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So, would this count as Jazz? If not, what would it fall under? I basically want to teach myself to play music like that, and possibly end up improvising. What's the best way to find a teacher, head to local music stores and ask around?
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# ? Aug 11, 2009 08:52 |
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# ? May 21, 2024 05:44 |
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Thelonious Funk posted:So, would this count as Jazz? As it points out in the title, that's Boogie Woogie. Closer to blues than jazz. There's probably a teacher in your area who has some specialisation in forms of blues piano. Good luck playing playing at that level of proficiency though. The higher end of boogie woogie demands left hand dexterity that takes... some time to sufficiencly develop. Although I'm not really any kind of expert on the topic.
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# ? Aug 11, 2009 09:32 |
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When I think "rock piano" what alaways shows up in my head is Jerry Lee Lewis. I'm not old! Maybe a little.
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# ? Aug 11, 2009 12:07 |
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I wanted to throw a plug in for this program I just came across. Its called piano booster and the website (http://pianobooster.sourceforge.net/) describes it as quote:PianoBooster is a fun way of playing along with a musical accompaniment and at the same time learning the basics of reading musical notation. The difference between playing along to a CD or a standard midi file is that PianoBooster listens and follows what you are playing on a midi piano keyboard. I currently am using a roland hp201 digital piano. I feel like I have pretty bad technique having learned everything on my own over the past year and a half with the help of this thread and various books. So far I have managed to blunt my way through a lot of pieces with perseverance and this program makes the tedious repetition required for me to learn new parts a lot faster. Then once I learn them and I'm able to play it, it makes it all worth while. Has anyone else used this or something like it and have any thoughts? I don't want to sound like an infomercial here but it has really helped me.
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# ? Aug 12, 2009 23:42 |
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Hi, so, I'm looking at learning piano, and like many, due to various constraints I have to go with a "digital piano". I've checked through the thread and know Casios are cheap for a reason, as it's been said, but I was looking at purchasing a Casio CDP-200. Is there anything particularly good or bad about this model that anyone would care to comment on? I know it isn't going to sound great and etc etc, but I've never played before, and probably wouldn't appreciate anything better anyway.
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# ? Aug 16, 2009 16:18 |
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G for Greta posted:Hi, so, I'm looking at learning piano, and like many, due to various constraints I have to go with a "digital piano". I've checked through the thread and know Casios are cheap for a reason, as it's been said, but I was looking at purchasing a Casio CDP-200. Is there anything particularly good or bad about this model that anyone would care to comment on? I know it isn't going to sound great and etc etc, but I've never played before, and probably wouldn't appreciate anything better anyway. Go to the shop, play it and compare to the entry level Yamaha digital pianos. Buy the one you think sounds nicer as a piano. If you think it sounds nicer, you will play it more.
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# ? Aug 17, 2009 00:57 |
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Vanmani posted:Go to the shop, play it and compare to the entry level Yamaha digital pianos. Buy the one you think sounds nicer as a piano. If you think it sounds nicer, you will play it more. Or since you're saying you don't play yet get one of the shop guys to play it for you and if they're not on commission get their opinion too =P Generally in stores, there's at least someone who works there that can bust out some nice classical pieces for ya.
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# ? Aug 17, 2009 04:54 |
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G for Greta posted:but I've never played before, and probably wouldn't appreciate anything better anyway. See, this is a misconception. You might not be able to appreciate it now, but think if you really love playing and do in fact stick with it for years and eventually switch to something better - you won't be used to how it sounds and feels and it'll be a setback then. I know not everyone can afford a good instrument - god knows I couldn't afford one right now if I was just starting out - but you should definitely get the best possible one you can afford.
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# ? Aug 17, 2009 13:44 |
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I've got a quick question. I recently ordered a Roland FP-4 and it should arrive shortly. However, I'm a bit worried that my existing stand is too small to accommodate it. Could anyone recommend a relatively economically priced stand? Visually pleasing, able to support the weight (~30 pounds) and length (~53 inches). The custom FP-4 stand is a little too expensive for me. I'd like to keep it under $100 ideally but I guess I could go as high as $150. The ability to add an optional second tier in the future is also very desirable. Thank you!
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# ? Aug 18, 2009 06:05 |
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I linked the ultimate stand earlier in this thread, not sure what page though, not too many pages back.
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# ? Aug 18, 2009 06:07 |
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Alizee posted:I linked the ultimate stand earlier in this thread, not sure what page though, not too many pages back. Found it. Alizee posted:I very very very much recommend the stand I have. I use it for my Korg Titon Extreme and it's awesome, it's super duper portable but the awesome thing is it's sturdy as gently caress.
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# ? Aug 18, 2009 06:08 |
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I learned piano in Canada under the Royal Conservatory of Music. I'm looking to pick up some other books from say the UK or US piano learning system at the grades 8-10 RCM level. Does anyone know the names of these books and whether there is significant overlap between the songs?
