For those passionate about piano playing
Oct 18th, 2008 by admin
Here are some samples of just a few of the voices that are available on my Yamaha Clavinova CVP 405. I hope to post more in the future and of my Yamaha PSR keyboard
I edited this video with Pinnacle Video Software
Oct 7th, 2008 by admin
Research has suggested that playing a musical instrument has positive effects on the brain and reduces stress levels significantly, and from my personal experience as a musician I think the research is spot on.
According to the book Superlearning 2000 by Sheila Ostrander - (USA source), you can “sharpen your mind with music and high-frequency sound” and as a musician I have often created my own simple tunes and played them when studying and found that I seemed to retain information a lot easier.
If there is one thing playing a musical instrument does it is to teach discipline and draw the mind into focused concentration. It is when we are totally absorbed in a subject that we tend to drift into a meditative state and it is this state that inhibits stress of all forms.
I started learning to play the piano when I was around 7 years old. I remember listening to my older sisters practising and really wanting to be able to do the same. Fortunately for me my parents recognised that I had a desire to play and found me a music teacher and I was classically trained.
However, you do not need to do it this way to gain the benefits of playing. Many of my friends became self-taught much later in life, some after they had married and had children. One or two became so skilled that they played at social functions. So it is not necessary to become a concert pianist to entertain self and others with your musical skills.
When I was about 14 years old, as well as playing the conventional piano, I took up playing the electronic organ, which in those days was quite a new concept here in the UK. With it’s bass pedals, rhythm section and different voices, it sounded more like a small band that a single instrument and I remember being so awe-inspired by the sounds I was producing. That was way back in the 1960s and nowadays the technology is truly awesome. Modern keyboards and clavinovas (*see description below) can be made to produce practically any instrument in the orchestra as well functioning as a conventional piano.
I own both a keyboard (Yamaha PSR3000) for portable use and a clavinova (Yamaha CVP 405), which I am very biased about since playing a piano in a night club several years ago and falling totally in love with the touch of the keys and the exquisite sound it produced and I felt is came very near to the quality sound of Steinway grand piano that my music teacher owned.
I love playing both instruments I currently own, the clavinova with its weighted keys feel just like playing a conventional acoustic piano, and whenever friends or family have a bit of a get-together, I take the PSR3000 keyboards in the car and we have great fun.
My intentions this blog to help those who may decided to give it a shot and learn to play, and through the years I have picked so many tips and ideas for creating music on keyboards that I am willing to share, all you need to do is ask and if I can help you I will.
2. Playing a Musical Instrument Teaches Discipline
Learning to play an instrument is like learning to speak another language and it can be challenging at times. One of the qualities musicians possess is discipline. You have to be disciplined in order to master playing your instrument. You have to set time each day to practice.
3. Playing A Musical Instrument Relieves Stress
We all have days when we are so stressed out and we just want to take a break from it all. Have you ever noticed that when you hear soft, soothing music you feel more relaxed? Playing an instrument can do that and more, especially if you’re the one playing. Music is one of life’s simple joys; it helps calm the mind.
4. Playing a Musical Instrument Gives a Sense of Achievement
If you’re a beginner learning to play your first piece, it can be frustrating. But once you’ve mastered it, the satisfaction you’ll feel is priceless. Never mind if it’s just a simple piece, believe me you’ll never forget the first piece you’ve mastered. You are one more step closer to achieving your goal and that is certainly something to be proud of.
5. Playing A Musical Instrument is Fun
Sure it can be a lot of hard work but there is no denying playing a musical instrument is fun. Once you get better at it, opportunities will arise for you to share your newly learned skill with your family and friends. Who knows, you may also consider playing professionally in the future. Playing a musical instrument opens up a lot of good possibilities that will surely enrich your life.
Oct 2nd, 2008 by admin
For those of us who are passionate about playing piano music, there is a huge array of different instruments that can make even the most mediocre player sound like a brilliant professional. And many people I know are self-taught and some even went on to play in social clubs and events.
The difference between a digital keyboard and digital Clavinova piano is the size. The digital keyboard is great if you wish to transport it to different places whether it be a room in your house or to the home of family or friends. The clavinova piano, that has a full-sized piano keyboard, is not so portable, yet much lighter than your conventional acoustic piano.
The advantage of owning keyboard or clavinova is that neither one needs tuning because there are no strings as in a conventional acoustic piano. Both can be connected to a computer (usually via USB) to analyse and edit music that you play, and they come with an ear-phone socket so that you can play away to your heart’s content without disturbing the neighbours or anybody at home who would prefer not to listen to your practising efforts.
Personally, I am somewhat biased towards Yamaha as I have played so many of them professionally and they are one of the biggest, if not biggest, makers of musical instruments in the world. They are well-established having been founded by Torkuso Yamaha in 1887, so I feel there is not a lot they don’t know about musical instruments. Currently I own both a portable digital keyboard and a clavinova piano but have owned several Yamaha electric organs when they were more in vogue.
