Gear Thread - Pics

Woof!! I'm rather jealous of the pair of QSC speakers!! Not twiddled on the Nord Sstage before - is it one of their weighted boards?

Tuning the Clavichord isn't too bad, and by all accounts Harpsichords are much the same. My ear has definitely improved in just a week or two, and after an initial period of about a week where I tuned it every other day, it's settled down quite nicely. I've got reasonable keyboard facility, and could quite happily play keyboards in a "band" setting, but I'm not much cop at playing properly - so that's my current project. I've some Byrd and easier bits from Bach suites on the go :)

Incidentally... For about 4 or 5 grand, you can build your own Harpsichord. I'm almost tempted to do that instead of buying another baritone sax...!!
 
timbob said:
Woof!! I'm rather jealous of the pair of QSC speakers!!
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Entry-level QSCs admittedly, but for their size and weight they are pretty good. I think they need some burning-in though - they're a little bit 'lost' at the moment. Great for small gigs and as a keyboard amps, however.

Not twiddled on the Nord Sstage before - is it one of their weighted boards?
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Yep, a Nord Stage 2 76 - 'fully weighted'. The weighting is good but not the best; the top-end Rolands have better actions. On the whole, though, I'm afraid that it is annoyingly good. At a rehearsal on Monday I started this piano riff thing and decided I wanted to do some Herbie-style Solina strings pad chords with my left hand while I was soloing with my right hand. After a couple of minutes of pressing buttons :o I found the right combination and set up my first split, from scratch, whilst still playing. I then set up the mod wheel to control the filter cut-off on the strings and turned it into a sort of housey-dancey thing. I don't think I've ever had a keyboard that I could have done all of that with without going into a menu or stopping playing with both hands before :)

Tuning the Clavichord isn't too bad, and by all accounts Harpsichords are much the same. My ear has definitely improved in just a week or two, and after an initial period of about a week where I tuned it every other day, it's settled down quite nicely. I've got reasonable keyboard facility, and could quite happily play keyboards in a "band" setting, but I'm not much cop at playing properly - so that's my current project. I've some Byrd and easier bits from Bach suites on the go :)
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Try the Bach two-part inventions. Perfectly suited to clavichord and building up your technique. When you've mastered all of them, move onto the sinfonias or the keyboard suites (though I find these notably harder).

Incidentally... For about 4 or 5 grand, you can build your own Harpsichord. I'm almost tempted to do that instead of buying another baritone sax...!!
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Hah, one day I will own a harpsichord. Not sure I've the skill to build one of any quality, though.

If you are ever interested in selling your bari I might have a mate who would be keen to buy it. He's been after one for like 5 years but so far has totally failed to find one he likes.

arty
 
Meh, trying to play Le Onde from memory.. as soon as camera rolls I make tons of mistakes. Goes to show what you can do after 6 months of lessons I guess even with over sized hands :)

 
timbob said:
I enjoyed that dude - some lovely expressive moments :)
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Cheers, there is some god aweful fingering in there where whole wrist is rotating, thats REALLY bad habit, but I couldn't work out the proper way to play it.

Working through grade 4ish level pieces with teacher at the moment, but I've skipped out on a lot of theory stuff so have cheated myself :D
 
Flukester said:
Meh, trying to play Le Onde from memory.. as soon as camera rolls I make tons of mistakes. Goes to show what you can do after 6 months of lessons I guess even with over sized hands :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zppePhloPio
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I just popped in here for a nosey, can't play a thing (actually selling my electric guitar after unsuccessful lessons and I'd prefer an acoustic). But that was lovely, mistakes are mistakes... not too noticeable and the expression is there which is just as important as being accurate.

I'm an open minded music person and have just discovered Einaudi and it really perked my interest in learning piano. How have you found it both cost and experience wise?
 
Dup said:
I just popped in here for a nosey, can't play a thing (actually selling my electric guitar after unsuccessful lessons and I'd prefer an acoustic). But that was lovely, mistakes are mistakes... not too noticeable and the expression is there which is just as important as being accurate.

I'm an open minded music person and have just discovered Einaudi and it really perked my interest in learning piano. How have you found it both cost and experience wise?
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Hi, i found einaudi by accident on youtube and i love the modern simplistic sound of his pieces. They are also on the whole not to bad to play as everything is arpeggios. I've since learnt 3 more of his tunes.

Le onde took me 3 months of slog to learn to play from memory... but i've heard even someone whos never had a lesson can learn it with tons of patience. (it's 9 pages of music)

I had a little step up in that I had organ lessons 20 years ago for 3-4 years, so could already read treble clef, not the bass though. Lessons are dam handy though, and currently paying £12 a week for 30mins. When at work or in post office queue i also have a little music sight reading quiz on phone, so probably do a couple of hours of that a week, really sharpens the music reading skills as don't always have time to practice at home


Earlier in this thread bought little yamaha np30 digital grand which was fine for about £170 second hand, but the action of the keyboard is far away from proper piano and you don't build any strength in fingers. The Akai i have now is full hammer action, and though even heavier than the baby grand i play on occasions at teachers house, it makes playing on the real thing easier.

The Akai is just linked to a bog standard quad core pc running reason 5 and piano refill. Then output through some usb alesis speakers with ASIO4ALL driver to get rid of latency

Thats it i think, it's nice to have a hobby again.... and a real buzz when you can sit down and reel off a tune to family / friends etc
 
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My new acquisition.

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Flukester said:
Cheers, there is some god aweful fingering in there where whole wrist is rotating, thats REALLY bad habit, but I couldn't work out the proper way to play it.

Working through grade 4ish level pieces with teacher at the moment, but I've skipped out on a lot of theory stuff so have cheated myself :D
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Bah! Who cares about the fingering and rotating wrists - if it works, you can hit the notes, and you can get the expressiveness you're after, go for it. Some of the best jazz (and classical) pianists have far from "by the book" technique.

Try not to skip the theory though - use the pieces you're learning to help you. Look at their key signatures, work out the intervals between the notes in the melody, try and work out the underlying chord progression... Anything you can do to make the theory more relevant will help take away the mind-dumbing dullness of it! (Until that dullness becomes interesting in itself!)
 
Here's my current stash:

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Sadly I've decided it's time to let the Parker Fly Deluxe go to fund other purchases. Will be posting it soon on the usual places, or trust me if interested.
 

Another video of me just to annoy Easyrider.

Serious lack of action going on in this thread.

I'm considering picking up a second hand one of these, not sure about maple or rosewood though! Incase anyone wants to know what it is, it's a aged cherry fender telecaster deluxe.

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