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# ? Aug 18, 2009 11:05 |
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The difference between grade 8 to grade 10 is quite significant.
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# ? Aug 18, 2009 12:50 |
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Well it's not the difficulty I'm really concerned about, I'm just playing for fun. There's no harm in playing "easier" or "harder" songs if you like them. I'm just looking for pre-built collections of songs that are in the RCM 8-10 range. I've previously bought books by composer but I don't really get into it unless I really like their style. I like how the RCM books have a wide range of composers and musical periods (A-E categories) and was wondering if the other countries have books similar to that.
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# ? Aug 18, 2009 17:43 |
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I need some more popular, easy piano songs to learn to entertain the masses with. So far I have: Let It Be - The Beatles Imagine - John Lennon How to Save A Life - The Fray While My Guitar Gently Weeps - George Harrison
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# ? Aug 18, 2009 20:02 |
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Hughmoris posted:I need some more popular, easy piano songs to learn to entertain the masses with. So far I have: Coldplay - The Scientist Coldplay - Clocks Radiohead - Videotape Radiohead - Karma Police Radiohead - No surpises Ben Folds - Army The Beatles - Elenaor Rigby Radiohead - Creep If you can sing you can turn practically any song into easy playing in milliseconds. Just figure out the chords, make a rhythm and boom. You just played another song =P But those ones all have piano parts that are recognizable or made for piano w.e
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# ? Aug 18, 2009 21:37 |
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In addition: Muse - Sunburn Muse - Apocalypse Please Ben Folds Five - Brick Radiohead - High and Dry David Bowie - Life on Mars
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# ? Aug 19, 2009 00:38 |
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I will recommend When I'm 64 by the Beatles, fun as hell.
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# ? Aug 19, 2009 15:55 |
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Along the same lines, Seaside Rendezvous doesn't sound too hard https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CkzXroTbv8
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# ? Aug 19, 2009 16:10 |
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Radiohead - Like Spinning Plates This is the only song I can play on piano, but it's fun.
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# ? Aug 19, 2009 20:14 |
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Quick question, I used to play piano as a kid and love to mess about on it now and again, writing songs and stuff, i've retained most of my music theory but can't really compose a dynamic left hand line, i mostly just play chords can anyone point me in the direction of how to play different bass styles in piano? recently learned "something about us", so much fun to play
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# ? Aug 22, 2009 19:54 |
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I'd recommend looking at some rags.
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# ? Aug 22, 2009 22:27 |
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I was hoping could recommend a good digital piano/keyboard. I have no idea how to play, but really eager to learn. I don't really want to spend $1000+ on it, but I do fully understand that I need to invest several hundred dollars to get a decent model. What would the $300-$800 price range look like? If someone could point me in the direction of a model that would be perfect for a beginner, yet still has the important features. Thank you. Edit: I have looked at some of the recommendations in the thread, but didn't know if anything was a good buy right now. Dafte fucked around with this message at 01:24 on Aug 26, 2009 |
# ? Aug 26, 2009 01:18 |
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Dafte posted:I was hoping could recommend a good digital piano/keyboard. I have no idea how to play, but really eager to learn. This has come up in the last 5 pages or so several times, and my knowledge hasn't been updated since then. I would still recommend a Yamaha P85 or 120 at minimum (within budget) and a Kawai MP5 or Roland FP series (slightly out of budget after you buy an amp as well) if you can scrounge the money up for one. I think $800 is about the minimum you can spend and still get something that you actually want to play on. The options really improve at around the $1000 mark.
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# ? Aug 26, 2009 01:38 |
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I have a piece with Ped and * throughout. I know this means to hold the damper pedal between the two, but sometimes these span for quite a few measures. Is it as simple as holding the pedal at Ped and releasing at * or should I modulate the pedal somehow during this span?
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# ? Aug 31, 2009 23:04 |
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I'm a broke rear end loser who lives in my parents basement, and I think it's time I take steps to improve myself. I need a new hobby besides smoking pot and playing video games all day, and learning to play the piano is always something that I've wanted to do. But I'm broke, so I'm looking into a free piano from craigslist. Provided that all the keys works and such, I assume that I will need to get the piano tuned. How much does that tend to cost, or can you do it yourself?
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# ? Sep 1, 2009 01:01 |
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Vanmani posted:Kawai MP5 You've been very helpful in this thread, thanks! You seem to have tested a lot of pianos - do you have an opinion on the Kawai ES6 vs the MP5? I'm a beginner so my priority is that the keys are realistically weighted and that it produces a pleasant piano sound (when through headphones/amp). The ES6 has built-in speakers but I'm not planning on using them, and the MP5 has much more in terms of configuration options but I don't anticipate that I'll want to use those, either. If it just comes down to the fancy doodads I'd get the ES6, but if the build quality of the MP5 is far superior I'd make the jump.