The beauty of both clavinova pianos and digital keyboards is that they are not only authentic-sounding pianos but they can be made to produce hundreds of orchestral or synthesiser sounds, backing bands and as a player you can become the player of any number of a vast array of lead instruments. The sounds are created digitally by taking actual samples of the original acoustic instruments and are practically impossible to differentiate from the original instrument.
The clavinova piano is recognised by all the major musical teaching establishments as being a credible instrument for kids to learn on. I would say the clavinova piano is a must for anyone who is serious about wanting to learn to play and the digital keyboard for both those who want to explore the world of music playing and established players who would like to entertain with the incredible sounds the instruments produce.
Jan 30th, 2010 by admin
Over 80 different instruction methods, including Bastien, Faber and Celebrate Piano. Piano Methods at Sheet Music Plus.
Nov 16th, 2008 by admin
A French writer Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850) wrote, “there is no such thing as a great talent without great will power”. And this is so true when it comes to learning to play a musical instrument.
When it comes to playing my clavinova piano I make sure that I practice each day, even when there is a lot to do, it is well worth keeping up the habit if you can only do say 20 minutes. One short exercise I do that only takes me about 10 minutes is to run through my scales – a job loathed by most kids when attending music lesson - but the exercise really loosens up the fingers and improves the overall quality of playing other tunes. I begin with C major and then work my way up through the notes (C sharp, D, D sharp etc) up to B, and then do the minor scales in the same way.
For new players, just learning how to read music, there are books of scales you can buy in most music shops, or of course you could buy any of the excellent books on the subject from Amazon UK or Amazon.com if you are in the USA.
If you feel that reading music isn’t something you want to do, you can do this playing by ear and you will find, the more you practice, the easier it becomes. What may not appear too apparent is that you will begin to notice a difference when playing other tunes as well, because with such practice, your subconscious mind will pick up exactly where you want your fingers to go.
I was once talking to a piano-player friend of mine, who couldn’t read music, and he put it quite quaintly when he said that when he played, it felt like each of his fingers had little brains of their own.
As you continue with your practice, your talents can only improve, but there may be times when you feel you are having an “off day” and doing nothing but make mistakes, but in the words of the famous American Lawyer and diplomat Edward John Phelps, “The man who makes no mistakes does not usually make anything”.
When we practice our music, I believe the mind goes through a process of incubation. In a practice session, try as we might, we may find that we cannot get our playing of a certain passage of music right – we just keep making those same mistakes over and over again. Frustrated, we quit our lesson feeling that we are never going to be able to play it. Then we return to it the next day, and voila! We play it note-perfect. Our mind has incubated the knowledge we were so desperate to acquire the day before.
Nov 8th, 2008 by admin
Here is another ageless piece of music that I love. Cole Porter’s, I’ve Got You Under My Skin. It is difficult to believe that this was written back in the 1930s.
The voices I am using on the Clavinova with this recording are, jazz saxaphone with the right hand, with electric piano on the left for accompaniment. For the break in the middle, I used a combination of jazz flutes.
I edited this video with Pinnacle Video Software
Nov 6th, 2008 by admin
Originally from the 1937 Rogers and Hart musical, Babes in Arms, My Funny Valentine seems to be ageless as it has been played in many different styles. Here is my version on the Clavinova Piano.
The voices I used are:
Electric piano (Jazz Chorus) on the right hand accomanied on with the left hand using the Galaxy Electric piano changing to a Funky Lead synth backed on the left hand by orchestral strings
I edited this video with Pinnacle Video Software
Nov 4th, 2008 by admin
Here is a video of my interpretation Night and Day written by Cole Porter, as song that in my mind will just never die. The voices I am employing here on the Clavinova is piano with a few bars of one of the many varieties of saxaphones available on this wonderful instrument.
I edited this video with Pinnacle Video Software
Oct 11th, 2008 by admin
In this post, I want to write about the PSR range of digital piano keyboards. I tested out many instruments when looking to purchase my first digital piano keyboard, but settled on the Yamaha PSR 3000 - the penultimate of the PSR range at the time, which is a much different instrument to my clavinova piano CVP 405.
What I Like about the little Yamaha PSR is not just the fact that it is fully portable and easily stored away, but also the sound quality and a huge range of voices – these are synthetic instrument sounds that even the most critical of music lovers would be hard-pressed to distinguish from the real thing.
