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A thread for the pianists, keyboard and synth players on PFM.

Andrew C!

Andrew C!

Been around a while....
I've seen several threads in the off topic page for various interests, so thought I'd start one as per the title. I've also noticed that guitarists have their own thread! Grr!

My journey started back in the late 70's & early 80's, when doodling on my grandads Yamaha organ. He was gutted I discovered girls instead. I never revisited learning to play again in a serious way until 2007, when at a friends house. He'd played seriously as a gigging keyboardist in the 80's, and had at least 10 synths and keyboards in his studio.

The bug had bitten. I started lessons immediately, and purchased a 2nd hand Roland A90 stage piano. It helped me to Grade 3, but I then realised I wanted an acoustic piano. Lots of research done, I purchased my Zimmermann Z1.

Piano by Andrew Clarke, on Flickr

I've maintained lessons ever since, and have aimed at the graded exams as a target. I enjoy the prep, and different techniques you learn and retain. My last exam was Grade 7 in 2014. Work got in the way after, for a while, but now I'm preparing for the grade 8.

I've also gigged, and programmed music for various projects. I also own an Access Virus Ti, Roland RD800, and a Novation SL61ii controller. They all get used in the gigging rig.

My piano has been very useful during the last year. Its given me focus and ongoing pleasure. My new teacher is also very progressive and keen, and very adept at dealing with the barriers that can present themselves when having to conduct lessons via FaceTime.

Todays lesson is to further my efforts at my weakest area - sight reading.

So, what's your piano/keyboard story?
 
It’s my second instrument, use it a lot to accompany people, kids, musical theatre. Teach some kids, a few are quite good. Had lessons all the way through school and music college. Did lots of general musicianship keyboard lessons and even won a couple of awards there! Could probably do to get better at using Mainstage, not really got to grips with it. Last proper gig was playing the piano part in Rent...
 
A lapsed player here.
As Andrew, started on my dads home keyboard organ. Farfisa was it? He had lessons & then repeated them back to me at home as a way of cementing the lesson in his head. It was all a bit “ begin the beguine/ Spanish eyes” kinda stuff, including bass pedals. This was my early years in the mid 70’s.
Went on to meet a guitarist mate who was wanting to put a band together & I said oh yeah, I can play a bit of keyboards. Ha bloomin Ha. Well out of my league they were.
But that was the spark. A small amount of ability & a large dose of enthusiasm.
Went on to be “nearly famous”, played most Uni’s, clubs & pub venues up & down the country through the 80’s & 90’s. Released a few records on our own Indie label, did OK but not enough to make a proper living.
Keyboards ranged from Fender Rhodes, ARP Odyssey, Moog Prodigy & Mini-Moog, Yammy DX7, Prophet V, Ensoniq VFX, & 2 Vox Continentals ( because they were so bloomin unreliable but the sound just fitted so well with the band). Some remained in our little studio, some were for live work.
Never had any proper lessons, my technical stuff relied on me reading theory/ grade books, practising scales, learning weird chords & progressions from Steely Dan type stuff.
When the live work stopped, my lack of self discipline meant I couldn’t see the point of just twiddling away at home for no real target, so that was that for me.
But we worked with some reasonable artists, such as Billy Bragg, The Housemartins, That Petrol Emotion, Jon Otway & others.
It was a superb way to go through my 20’s & 30’s & wouldn’t have swapped it for anything else.
 
Started age 7 on a Bontempi organ, then when lessons kicked in at age 8 had a Sterndale upright which was rough but built up the finger strength. Then a Challen which outlasted my lessons ending around 13. Then got a Yamaha DX9 and experimented more with sound and programming than technical playing..... roll forward about 11 years when I got my first house, had the DX9 still but replaced it a year after that with a Roland HP530. Dug our the music and started playing ‘properly’ again. Then came 20 years of fits n starts, guess I used it about 30% of the time that I could have so a day or two a month rather than a day or two a week. Moved up to a Roland HP508 about 2 years ago thinking the array of voices and tech would inspire but I play it 99% as a piano only. It’s fantastic. Challenged myself to learn rhythms and timing a much better and with volume of playing comes improved sightreading. Loving it as a way of relaxing, challenging oneself technically and generally loving knocking out the tunes.
 
hifinutt said:
fabulous ... if you ever want a grand piano let me know
Click to expand...

Oh I’d love one. I also need the room for it. My Z1 goes very loud when playing ff - plenty loud enough for an 8x4 metre room.

I’ve played a few tho. My favourites in order are Steinway, and then Bechstein. Yamaha aren’t bad, but I prefer the German stuff.
 
Arkless Electronics said:
I'll guess Zimmermann are to Bechstein as Epiphone are to Gibson?
Click to expand...

I think so. I couldn’t stretch to a 125cm Bechstein. Out of my reach at the time. My Z1 has a Bechstein board, and the piano tuner I use(Steinway East Midlands tuner ;)) said I picked a very good piano, that handles humidity very well. I do have an aircon unit in my kitchen/dining room, that does have a dehumidifier. I have the device that measures humidity, and keep the room between certain numbers. It’s the winter, and central heating, that tests the Z1’s tuning.

I’ve had it 14 years, and I’d get rid of the hifi before I got rid of my piano.

I played loads of others before I picked the Z1. That was good fun in itself.
 
I played a Bosendorfer at a BBC studio recording session.
Ok, I was a keyboardist, not a proper pianist, but wow that was a beautiful thing to play.
 
