I grew up in a Christian household and I have relatives that are/were men of the cloth. My uncle in Houston, TX was pastor of one of the largest churches in North America. Some of my relatives on my mom's side are talented musicians and singers and one of my uncle's in particular used to lead the music ministry at his church which was in addition to his regular job as an insurance adjuster. That uncle, whose name is Bill, can pick up practically any instrument and play it with precision and skill and though that is hard to believe it is nevertheless accurate and I am just as flabbergasted as anyone else on how he does it.

They say that a person's musical ability can in some cases be inherited and that may be true at least in my case. I started playing guitar at an early age (11 or so) although I didn't pursue it on an advanced level or professionally but I did belong to a band growing up. As far a church goes I was a second tenor in several choirs throughout the years although I don't belong to one currently. I have never taken professional voice lessons but I was vocally trained in the choirs I attended. I have always loved music and I like just about every genre with a good beat but my favorites are Gospel, Jazz and contemporary Christian which I believe produces some of the best music around.

I was in my forties when I decided to take up the piano keyboard. I always wanted to play the piano and the arranger keyboard was my ticket into the world of piano music. It's never too late to pursue your dream and I'm really glad I had the opportunity to branch out musically. Guitar sounds on the higher-end arrangers are getting better as time goes by and perhaps the new Pa4x will give the Yammie Tyros5 a run for its money. My Tyros 3 that I acquired this past summer has some very good guitar sounds but the Tyros5 has raised the bar up a notch and so Korg has a tall order to fill if it wants to gain market share in the high-end arranger segment which Yamaha currently dominates. But I digress.

I also belonged to a a couple music ministry bands which allowed me to advance my playing skills but over the last few years I've been busy with other endeavors and so I haven't been able to play my keyboards as much as I had previously. I am a little rusty as they say since I was without an arranger for several years before getting the Tyros 3. My Fantom G7 has 76 keys but the adjustment to playing on 61 keys again was basically seamless. The situation now is finding the spare time to play in the manner I would like to in order to become sufficiently proficient with my recently acquired Tyros 3. If the Tyros 6 is a revolutionary step forward (in other words, the bees knees as far as cutting edge features go) I will probably trade up to the Tyros 6 if it meets my meticulous standards. I don't mind paying $6,000 if a keyboard is worth the price of admission which includes all the bells and whistles. The Tyros 5 lacks certain features i.e. no USB 3.1, no SSD drive, no real Sampler, limited system memory, no touchscreen, sub-par vocal harmony, cheesy B3 organs, not to mention quality control issues along with its astronomical price tag to boot. Again, I don't mind the price of admission if the keyboard in question meets all the criteria of a truly high-end product. If the Tyros 6 is head and shoulders above and beyond the competition I will be the first in line to get one. Time will tell.

All the best, Mike
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Yamaha Genos, Mackie HR824 MKII Studio Monitors, Mackie 1202 VLZ Pro Mixer (made in USA), Cakewalk Sonar Platinum, Shure SM58 vocal mic.