Should I buy a keyboard

[manninta]

For the past couple of months I have thought about buying a keyboard. I just recently found one at a great price and was wondering how easy is it to pick up? Are there some sort of tab sites I could go to to learn Steady As We Go and Out of My Hands? Thanks

[Rob]

Piano is easy to pick up easy things, but far more difficult to master. In that, it's somewhat the opposite of guitar- once you get the guitar fundamentals down you can do almost anything.

You'll be playing "Out of My Hands" almost immediately- incredibly simple song. "Steady as We Go," not so much.

I've watched this happen in many communities, when a favorite artist picks up a new instrument and many of the musicians immediately scramble to pick it up. If you're going to do that, there's nothing wrong with it, but do it for the right reasons. Learn to play the instrument properly, and don't just become a kareoke machine.

Also, the problem with keyboards is that they are a different instrument than a piano, and are meant to be used differently. They're two octaves short of a full piano (leaving you short for more advanced piano stuff lately, like Ben Folds), their voices tend to be somewhat weak (they have one recording of an instrument, usually middle c, and the recording is pitched up or down for the other notes). Digital pianos are amazing, but they tend to get expensive. You get weighted keys, intuitive touch sensitivity (the touch sensitivity on most keyboards absolutely sucks), the full piano, and recordings of actual pianos.

If you're looking to really learn piano in and out, then I'd suggest seeing if you can borrow something to see if it's for you. After that, you can move on and buy something that is suitable for a piano player (and, by that, I mean NOT a keyboard). If you find it's not for you, you aren't out any cash.

As for "tab" sites- you need to learn to read music- there's no other way to play the piano. Piano music is far more regulated and copyrighted than guitar (there's only one way to play things on piano, versus several on guitar), and is therefore far more difficult to find good sheet music without purchasing it.

[manninta]

Thanks for the info
+1

[wonderALICEland]

The touch sensitivity on my keyboard rocks face.

[GrandMoffTarkin]

I have been teaching myself keyboard for the last 4 months. I play guitar and I'm learning keyboard basically so I can get better at writing original songs. I'm getting pretty good at it.

[Rob]

That is definitly an upside- theory is much easier to learn on piano. Writing becomes easier as well, but beware- there are certain arrangements on piano that just don't (can't) translate to guitar. See: Ben Folds.

[conrad123]

I'd like to get a keyboard for midi recording. It'd work so much better in Cubase than manually drawing the blocks with some trial and error.

[JHacker]

I use a Midi keyboard for recording. I have an M-Audio 49e and i use Reason 2.5 to run it. I dont know about Cubase and how it works together, but Reason becomes a plugin for Pro Tools LE and it works beautifully. It's a great investment to add little touches to recordings.

[conrad123]

ya Reason becomes a plug-in for Cubase as well using ReWire. I think I might just invest in a small midi keyboard this summer

[JHacker]

Definately check out the M-audio 49e...mine was $99. Can't go wrong with that if you just wanna mess around.

[AdamCU81]

I've been drooling over the Roland Fantom-X8 for the past two weeks....but $3000 is a bit much for my budget. http://www.roland.com/products/en/Fantom-X8/


I really want a keyboard with synthesizer capabilities and weighted keys, but those only align when the price is high. Anyone have suggestions?

[PilotC150]

If you want synthisized sounds just for recording you can do that on the computer. Record it into midi as piano, then just change the instrument.

If it's for live, I have no suggestions off the top of my head.