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# ? Sep 1, 2009 02:33 |
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Eli Cash posted:I have a piece with Ped and * throughout. I know this means to hold the damper pedal between the two, but sometimes these span for quite a few measures. Is it as simple as holding the pedal at Ped and releasing at * or should I modulate the pedal somehow during this span? Up to you. Every piano has a very different effect from holding the sustain right down, and how tolerable or intolerable that is then depends again on what you're actually playing and what tempo you're playing it at. So depending on the piano I'd be either holding it down full tilt for the whole duration, modulating it on every 2nd or 4th beat to kill some of the lingering reverb, or not depressing it the whole way... whatever sounds nicest to you on the particular piano with that particular piece. Certainly my parents piano had a very full, rich, almost cacophonic sustain if you weren't careful... I miss it terribly now, as my preferred digital pianos sustain is a bit wussy in comparison. Can't go balls out with it as easily. The French Army! posted:Broke stoner who wants to play piano for free, tuning? Depending on where you live you probably can find a piano for free on craigslist. It won't be a great piano and will probably need a bit of work to get playable. It will certainly be out of tune, if not before you get it then after you ship it. It will PROBABLY be out of tune by a lot, and require several "getting closer" tunings before it actually stays in tune. It may have broken strings, or aged strings that will snap when you try to tune it. That being said, tuning it yourself is possible if you have a lot of free time, are patient, and buy a tuning kit. However, unless you've got a very good ear from years of music training I recommend against this. A professional tuner will probably cost about $100-$150 depending on various factors. But if you're buying a piano that someone is trying to get rid of for free, they will probably have to tune the piano twice, so that'll cost extra. I'd budget at least $300 to get a freebie piano operational, but if you got really lucky it might be less, and if you were silly it'd be significantly more and not worth doing. The other thing to consider is that pianos are loving heavy and not easy to move, so I hope you have a method of lifting/transportation sorted out. There is a reason why a "piano mover" is distinct from a normal mover.
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# ? Sep 1, 2009 02:34 |
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deep square leg posted:You've been very helpful in this thread, thanks! You seem to have tested a lot of pianos - do you have an opinion on the Kawai ES6 vs the MP5? The ES6 I think will serve your purposes. And you'll probably find you do use the built in speakers, since headphones are an utter drag during a long practice session. The keys do feel pretty good. From memory I think the main difference here is that the ES6 has the previous generation of piano samples, while the MP5 has the current generation. The newer generation is obviously better, but the difference isn't massive to be honest. So depending on the price difference, it's a good pick. The MP5 is targetted at a more serious musician I guess, it is a very good MIDI controller, and is designed pretty much with stage and studio use in mind. It's relatively a bit more portable, and generally more powerful as a control device. Otherwise much the same piece of hardware.
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# ? Sep 1, 2009 02:42 |
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While we're talking about tuning, I know it's been mentioned before but is there any specific reason why you're not supposed to use a chromatic tuner to tune a piano? I understand it has something to do with tuning a piano to itself? How would you recommend learning to tune a piano?
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# ? Sep 1, 2009 02:44 |
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Vanmani posted:The ES6 I think will serve your purposes. Excellent, thanks! Looking at the RRP there's quite a difference, but when store specials are taken into account I might be able to get an MP5 for not too much more. Might be a good idea for future use and resale value? I'm still yet to wander around my local shops to see what I can get, but these are the cheapest I've been able to find online so far (I'm in Aus, too): ES6 $1795 (+35 postage) MP5 $2299 (? postage)
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# ? Sep 1, 2009 03:28 |
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deep square leg posted:Excellent, thanks! Looking at the RRP there's quite a difference, but when store specials are taken into account I might be able to get an MP5 for not too much more. Might be a good idea for future use and resale value? I got my MP5 for slightly less than that a couple of years ago now. I walked into the local dealers and told them to do me a deal. It helped that I knew the store owner a little I guess. Still, I'm pretty drat sure he didn't give it to me at cost, so you know you have a little bargaining room. AntiFistamine posted:Tuning. Yeah, you basically tune up middle A to 440Hz then tune everything in relative intervals to that reference note. Piano tuners have very good ears. What you can do though, for a "near enough is good enough" approach is use a chromatic tuner to tune the middle octave, then tune the octaves around the middle octave to their respective note in the middle octave... and work outwards from there. I don't really know any of the theory behind it, but my assumption is that if you tune the notes Hz perfect chromatically then you will get a gently caress ton of sympathetic resonance. i.e. you'll play C and all your other C strings will resonate in sympathy, causing a cacophony. I could be wrong though. Just a naive assumption. I read http://piano.detwiler.us/ and bought myself a cheap piano tuning kit from ebay when I wanted to learn how to do a botchy home tuning job myself. $30 and 2 hours work.
