J_tour

Yeah, yeah I know. But what exactly are my options for the smallest-profile (length/depth) fully-weighted digital pianos with a reasonable acoustic piano tone? I have a fantasy about finding a tiny 61-64-key board with full-sized, fully-weighted keys. If nothing else, can play Bach on it or a good amount of jazz/American music. Let's go all the way up to 76 keys. No mod wheels, no nothing except volume and standard TRS jacks. As you all know brick and mortar shops are not having the good times, so I don't remember what's out there. I still suppose my Rhodes or Wurlitzer EP could do the job for practice, but since in the US tax refund season is coming around, I'd really like the ultimate bare-bones backup, just in case. Yes, I know, use "search" and try having a clue, but I don't feel so bad about starting a dumb thread. Only requirement is fully-weight action, preferably on the heavy side, and IMHO the actual samples/models for ac. piano are all fine, or good enough. Don't care about on-board speakers, or any MIDI implementation. Truly, just a "good enough" spare tiny board that allows for playing at least enough space for playing Beethoven sonatas to "stay current" on technique. For other uses, I can get away with fewer keys. I had a fantasy about buying a Clavichord (the old school ones made of wood and steel and brawn), but IMHO they're too fragile and not much good for modern repertoire. If the answer is "no," then with all the power of a random forum poster and regular piano/organ player, that might add some spurs to get some of the big manufacturers to make such an instrument.

Thought I'd give a brief kind of funny anecdote to my little question about modulating E/Em-->Bb. I kind of forgot people like to sing along "Silent Night" -- I guess they know the words or whatever. So after asking someone for a starting note, turned out F was the key to make everyone happy! Easy to forget about little details like that! Anyway, happy St Stephen's Feast Day, and all that jazz.

Hey, propers to DF for the "Who Can I Turn To?" I still have a little book of standards, getting smaller by the year, but I still like this one, and FWIW I'm still learning some things from DF's arrangement. Short and sweet. Very nice.

Ah! I get it now. I'll try it out voiced like that. Actually, that's really clever. I'll not only have to try it, but think about it as well. Much appreciated, both for the original idea, and the explanation. Definitely the jazzier extended chords can (I'm pretty convinced) be shoehorned into the baroque style, sort of gradually weave the upper extensions in, maybe using some kind of line until bit by bit the ear is ready to ear the real voicings. And then, baddabing you can get to something like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqwmZsPe_3c I still have to remember just how short attention spans little kids have, so that's my main challenge! I think I frightened the piano nephew by writing out some lead sheets of "Happy Birthday" and some other little tunes, you know, with simple chords above and just handwritten melody. Not quite there yet. ETA I should add, if I were "teaching" him, and not his grandmother, this would be all done by ear, so my compromise is to pass along little sheet music and stuff. I'll also ETA I just thought Bach sounded Christmasy, so I picked short simple pieces (I spent Oct and Nov doing all my stuff in E, and Dec is everything in A), but since he likes Beethoven, I might edit down the Rondo from the Op. 26 piano sonata to much shorter as an "encore," or maybe the Allegro from the Op. 126 bagatelles is short enough and has enough variation in mood. I made some copies for him of the simplest Beethoven I know of, the 6 Écossaises, but unfortunately that's way off. I could play those, and then do them a half step up in E (not that hard, you can even just read it straight off the page in E instead of Eb), but I don't like those very much. Never mind, I'm just rambling -- in music and in words, pretty long-winded! EETA can't resist adding more TLDR, you know, never mind why I fixed on E major Bach stuff -- those tend to be, from what I know of his "book," short, pastoral things. The WTCII prelude is one of the comparatively few preludes I like from both books of WTC, but it's kind of dense harmonically and a bit too long. The one from WTCI is, IMHO sort of like a retarded (no offense) version of the E major sinfonia, but the sinfonia is I think too long and complex for kids to enjoy. And I don't care much for the stuff from the Emaj Fr Ste. Meh, maybe the Op 26 Rondo, cut down to brevity, hitting the (IMHO) important bits, then do that nice little Air from the partita, then just close out with a little xmas thing from one of the few xmas tunes I don't hate. Not doing the Guaraldi "Christmas Time is Here" (or whatever the exact title is again), kind of I've done it too many times at family holidays, and nobody sings along. So just close it out with a little Silent Night with a groove. And,if piano nephew gets colichy, him being a Beethoven fan, I've already got the best lullaby behind "Lousiana Lullaby," namely the first movement Op 27.#1 of Beethoven. Just don't hit the allegro bits too hard. Know thine audience!

