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grapecritic posted:How much different is the organ from the piano (in terms of difficulty, playing styles, etc.)? I play organ in a country metal band - started with piano and organ, but not much of a classical pianist. I live in New York so I no longer have a full organ and even Farfisas are 70+ pounds for just a couple of octaves. I use an unweighted controller with a Roland vk8m controller, which has drawbars and a nice Leslie emulator, and personally I can't hear a difference between that and a vintage Hammond. The other good option is the Nord stage organs, which also do Farfisa and Vox organs for the 60's sound (the Doors, etc). The emulators are about 1/20th the cost as well of a vintage organ, and 1/100th the weight. B4, a software emulator, has gotten some good reviews, but software emulators aren't that practical outside a studio. Some key differences are: -organ keys are unweighted (waterfall keys) and designed to allow quick glissandos. They have very little resistance, so you'll notice you'll need to be much more conscious of lifting the keys, where in piano it feels more to me as if I'm letting the key raise itself when releasing. Also realize that you will not get as much finger strength practicing on a keyboard like this. You need a weighted keyboard for finger exercises and other practice. It will pay off on the organ. -the organ sustains as long as you hold the key. You do much less activity to get a full sound, but you need to be VERY careful not to overpower other parts of the song or people playing with you. -the organ does not play a single note. Depending on the drawbar or patch setting you're playing anywhere from 2 to 9 notes with every key you press. This might seem not that important, but if you have all the stops on your top tone will be 3 octaves higher than the key you're playing. If you're high up on the keyboard you can get really screechy really quick. Great for Like A Rolling Stone type stuff, but it gets annoying if overused. -the velocity of a key press does not effect the volume. A key either plays or it doesn't. You NEED an swell (or expression) pedal to really play with any feeling. If you don't have either an organ or emulator module that can use a pedal as a controller what you can do is put a guitar volume pedal in between your keyboard's audio out and your amp. - Leslie cabinets are much of the organ sound. Right now the B3 emulators on the market (hardware, not software) do a very nice job IMHO. Without a Leslie effect of some sort you just can't really project the proper vibrato that is normally heard on records. -Full organs also have a pedal register, so you can play bass parts with your feet. Much harder than it sounds. One other note is that much of electronic organ technique is not as much about the keys as in piano. Of course the keys are the most important, but much of the fine nuance will come from how you use the parts of the organ. Drawbar slides, percussion, overdrive, and leslie speed changes are what give that rock organ feel. Similar to a synth quite a bit of effort is needed in shaping your sound. The chorus and vibrato effects need attention as well. The Hammond organ was basically the first synthisizer (though it didn't synthisize). In that way like the Rhodes it's similar to an electric guitar, and so much of your sound is what you create it as, not just the technical notes you play. el Trentoro posted:I have a question: what's the point of putting those four keys below bottom C on a piano? I don't know if I've ever seen them used... For the tones, of course, but on Hammond organs those are used for presets and clears. And also if you're playing in C the easiest way to hit the 5th (G) is to play the first inversion (B D G) prozacrefugee fucked around with this message at 01:09 on Jul 4, 2008 |
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Jul 4, 2008 01:03
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MacRae posted:I'm not really sure if this is the right thread for it, but I'm looking for any tips for going from classical piano to a more blues/jazz/rock feel. I played classical for several years when I was around 11 or 12, I stopped after learning to play a lot of introductory classical pieces like Bach's minuets and some simpler sonatas and so on. A big part of the reason I lost interest was because when I got a little older I got frustrated trying to play with friends who were starting rock bands: they never knew what key they were playing in and I was awful at figuring it out, and even if they knew or I figured it out I was usually only able to play chords. I used to write little pieces of my own, but again they were all very classical sounding and with the exception of really simple three-chord blues progressions I was never able to play anything jazzy or bluesy. Had the same problem myself a while ago, without the jazz talent. Some steps 1) Find a teacher. Tell them you want to play rock/blues, not classical. 2) Learn the 12 bar blues, it'll be your first stop anyways. 3) Play with people that know progressions. You don't always have to be strictly in key, but you do need a progression that everyone's playing against. Playing with others is going to give you instincts quicker than almost anything else. 4) Pick up a good vamp book. I can recommend Hal Leonard's Rock Keyboard highly, it'll get you started. 5) Be able to change your sound. Piano isn't used in much rock, usually you'll find either a organ or synth sound can do much more with fewer notes. A nice rhodes sound makes a great workhorse, and takes to effects well. 6) Scales - major, minor, blues, and pentatonic. Unlike classical you'll be improving quite a bit, and it's less about what you play than how you play it. Your job will seldom be primary melody (unless you don't have a lead guitar or are doing electro), rather it's to suggest chords. If you've never had it theory really helps here - knowing that you can substitute a vii chord for a V will help you avoid just echoing patterns all the time. Breaking the rules is great if you know what you're doing and can play off it, otherwise it's chaos. 7) Pick up a beginning rock guitar book. Most people who want to play rock learn guitar, so this will give you a quick basic on what's in their minds. The main stumbling block I've seen alot of keyboardists go through is that in rock keyboard is the most supporting element, rather than the only or primary as in classical piano pieces. Sometimes a chord is all that's needed, better to do too little than too much. Get a working groove first, you can get fancier after if needed. Experts Village also has some pretty good videos on the subject. All in all remember that rock is a stripped down form compared to classical - you're mainly describing tension and release. Again, why knowing theory will really help you. And it's why you start on the 12 bar blues - you can hear the tension in the V, and how it climbs down to the I. If you've exausted all that let me know, I can post some examples of what I'm talking about.