Despite growing up in a classical music household with a piano I never learned to play. I became interested in Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream, new-wave & synth-pop as a late teenager and bought a Korg MS10 monosynth and a Boss DR55 drum machine and started triggering stuff, learning to create, plus I played bass too. I’ve been tinkering around with instruments and studio tech ever since. I was most active around the start of the dance/techno thing in late-80s-early-90s and managed to at least supplement a living buying and selling analogue synths. As such I’ve had some really amazing stuff pass through, things that are worth LOL money today e.g. EMS Synthi, Roland Jupiters, Prophets, various Moogs, Arps, obscure stuff like an OSCar, plus the ubiquitous TB-303s (you could find them at <£50 at one point and flip them for £300+, worth well over £2k now!).

My keyboard skills are staggeringly poor and I would be infinitely more at home with a Buchla Music Easel, Moog modular system or whatever, certainly something with a step sequencer. It is just how I think. I guess I’m more a programmer than player. No way in hell could I play a piano! I regret not keeping any of the vintage stuff, especially the EMS, which I sold for just £1500 about 25 years ago (worth £8-10k now!).

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I currently have a Moog Voyager (plus something close to an Octave Cat), and a couple of really old small-key portable keyboards, a Yamaha PS3 and Casio MT30 (these little early-80s mini-keyboards are actually great for retro strings, organs etc as they are analogue, 8 note poly and they sound like old Arp strings etc, especially through guitar FX). I’d happily record with them. I’ve got Logic Audio X on the Mac too which obviously opens pretty much any door, though I have to admit I noodle about on guitar far more (classical acoustic and electric) far more these days. I’m definitely happier with a fretboard!
 
The Steinway I played was at the place I purchased my piano from. The centre owner looked on as I played my Grade 1 piece perfectly on it. Lol. It sounded majestic. The other one I played at Steinway New York store, on the avenue with all the piano shops on it. I was a bit better this time. That piano was amazing.

I’m just starting out doing backing tracks for an electro-acoustic due with a female vocalist friend of mine. I think she is quite good. https://youtu.be/Qy3NnVZ3_MA

I’ve been tasked with learning Skyfall - Adele, and Creep by Radiohead. I know the forms, and have just got the sheet music for the latter.

Tracks being programmed, via Logic X, for the electro side...I’ll set the Roland and Virus up to play over these.
 
I learned as a kid, started at age7 and got my grade 8 just before leaving for uni. Played quite a lot when younger, but my piano is now close to EOL, unfortunately, and not really nice to play, so I rarely do. :(

Id love a grand, but don’t have space. My preference would be a large upright, probably a nice, used Yamaha U3 of some description. Maybe this year? The reason I still have my old Joanna is that it was given to me by my grandma, the year before she died and saw me through mostbof my grades. So it has very significant sentimental value. It was decent, in its day, but that was 30 years ago. It’s been restored once and the tuner says it’d need another rebuild with oversize pegs if it’s going to live on.
 
I have a Minimoog and the prog industry-approved stand.

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Of course I’m not allowed to play them until I have mastered the Rod Argent oh-yes-that’s-the-chord-if-only-you-could-feel-the-bliss pose (this is a legal requirement, in the same way that would-be guitarists must not bend a string until they are fully proficient in at least the basic Gary Moore Face) - and obviously my hair has to be the right length to pull it off, so ‘player’ is pushing it a bit. I reckon another couple of years and I’ll be ready to switch them on.

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Oh, and a harmonium. I’m allowed to use that because I’m about the same age as Ivor Cutler always appeared to be.
 
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The ironic thing is got 2 friends near me with grand piano' s. One is a beautiful bechstein costing many thousands , the other is a 100 year old john broadwood that barely achieved 102 quid on ebay !!! What a contrast ..still trying to get rid of the latter
 
I play a little. ie...poorly
Got to about grade six/seven level many years ago, but couldn’t get close to that now.
I haven’t tried to play music written for piano since then. I’m a single stave sort of pianist!!!!
So, I still sit at the piano often, but just to play through jazz chord progressions, to hear them.
Purists would squirm at my technique ( or lack of it ) but it is fine for my purposes. Let’s call it functional, but not pretty.
I have an electric mother keyboard, full sized weighted keys. No built in sounds, so I feed it into a sound generator, and then in to a couple of powered monitor speakers.
 
My first keyboard was a Casio MT-30 (which had a reall cool set of single button chords but could do Maj, Min, 7th, 6, Dim and Aug) but I really got into music as a guitarist but was never very good - I could just about manage chords, Neil Young-style lead and Chameleons-style arpeggios. I then bought a Digisound Modular but never got it to work properly (it was a kit and I was **** at electronics, just ask my tutor at Uni).

Anyways. I bought a Yamaha CS5 and learned about synths form that but as it couldn't do chords and the band I was in needed a string-synth sound so I traded in the CS5 (oops) for a Yamaha CE-20, a weird FM mono / poly hybrid thing and that kept me going for a while recording some basic stuff on a domestic cassette that allowed basic overdubbing.

Got a PC and a Soundblaster / Yamaha DB50XG which was a very good rompler for the price. I bought a cheap DX27 as a controller keyboard. Next purchase was a Roland JV-2080 for some proper sounds followed up with synth, organ and orchestral expansions. Since then, I've expanded the studio with a Roland JD800, Yamaha AN1x, Korg MS2000B, Akai SG-01v, Alesis Nanobass, Super Bass Station rack and Bass Station 2 keyboard, EMU Proteus 2500, Roland SH-101, Roland D-110, Alesis Ion and Yamaha RD7000. I've only ever sold 3 keyboards: the Digisound, Alesis Ion and RD7000.
 
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