Hi,
I was wondering if anyone uses Pianist mode on their keyboards or piano's.

My Technics dealer usually plays in Pianist mode to demo the PR range of piano's.

It's amazing watching him travelling up and down the keys triggering chords ( using piano voice) , without the constraints of the split. It sounds great.

Have never quite worked out what sort of piano arrangements he's using ( probably creating his own)

Anyway, just wondering if anyone else uses this mode, and if there's any tips or tricks that might help me work out arrangements.

I've taken the dust cover off my pr602 and decided to give the ol' piano another try.

Love to update to the newer pr604 or 804 as obviously they're the last 2 models we're going to see.


best wishes
Rikki

Hi Rikki,

Like you, I thought I would update my PR900 piano but after having played the 804 for nearly two hours, I am going to stick with it as in my opinion it is a much better piano. The new ones have what I can only describe as a 'dead' spot on the keys resulting in keyclick which I hate. Apart from a few up-do-date rhythms and sounds (which I already have on my lovely KN7000 keyboard) for me it really isn't worth the change.

With regards to using the piano mode, to get the rhythms anywhere on the piano, I press and hold the SPLIT button until the keyboard appears in the home page, then press the highest note in the treble, release and wait until the keyboard disappears from screen. You can then play anywhere on the piano using your own chords and rhythms. Works for me anyway. Hope this helps.

Aud

I came to the PR604 from an acoustic piano and have never played a keyboard in my life so the difficulty for me has been to learn how to play the piano as a keyboard at all! You simply set the mode (go to Autoplay Chord - Mode, and select Pianist instead of Basic, Advanced 1 or Advanced 2) as pianist and all the goodies are available to you just as they would be if you were using one-fingered LH chords. Tony Pegler's training videos for the KN6 show the details for APC, OTP, MSA, Panel Mem etc, but it's really easy. As Aud says, the main thing is to make sure, after all of your setting up, that you don't have the keyboard split. What I have not been able to discover is whether there is the "break" facility that the keyboards have with the synchro/break button because it is not marked as such nor mentioned in the abysmal owner's manual. Sorry you don't like the PR604, Aud, but did you try all of the key-stroke adjustment options?

Hi All!

Rikkisbears:
I've had the PR900 since 1996 and it has a pianist mode. I really never used it that much. Got the PR804 which still has the pianist mode. I tried to tinker with it, but I believe it's there for people who play various ways.

When I first learned the piano, I mastered the left and right hands, but when I changed to the organ, I lost the style of playing using the left hand. I can read music, but I need the named chords above the music so I know what chords to play. I can't play the bass clef anymore. With that in mind, using advanced 1 setting is for me. However, there are others who play the piano like a piano should be played, and that's when setting to pianist mode is best. If I still played the piano when I first played it, then I believe I could play in pianist mode.

I don't think the dealer is creating his own arrangements, I just think it's his style of playing and pianist mode works well.

If you update, it's worth spending a little more getting the PR804, the PR604 doesn't have Pads. And I know you like to use Pads.


Hi Audrey Turner:
I still have my PR900, the PR900 does have a better realistic piano sound compared to the PR804. However, I fixed part of the problem with the default reverb setting. The PR804 default setting is Concert1 Total Depth 80 which is way to strong, most everything sounds like in a box. So I manually have to set the reverb to Room1 Total Depth64 which is better. If you get a chance, try playing the PR804 again trying the setting I just mentioned.

AnthonyC

[This message has been edited by AnthonyCian (edited 01-18-2004).]

Good Morning from Manchester Rikki,

I've never had a piano lesson despite having a beautiful Roland HP3000 piano sitting here beside me. Instead, I made the decision to buy the KN6000 and take keyboard lessons. I'm happy with that decision. I do use the Pianist Mode from time to time. I read music and have several books of music written for piano so I select Pianist Mode and play. It is a nice diversion and I learn something in the process.

Best Wishes, Chuck

Hi Rikki,

I've used the Pianist mode on my 54 though not a lot.

When I play I usually either play the the piano as a piano without any backing or as a keyboard with all the bells and whistles.

If I remember correcly, in Pianist mode there are no auto chords so you have to be a fairly good piano player (which I'm not) to get it to sound really good.

That is on thing I'd like have here, is more people that play just the piano, recording music for us to enjoy. As much as I love the songs everyone does, there are times I just want to listen to the piano.

I have found a site that takes old piano rolls and converts them to midi so I've download hunderds of them to listen to. Sadly however, most of them are older "Rag Time" type tunes like Fats Waller which I love and some Boogie Woogie, but I'd like more up to date stuff too and it's hard to find.

Hopefully we'll get some piano players to share their playing with us.

Take care,
Heather

pianist mode in the auto play chord selection just means that the chords for auto accompaniment will be recognised in fingered mode across the whole keyboard, irrespective of any split. The split just defines the auto accomp trigger keys. Thus if you hold the bottom E and G notes and then press top C you will get a C chord, and can play piano music but with auto accompaniment following the harmony. For this reason the left part is disabled in this mode.

Thank You Alec,

I guess I knew that but I didn't really know how to explain it.

Heather

Hi Everyone,
thank you all for your input.

Thank you Anthony, for pointing out about the pads. I would miss those ( even though I'd still have them on my kn7)

I used to dabble a bit on piano, up until a few years back when I had to sell my baby grand (due to kids leaving home, & moving to a smaller house) Hence the PR602. It replaced my piano & kn5. Not quite the same though, lost interest in music and quit for about 4/5 years ( till the kn7)
Anyway, I mainly liked playing arpeggio left hand ( clayderman style of music,I
didn't enjoy playing left hand chords) so
I doubt pianist mode would work anyway. I'd have to playpiano solo.
Unfortunately I can't play by ear at all, I can only read, try and memorize a piece, as again I can't read well enough,to read and play at the same time. Makes learning a song a long slow process ( haahaa) Suppose I'll have to get some of my old piano sheet music out and see if any of it will work with pianist mode.
I suppose my other alternative might be to try and create sequencer backing songs to accompany me on the piano.

Anyway,
thanks everyone, I suppose I'll have to just experiment and see what will work

best wishes
Rikki


[QUOTE]Originally posted by AnthonyCian:
[B]Hi All!
However, there are others who play the piano like a piano should be played, and that's when setting to pianist mode is best. If I still played the piano when I first played it, then I believe I could play in pianist mode.

I don't think the dealer is creating his own arrangements, I just think it's his style of playing and pianist mode works well.

If you update, it's worth spending a little more getting the PR804, the PR604 doesn't have Pads. And I know you like to use Pads.


AnthonyC

A nice thing to do is to augment the Music Style Arranger by recording a bass chord accompaniment via the sequencer using the basic mode in APC, then you can just play the piano as a piano without worrying about triggering the harmonic accompaniment at all while you are actually playing. It is already there for you as part of your backing group. So you can, for example, keep the melody line going with your left hand while doing something fancy on top with your right. Or of course, vice versa. Anybody know the answer to my question on the PR604 and the break feature in synchro/break? Leo.