What percentage do my keyboards add to our playing and what percentage does our talent add? I know a good tool will always add but to what degree.

John C.

Hi John
Although it doesn't affect my keyboard playing I'm always conscious that unlike a piano or organ play my left hand has to do little except hit the right chords in the right places...in that sense I claim no talent because anybody with any sense of rhythm can learn to do it...
Now if you're talking 'my right hand' that's a different matter and one which encompasses feeling..is that a talent...who knows...
Rog

Hi John

I have the same keyboard as Bill Norrie, my playing is not a scratch on his, if you heard us playing side by side your question would be well and truly answered.

I believe even with the same tools its mainly talent or if your don't have it, lots and lots of hard practising.

Glen

I started to teach myself the organ 45 yrs ago. If I had stayed with the same instrument, no doubt I would be a better organist today. On the other hand, I wouldn't have had the inspiration to achieve more, as the arranger keyboards have given me. In the same vein, when I got my first Casio in the eighties, I thought I had arrived. As I got better, I got better toys that could do more. As an example, the KN7000's PM's inspired me to set up much more complex arrangements that can be changed in a hearbeat. The number of voices, all editable, is mind bogling.

Conversely, one can get carried away(myself), for one, and think a new keyboard with snazzy new features will make you even better; wrong. There is a point of diminishing return which makes it more productive to concentrate on your playing, and more fully utilize the tools that you have.

There is no doubt that a talented and knowledgeable musician will sound better than a less talented musician if both are playing the same instrument. But, there is also no doubt that a given musician can sound much better on a modern arranger keyboard than he could otherwise have sounded on an older instrument or possibly a piano. It’s not that the piano sounds better . . . It’s the fact that he can have so many instruments in the background making the end result sound so much richer and full.

Bernie hit the nail on the head. There is a point of diminishing returns, though. More is not necessarily better. Enough is best.

The keyboard will take the player ONLY as far as the talent will allow ...
t.

GENTLEMEN....
Let us consider this.... One sheet of music, one instrument and a room filled with players.... Each player will bring her (or his) own style & or talent to the ears of all in the room.

Now which of the listeners will be elected to decide whether or not the player has a good ear, great sense of rhythm, skill and or talent?

Will all of the listeners agree as a unit that the player is wonderful or not?

This is a great thread! Thanks JOHN C...

Elizabeth


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Aaah well Elizabeth - if that were the situation, those involved would have had to first agree a set of criteria and method of marking rather than instantaneous reaction to the playing...
So you come back to the rational versus the emotional way of looking at life...anyone ever read the book 'Emotional Intelligence' by Daniel Goleman - it was a best seller here in the UK...
Rog

[This message has been edited by RMepstead (edited 11-20-2009).]

I've just been reading this post and I'll be the first to confess that my KN7000 makes me sound and 'feel' like a professional.

However the piano is my 'first love' and I still like to play it 'straight' now and then but it sounds very 'bland' in comparison to the KN7.

Audrey