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Jul 12, 2008 21:14
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ShinAli posted:My teacher decided I should work on the Hanon exercises, as well as learning the scale of each piece before I play them. I got assigned Musette in D Major (it says "Composer Unknown", probably Bach?), Clementi Sonatina no.2 first movement, and Schubert Waltz in B Minor. One of each era. Just a note, the BEST advice starting out is to get Hanon and a metronome, and do it at least one hour a day. I'd be much better if I could stick to that. It's how you get spider fingers. And it sucks, it truly sucks - but it does make you strong. Once you have finger strength it will take much less effort to learn a piece, and you will naturally play on time by practicing with a metronome. It's what allows pianists to play a piece they barely know well. As for stuff away from the piano I found that helps somewhat is Gripmasters - they're designed for guitarists but they'll help for keyboards as well. $12. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0006FLBSO
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Jul 12, 2008 22:35
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Averrences posted:
My second sight-reading book maybe? Actually try this - get some sheet music to a piece you don't know. Don't have someone teach it to you, but make yourself read the notes (I'm assuming you know what notes on the page mean and key signature rules, just don't sight read?). Play it once very slowly, reading the note ahead however long it takes. Do that no more than a few times, then go back and start doing it with a metronome going very slowly (like 30 BPM). Then take it through faster and faster, stopping anytime you make a mistake. EDIT: Sorry, just saw where you said you can't read anything. You're going to have to go get some kids books then. Once you learn the key signatures though you can ditch them.
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Jul 14, 2008 14:50
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bromplicated posted:I was actually curious about why pianists sometimes cross their right hand over their left, it looks pretty stylish but is that actually necessary? If you're holding a chord but want to add flourish on the high notes it's necessary.
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Jul 24, 2008 22:45
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Insparkle posted:Looking at the tiny selection of keyboards they have (which aren't identified by model of course, so I have to figure it out myself), it looks as though the two keyboards they have are: Neither of these are full weight, so you're going to have problems, especially in trying to get your finger strength back. I'd honestly say spend your points on something else, as your interest seems to be more towards the piano and techniqued playing than just 'keyboards'. Good cheap solution I found for myself is a weighted controller I got for $300 (MAudio Keystation, $500 new) and a cheap NanoPiano module. Check craigslist and you can usually cobble something together. But you will not make much progress on an unweighted keyboard trying to play piano. Even a semi-weighted is really worth much there.
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Aug 20, 2008 20:31
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Insparkle posted:Do warranties transfer? Nope. But often times you'll find music equipment advertised in the box, which usually means the person didn't fill out the warranty and only used it a few times. Most of your problems with anything decent are going to come from wear anyways, and aren't going to happen in 90 days. Depending on the amount of space you have you can also often find people giving pianos away for the cost of moving them. Hire a tuner for a few hundred, and you're good.
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Aug 21, 2008 02:02
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Vanmani posted:The DGX series is "lightly weighted" and the YPG is properly weighted. They're pretty drat similar in other respects, but the 505 is an older version (current equivalent is the 520 I think) so the 625 is probably the way to go. Either way they both ought to be good enough to practice on. Just don't expect to record your number 1 jams on them. As long as you've got full weight you can always upgrade your sound quality with either a module or a software program, turning the keyboard into a controller. Definitely go for the full weight. Welcome back! I took 10 years off for turntables and hitting things with sticks, and it's great to be playing keys again!
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Aug 21, 2008 06:31
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