I thought I'd post something done on my keytar (an ancient Yamaha KX-5). Please bear in mind, this is VERY early days of getting used to this feature, so there ARE flubs (yes, I'm human!).

We just did something showing off the LH bass, here's the absolute opposite of it!

I set my keytar up to control my BK-7m. Couple of rock guitar patches (edited up a bit). The real trick is, I use ONLY the guitar patch to play the lead AND control the chord section too. Piano mode allows me to solo on up to two notes without re-triggering the chord, so I'm working on trying to do guitar stuff and still chord, all with one hand. The ribbon is critical here. All vibrato's done with finger rocking, not LFO's (makes all the difference!). There's not a lot of hammer on/off stuff here, but that's another thing that the ribbon only does.

A work in progress, but quite fun to do. There's one feature I might try next time, that holds the chord with a pedal, so I can get away with accidental 3 note stuff. Something for next time.

The tune is just something improvised, so the chords meander a bit, but maybe it's the start of a song, who knows?! It's just up as an exercise in what you can do with one hand only (who knows what the other hand wants to do!)

I always wanted to try a Keytar, just for the visual effect.
Sounds like it works very well.
Thanks,
DonM

I was waiting for the vocals to kick in - C'mon Diki, you've got some good licks with that Keytar, just need to hear you punching out those vocals with some great vocal harmony.

Cheers,

Gary

It will change your life, Don! I know you are heavily into guitar emulation... The way the strip falls under your fingers, you will be amazed at how quickly you're are doing stuff you couldn't dream of on the lever.

Plus, it's amazing for horn and wind parts... trills, scoops, legato lines (by using the strip to change notes rather than re-triggering the sound).

Lastly, it is the ULTIMATE sitting in rig... You take up no room on stage, need next to no gear, and, being one handed, it removes the ability (mostly!) to overplay, and step on people! Sure, for full piano parts, it's very restrictive. But everything else, it's a jammer's dream come true.

Plus, it's cool to move about while you play. Watch out, you poser guitarists! Keytar's coming to rock your world!

BTW, even if you don't have a keytar, any of us can try this as an exercise.

Set up a guitar patch (acoustic, electric, no difference) to whole keyboard mode, piano mode on, pick a style, glue that LH to the wheel or lever, and have fun!

Want to take it further..? OK. Now forget about the wheel, and do it with your LH. Play a melody, be careful about sticking to two notes or less to not retrigger the chord until you WANT to. Master this, and you can now chord the arranger and play counter-melodies in your LH while you solo or play the main melody in the RH!

Another really cool use for this is, set up your LH side to be a slap and pop bass patch, but set the velocity up so it doesn't sound until you hit it REALLY hard. Now, you can chord without anything sounding, but every now and again, you can pop a bass note out when you feel like it. This is something bass players do a lot in funk, soul, pop musics... finger style mostly, pop bass to help the turnarounds or rhythm every now and again.

Yeah I owned the Roland one and actually did gig with it, but in a duo/solo situation I found it too constricting, even with minimalist backing tracks.

If I was still in a full band I would still own one They are excellent for playing bass with.

... looks cool too ...

I am afraid I didn't like the Roland keytars. That stupid pressure bar that you had to go around to get to the pitch strip drove me crazy!

I must admit, the Yamaha's prehistoric MIDI is quite a hurdle to get round. PC#'s only up to 64, only transmits on Ch1 and Ch2, no PC/00/32 codes, velocity only up to about 110 or so (early Yamaha's, including the DX7, didn't transmit past 110 or so for some insane reason), it's a nightmare to use with modern gear.

Fortunately, I can filter PC's from my BK, so I do Performance changes from buttons on my FC-7, Upr1/Upr2 selection from an FC-7 button, MFX on/off, Leslie Fast/Slow, sustain (it's on the keytar, but if bending, impossible to do at the same time).

But two really handy buttons and a knob give me instant control of Portamento on/off and time, and mono/poly modes, something you rarely see on front panels of arrangers any more.

I used to use a Roland M-GS-64 rack module of the Super Canvas, but this BK-7m module is the BOMB! Quite honestly, the best companion for a keytar made, right now...

OK... here's one on the same principles, but a more familiar tune. I didn't listen to the original before I tried this (to not put myself off biting off more than I could chew!) but I'm sure with a good listen, I could nail Mark Knopfler's lines a bit better. Anyway, I hope some of this does a bit for Roland's reputation when it comes to guitar sounds. I have to admit, the guitar amp sims in the BK are much better than my G70, and some of the guitar sounds, too...

Still getting my head together about being ultra cautious with not playing 3 notes until I want the change (you can hear a few flubs, but it's better than the last one (I hope!).

Next thing I want to try is maybe an overdub, and do something by the Allman Bros, and do the dueling guitars bit. Lay the first one down live, then overdub the second. Maybe Jessica (the Top Gear theme tune, LOL). Let's see.

that's nice work Diki ...