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# ? Sep 1, 2009 04:44 |
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You have to tune the piano to itself, exactly. Every piano is slightly different, and you need to put a little "stretch" into your octaves so everything will fit without interferance from other notes. It's all down to the actual piano itself and the strings in that particular piano. Most regular tunings cost around $100, depends on where you are. If you have a piano that needs a lot of work or is way out of tune they might want to do a bit more, usually at least a pitch raise which would probably be another $30 or so. A good tuner will do a few minor repairs without making a big deal out of charging for it. It's not actually insanely difficult or anything but you do need a pretty good ear to do it without a tuning instrument. A good tuning instrument will take the stretch I was talking about into consideration - these instruments cost well over $1000 though, so that's probably right out. The most important thing to look for is a tuning block that isn't loose and tuning pins that aren't loose. If you don't have that the whole tuning block has to be replaced and that'll definitely be more than almost any piano is worth to fix.
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# ? Sep 1, 2009 14:31 |
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OK, so this piano is free on Craigslist and I'm probably going to go pick it up reguardless even though it looks a bit old because hey, it's free. What I was wondering was about the maker. Are these even decent? A google search of the name came up with nothing.
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# ? Sep 2, 2009 07:41 |
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The French Army! posted:OK, so this piano is free on Craigslist and I'm probably going to go pick it up reguardless even though it looks a bit old because hey, it's free. What I was wondering was about the maker. Are these even decent? A google search of the name came up with nothing. A quick google for Norris and Hyde indicates they went out of business in 1928. A piano that is AT LEAST 80 years old is probably not doing great, but it all depends on how it was maintained, where it was kept etc. free is free, but moving a piano is a big effort, so it's not REALLY free remember. Interestingly the keys look level, if any don't work it's probably a 5 minute job with some wood glue. If it's monstrously out of tune though you may be in trouble.
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# ? Sep 2, 2009 08:31 |
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Vanmani posted:A quick google for Norris and Hyde indicates they went out of business in 1928. A piano that is AT LEAST 80 years old is probably not doing great, but it all depends on how it was maintained, where it was kept etc. free is free, but moving a piano is a big effort, so it's not REALLY free remember.
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# ? Sep 2, 2009 08:34 |
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The French Army! posted:Ah, that's an H not a D. I googled Norris and Bode, that explains it. I don't know jack about pianos, so when I go to pick this up is there any way to tell just how out of tune it is? The lady said all the keys work still. Play octaves. If they sound niceish and sameish when played together it's probably still in tune-ish. If they sound like poo poo, it's all over the show. Just ask the owners how they maintained it, if it's been moved much, where in the house it was stored, how regularly and when the last time they tuned it was, how much play it's seen. Depends where you live as well. If your local weather fluctuations between winter and summer aren't so major then pianos will last a lot better. Even storing the piano against an internal wall as opposed to against an external wall makes a huuuuge difference in how well it lasts. If the house is insulated it makes a difference. It's all about maintenance, humidity and temperature fluctuations. But it's free, so worst case you end up moving some old couples junk out of their house free of charge.
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# ? Sep 2, 2009 11:15 |
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I don't know - I'm fairly sure you could get something better than that for free even, although I can't say for sure without playing it - it just looks to me like "no way is that thing in good shape". By all means check it out but don't go married to the idea that free is free - just transporting a piano that big can cost seveal hundred dollars and you surely can't do it yourself unless you have a monstrously big truck (and seveal similarly sized friends). "all the keys work" can mean different things to different people, too. Does a noise, any noise at all, come out when you bang on it? Well, it works! Not really though.
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# ? Sep 2, 2009 13:07 |
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I just upgraded from a 25 year old Yamaha keyboard that belonged to my grandfather to a Yamaha PSR 275 (50 quid, bargain), which is perfectly adequate for my needs at the moment. The grand piano voice is fantastic, and while it doesn't have weighted keys, they are touch responsive. Sorry if this has been asked, but I also got a midi-to-USB adapter and successfully connected my new keyboard to my laptop, and I'd really like some information about software. My keyboard has the Yamaha Education Suite II in it, and it allows me to choose a song and have it display the keys I need to play on a diagram of a keyboard and doesn't advance the song until I do. I find this great for learning songs whilst I'm still struggling to read sheet music, which is keeping things fun. What I'm after is an application that will let me do the same with any midi file of my choosing. Does anyone know of anything like this? Edit: Aaaand typically, I have just found something that seems like exactly what I'm looking for. Synthesia, for anyone curious. I'm still open to suggestions for something better though Tufty fucked around with this message at 22:17 on Sep 2, 2009 |
# ? Sep 2, 2009 22:14 |
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# ? May 21, 2024 05:44 |
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Sounds like something http://pianobooster.sourceforge.net/ could do
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# ? Sep 3, 2009 11:24 |