Some of the voices on the Yamaha PSR are… grand pianos, electric pianos, “live” and “cool” nylon guitar, tenor sax, alto sax, baritone sax. Pan flutes and a large range of different flutes and wood-wind instruments and far too many others to list here…
Like the clavinova, the voices on the PSR are so true to the real thing, that you can hear for example, the wind as it is blown into a wind instrument and the subtle sound of the fingers being applied to the strings on the frets of a string instrument. These authentic sounds come about because, like the Clavinova piano, the keys are “touch sensitive”. That means, that just like a conventional acoustic piano, the harder you press and hit the keys, the more expression and volume you get from your playing. However, unlike the clavinova piano, the keys are not weighted and are extremely light to the touch. This also means that the PSR 3000 is not such hard work to play, which is very good if you are going to take the keyboards to friends or family for a whole night of entertainment!
If you ever get the chance to check out the PSR range in a music store, you can listen to some of the instruments capabilities by simply pressing a button marked Demos and allowing it to play - it is like listening to a group of musicians and that is what sold me on the instrument. But then I was a little naughty… I popped home and searched out the best deal on the Internet!
The PSR 3000 which I own, is the penultimate in professional keyboards, known also as work-stations, the Tyros being the Yamaha’s flagship. As a trained musician (no longer working professionally), I find all the PSR range of keyboards more than adequate for my needs and there are quite a few models to suite all pockets.
The Yamaha PSR range of digital keyboards are all excellent instruments for beginners, and most have a mounted colour TFT screen, so that the user can select from a variety of songs, and have the instrument play them. The PSR 3000 can have the music score play along and you can watch a “bouncing ball” indicate what notes are being played and even permit the player to play along with it – an excellent way to practice.
To top all this, the PSR-3000 can connect to the internet via USB to a broadband modem and download songs and styles from the Yamaha website - full instructions are included with the keyboard and are also on the site (http://music.yamaha.com). When I registered on the site, Yamaha was sending free a USB to LAN adapter necessary for connection.
I will write more about the PSR 3000 in another post. But if you have any specific questions or comments, please feel free to post here.
Check out Yamaha PSR Range in the UK here
Oct 5th, 2008 by admin
Many people considering purchasing a digital piano or keyboard either for themselves or for the kids to learn on, may get confused as to what sort of keyboard to purchase and let’s be honest, there is a large selection of different makes and models. Well, I would say that it depends on what you really want your digital piano for. Do you just want something to tinker about and have fun on, or are you considering taking up piano playing in a more serious way?
If you just want to have fun amusing yourself and the family, well there are many reasonably priced digital pianos and digital keyboards that will do great service for you. If you are thinking of learning how to play professionally, passing music exams etc. then I would always go for the professional or semi-professional piano.
Pianos For Professionals and Those Who Aspire to Play Professionally.
First of all we have the full-sized piano that has 88 keys and if you want to get into serious playing, then I would say this is a must. At the time of writing (September 2008), you would need to budget from about £350 (US $625) up to around £3500 (US $6250) or more for a top of the range digital grand piano.
Pianos for Fun and Entertainment
For a fun digital piano, there is quite a lot you can do with a 61-note instrument. I am a great fan of Yamaha and own a PSR model, and this little instrument has the ability to play realistic sounds from practically any instrument in the orchestra. And at the press of a button, you can be playing an octave higher or lower, that means you won’t run out of keys if you are playing higher or lower down. And it has a socket to plug in a microphone so you can sing along, and even add digital voice harmonies of your own voice! You can buy digital keyboards at the time of writing from under £100 (US $178) to well over £2,500 (US $4,464). But always check what the instrument can and cannot do through the price range. Amazon UK and Amazon USA usually have good descriptions.
More Things to Consider
Most of the portable digital 61-key keyboards have touch sensitive but not “weighted” keys. The 88-key digital pianos usually have weighted keys. So what’s the difference? The non-weighted keys are very light and easy to press, but the weighted keys give the feel that you are playing a real piano. You have to hit the keys harder and your hands will work just as hard as they would if you were playing a real piano.
Another thing you may want to check out before buying a digital piano or keyboard is if it will connect to the Internet, which is a very useful function. Both my Yamaha Clavinova piano and PSR model connect to the Internet via my modem. A broadband connection is advised here because you can actually download music files from the Yamaha site and these files will tend to be quite large. I have connected once or twice via a USB connection and I found the whole experience very straightforward. It is an excellent facility for those who are learning and the Yamaha site has many different pages that will perform different musical tasks for your instrument.
Both of my Yamahas will play various instruments and they sound like the real thing. But another thing you may want to ask yourself is, do you want this facility or not? Would you like to be playing like say for example, a saxophonist or guitarist? Or are you more inclined never to use those voices and just play piano? If it is just a piano you want to be playing, you will probably want to go for an instrument with as few extra voices as possible, and this means it will cost you a lot less.
I hope this article has given you some helpful information about what you can buy in a digital piano or keyboard. Please feel free to leave comments or contact me if you have any further questions.
Yamaha YDP213 88-Key Digital
Console Piano digital piano
with bench
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