, and might swell if ...
5
If there's a lot of electronics going on that the drummer needs to always be in time with, then a click track on an earpiece is really the only option. This is pretty standard for professionals to use with in-ear monitors.
If the tempo doesn't vary immensely and the keyboard is only playing from time to time, then I don't think there's reason enough to ...
4
A wonderful proponent of technology with guitar is K T Tunstall. She uses a range of looping kit in order to accompany herself with sounds, vocals and guitar.
Have a quick look at this video for an example of what she gets up to.
4
You are trying to find simplistic answers to a relatively complex subject. At the very least you should go to a music store and purchase a beginning piano book or a beginning music book for children or adults and study the basics of how music is notated.
By way of example, I do not think you would be successful at writing a computer program to display ...
4
I'm going to answer the general question so that this is not a shopping reccomendation per se (61 un-weighted key keyboard with lots of features vs. 76 graded "soft touch" key keyboard with minimal features).
Arguments for a 61 key, unweighted keyboard (PSR-E423 in your case):
This is simple and easy to play, due to the fact that:
There are less keys, ...
4
On the Indian harmonium, you are generally playing with one hand on a short keyboard (two or three octaves) and you are only playing one note at a time. So fingerings would not be so crucial. However, when you learn Western technique, the fingering patterns for piano are designed for two-handed playing across multiple octaves, and to facilitate rapid scales.
...
4
I'd say a keyboard is better to learn with. It is desgined for playing music as a MIDI controller is designed for synthesizing music. However, most keyboards have basic MIDI functionality.
The fewest number of keys you can learn to play with is subjective. You can learn to play on one octave. However, this won't be enough for long. The number of keys is ...
4
It will always be easier to sit and operate pedals - the required uneven shift in weight from one foot to the other and holding it for extended periods can become quite tiring.
If your biggest concern is how it looks to the audience then yes, you'll probably have to put up with the discomfort and awkward stance of standing but there are a couple of things ...
4
Musically, your responsibilities are to entertain and not distract.
You entertain when:
The music is chosen and played in a way that compliments the ceremony.
You distract when:
You do not start the music on time. This one is easy to do.
You do not finish the music on time. This one is hard. The music needs to stop within seconds after everything has ...
3
Well, if you don't have any musical background, you should read about it. It's more complicated then it looks. Search for lilypond, or go for "musical notation" in wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musical_notation
By the way, your result is wrong.
3
This series of tutorial videos on YouTube is excellent:
They are probably the only decent ExpertVillage videos I've ever seen.
3
Tim Praskins reviews ALL major models on his Piano News Blog, with a ton of information on "digital pianos and what to know when shopping for one".
From a recent (2011/08/17) entry:
Yamaha has descriptive words such
as Intelligent Acoustic Control (IAC), GRE, Smooth Release, Linear
Graded Hammers, and Soundboard Speaker. Roland has SuperNATURAL ...
3
The defaults on the DGX640 are lovely, and even through the built in speakers sound excellent (in my opinion) - but it depends what you are after
if you want the sheer power you can get by pounding on a real Grand you want to feed them through an amp and decent speakers if you want more 'oomph', as the built in speakers don't have a huge amount of power.
Only top voted, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible
