The Clavinova and Digital Piano Blog

There are some speical offers available it you are looking for some sheet music.  Link below.

I have just heard that Gear4Music has got some more great savings that are valid from March 22nd – April 5th.  You can cut and past the following codes to use on the site…

BEL10       code for      10% off Belcat Effects Pedals
HGS10      code for      £10 off High Grade Drum Stool
MNM100    code for     £100 off Elektron Monomachine

Customers can use the code during the checkout process in the box labelled “Gear Codes”, which will add the appropriate discount to their transaction.

The Clavinova Piano has a lot of interesting capabilities that even after a few years, I am still learning about.  Here is a video of my interpretation McArthur Park written by Jim Web. Not the easiest piece of music to play using the Clavinova’s electronic rhythm facility due to the changes in tempo, but quite do-able as I eventually got the timing spot on. Well almost! The voices I am using here is mostly grand piano (lead) with added stringing accompanied by electric piano and some choir voices and a touch of Hammond Organ soundsin the quick bits.

I edited this video with Pinnacle Video Software

There are many books on the market these days that claim to teach you how to play piano in several weeks, days or some, even hours, but can you really learn the piano in weeks, days or hours ? As a ex professional piano player myself, I would say yes and no.

Yes, you could play a tune or two, but professionally, I would have to say that this is not possible.
When I was around 8 years old, I had been learning with a teacher for a period of about 8 weeks and we were on vacation in one of the Butlins (UK) holiday camps (that were very popular in those days) and there was a talent competition for kids.  At that time, I could play 2 classical pieces of music. One was the Elve’s Caprice but the name of the other escapes me. I remember I had brought my music copies on holiday with me, so that I could continue my practice each day. Big mistake!   My father decided that he would put me on stage in the competition, ignoring my protestations.

I can remember myself trembling as I walked across the stage and took my seat at the piano. For a few moments I froze.  I heard my father’s voice from the wings urging me “Derek! Play something!” Suddenly I found the courage and started to play. There was only me, the piano and the music and nobody else seemed to exist - I wasn’t looking anywhere other than at the music!  I got through the piece note perfect, but a little faster than usual and a cheer went up from the audience.  As I looked around I realized the audience consisted mostly of kids my own age, yet I could still feel myself trembling. I didn’t win of course as some little girl who must have been born on stage and was singing “Good Ship Lollipop” won that day.

So yes, I had played piano in public after 8 weeks of piano lessons. But to come much later in my life, to my career as a professional musician, I would not have been able play for an evening’s entertainment for people to dance to or backing a cabaret artist by sight-reading their music scores.

My Early Experience of Learning to Play Piano.

I attended music lessons for around 10 years altogether and learned to read music by sight, and much to my music teacher’s dislike, I learned to play “by ear” - that is without music at all. As I went through the usual scales and appregios in the course of my piano lessons, my hands and finger-joints stretched and developed so that playing awkward chords and note-sequences became easy - not something that would be so easy for an adults hands I wouldn’t think.

So to become a professional musician, unless you were some sort of musical genius born with an exceptional ability on the keyboards you would probably need to put in a lot of work with a competent piano teacher, but if you wanted to just amuse yourself, family and friends with a new found ability, then yes you could have a repetoire of 2-3 songs within a month or so and then build on it from there. And it is not known for many self-taught people to play piano in clubs and bars for payment, but it couldn’t be done in weeks and the “play piano in weeks” books would help.

Available Books to help Play Piano in Weeks.

In the UK

In the USA

Over 80 different instruction methods, including Bastien, Faber and Celebrate Piano. Piano Methods at Sheet Music Plus.

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.

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

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.

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.