Korg Forums

[eibbor]

Seems like a pollable question, and I'm curious to see the responses.

I never played piano. My mom bought a Casio keyboard when I was maybe 5 years old, and I just learned to play that. I gave it up for a few years from 13 to 19 years old (played guitar mostly), but have since gotten into the keyboard world quite heavily again.

Topics for discussion:

- Do you think having some experience with a real piano is critical to developing proper technique?

- What's your musical background? Has it always been keyboards and synths, or did you start with something completely different?

- What style of music do you play?

- Do you consider yourself a technically proficient keyboardist?

- How much emphasis should a keyboardist place on tinkering with the electronic side of the instrument, relative to actually being able to play?

Wow, I really made that open-ended. But whatever. I'm curious.
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"Why is Satan wearing a pink codpiece and buttless chaps?"- a friend

[RVNOak]

[Lorenzo]

I used to play and still play the piano... I think it's a really good starting point to learn how to play keyboards cos you don't have to concentrate on black and white keys but you can start to think at the os, synthesis and other aspects of playing synths... anyway there is the dark side too... it's difficult for a piano player to learn different techniques like hammond playing or monophonic + controllers. In fact you can see a great keyboard player like Jordan Rudess who plays every kind of synth instrument like a real piano.
Regards, Lorenzo
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http://www.synthaddicted.com

[Bigs]

I started with keyboard lessons when I was 11. Unfortunately, playing some simplified melody lines over (non-broken) chords doesn't really help develop real technique.

So after a few years when I was getting interested in playing keys again I also took up piano (there already was a digital grand piano in the house thanks to my girlfriend). Thanks to some challenging pieces and proper technical excercises (for finger independence etc.) my technique has taken leaps. I've never played my Jordan Rudess riffs so fluently Also, piano is fun to play and a nice break from the usual synth business.

[chocojoe]

Well, I've been playing piano for about 12 years. I was clasically trained from age 4 through about age 10, then had a little more laid back lessons from age 10 until 16 (now). They were still regular piano lessons, but didn't really have as much musical theory and what not.

I just started playing keyboards about 3 months ago when I bought a Triton Extreme. I was inspired by Jordan Rudess and realized how much you can really do with keyboards. I've still to learn a lot of stuff though. I barely even know what an oscillator is!

Right now, I've been using my triton extreme as a digital piano for gigs, but I want to learn to be able to use it for more than that.
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Dream Theater and Rush rock!

[JonSolo]

[shrike]

I took parallel lessons for piano and accordion for almost 10 years before I even touched a keyboard.

I do believe it was and still is the crucial thing for my work as a musician. Proper (which is such a broad term, because not every playing technique is adequate for every music genre) technique is very, very important if one sees himself as a musician.

I see myself as a technically proficient player (not only keyboardist, because I play accordion also), but my technique is unique to my music. I can't play organs and rock music as some rock player, but rock player also doesn't stand a chance when it comes to eastern, balkan music. His fingers aren't trained in proper way to play our music, and I don't listen rock so I don't have good ideas what to do and what to play. Those are main differences.

[Synthoid]