Hi,

If you are in Phoenix Arizona, do not miss a chance to watch Manuel Dorantes, one of our regular SynthZone contributors.

I was treated to a delightful two hour performance tonight as Manuel played ballroom favorites on his Korg PA60 and PSR3000 rig. For this ballroom dance session in Scottsdale, Manuel covered every style from Waltz, Latin, Foxtrot, Rumba, Samba, Polka, Tango, Swing … you name it… for a fun filled musical journey down memory lane.

I was amazed to find just how skillful a player he is. Every instrumental piece sounded as good and polished as a finished CD, and he was playing everything live with the built-in styles. I asked him how he manages to play all this non-stop without a score sheet. It appears he has been playing for the last 38 years and has a repertoire of around 500 songs. This is impressive by any standards. More so when you realize, he does not read music but was born with a natural gift to play by the ear.

Watching him play you realize it is not the instrument, but the person behind it that determines how you connect with the audience. It was an eye-opener for me to hear the PA60/PSR3000 come alive in the hands of a professional by mixing and matching custom styles and layered voices.

Manual, you should be doing professional demos for Korg and Yamaha!

I've been saying this for years....until you can play with a blindfold on in practice you will not reach this level of being an KB entertainer on stage......

[This message has been edited by Stephenm52 (edited 11-13-2005).]

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[This message has been edited by Stephenm52 (edited 11-13-2005).]

Thank you Tappas for your kind words...I do enjoy playing and like anybody, I will get bored if I hear the same all the time....
So I try to make it fun and not repeat often songs.
I wish I could tell Stephenm52 how to memorize, I just do, I do not recall how I began doing it...I play since I was 4, the mandolin, laud, bandurria, accordion, etc....so, the organ came when I was 12 years old....I guess I am like a Parrot...wherever I hear, I play.

Stephen...

I disagree with the comment "he does not read music but was born with a natural gift to play by the ear"

No one is born with this gift - some learn easier than others but everyone does learn to play by ear.

I play mainly by ear now but like anyone else who does, I didn't sit down at a piano one day and play Beethoven's 3rd or anything else for that matter.

I started by reading music and got to a reasonable level but always needed the dots.

So then I started by picking out single finger melodies with the right hand in easy keys (C/F/G) - The more you do this the easier it gets. I then learnt half a dozen chords in easy keys (all in root position so I could build the chords using semitone intervals) and played from busker music.

This sounded pretty awful on a piano but I kept at it eventually playing in different keys (I still don't do C# and B)and learning all the chords and altered chords in different inversions.

Pretty early on I started to realise that many songs can be simply played with just 3 or 4 chords ands started to try to put the right chord in myself without any music. This is difficult at first but again practice, practice, practice

I sometimes get the music books out but this is mainly for the words for a song that I've had requested - I simply couldn't gig with a bunch of music.

However - I can't remember the words to songs so I admire those people who were
"born with the gift of remembering words they've only heard once" (LOL)

Well that's rubbish, the truth is I'm too lazy to use the technique that ScottYee so kindly outlined here - plus I have 2 arrangers that have all the words to the music I sing.

I have helped 2 unsighted people to learn to play by ear - It is so much easier on today's keyboards than it was when I first learnt on piano and then electronic organ (Hammond tonewheel - no automatics).

If you have the will then I beleive it is possible tro learn to play by ear. There are books out on this subject.

How succesful you are depends on your determination and practise....

Just my 2penny worth

Keith

To Keith, I would not speak for others talents or lack....I do PLAY by ear, and I also play the old B3s, play for over 14 years and recorded 3 CDs in the Hammond X66....No automatics there either.

Manuel,

I'm sure people say to you as they say to me "Oh you have a natural talent - I could never learn to play like that". It is this myth that I wanted to dispel

I used to work in the teaching studio that was part of the music shop that I worked in and it gave me much pleasure proving people wrong when they said they could never learn.

We used the old Anchor method at first then the Kenneth Baker series and people are astounded at how quickly they can play.

There is a blind servicemens retirement home near where I live and worked and, although their residents may have impaired or even no vision, they seem to have really good hearing to make up for this.

The residents there that I sold keyboard/organs to mostly learnt to play by ear - even the ones with impaired vision.

Whether you learn by ear or dots, learning to play any instrument is a wonderful thing to achieve.

I'm very envious of you, I'd love to play a B3 again - I used to have an A100 (Similar to a C3 but different cabinet). It sounded real sweet but like a fool I sold it for peanuts.

Regards - Keith