This looks like a creative idea for the normally difficult ( for me ) modulation. But E A D G B E Is not quite E major tonality? Maybe a chord prior to E A D G B E that reflects E major? I missed linwood's post, so thanks for that. I take it to be kind of a spoof, just go through the circle. The opposite of concise, but it works, and it's fun. So maybe it's me who is missing something, but I like it!

Thanks very much! I think I'm settling with E-->Em7b5-->A7-->Dm etc to Bb. It's a little noodly, but the Em7b5->A7 has enough room for a baroque-style line before going into the lounge lizard Dm G7|Cm F7. I wouldn't have thought of that were it not for your concise suggestions. Oh yeah, hey, "Green Leaves of Summer" is usually in E minor, so just noodle on that baroqueishly then do that change then do something Christmasy in Bb. Sure, that's the ticket! Thanks again.

Haven't had a chance to look at the latest, but if anyone wants to throw in on a basic modulation problem I haven't decided how to settle, I'll outline the little problem. So, Xmas I'm going to be with extended family, all that, and since one of my nephews just started piano lessons, I thought I'd do a short little medley of simple but satisfying (and key word SHORT) more classical-type tunes. WTCII E major prelude --> Air from the E minor Partita. Then I want to get to Bb (I don't know why Bb, it just seems like a good idea, being a tritone away) and just cut out with a little jazz-churchy style "Silent Night" (or whatever, I don't know, but something in Bb). I think easiest way is just to grab onto the F# minor and somehow turn that into an F#7 (from there, just -->F7). I'm finding it difficult to make this sound smooth without doing a bunch of harmonic preparation, i.e., basically noodling around. Any shortcut ideas in voicing that could make this modulation more efficient?

The store owner? First laugh of the day! It's funny because it's true! But @OP, that's pretty amazing the whole thing ended up working out. Yeah, since a lot of "true confessions" about Rhodes v Wurli have been made here, I kind of have to throw in my 0.02 that you can make the Rhodes sound Wurli-ish, with a little tremolo pedal, but it's not the same. I'd rather have a mint-perfect (well, pretty close, anyway) Wurlitzer than a so-so Rhodes (even with a good action -- mine has a nice action as well, its still heavy). IMHO there's always a temptation to fiddle with something inside the Rhodes, whereas the Wurlitzer is more, "set and forget." Plus, the light action can make you feel like a monster shredder when doing scalar runs and stuff. In addition to everything else.

Can someone remind me of who it was in the '00s who was playing pretty straight-ahead jazz using a Wurlitzer EP? I think it was a 'she,' and I don't recall if she/he/it put out any records. Anyway, I echo a bunch of people above, IF the Wurlitzer is tuned perfectly, and electrically perfect, then of course I'd trade an unkempt Rhodes for it. However, I know people who claim it's "fun" and "fast" to tune the Wurlitzer, but I claim it's the opposite. FWIW I think the Rhodes is a b**** to tune as well. They're fine being traveled with around town, anyway. Never had one break, whereas it seemed like there was also something shifting around inside the Rhodes, probably because it's so f****** heavy and awkward.

It occurred to me over the past year that I have a real problem learning "by heart" various pieces by Webern (variations) and Schoenberg (the "gigue" and the "intermezzo"), so I figure if I can't end up memorizing the "Children's Piece" by Webern by osmosis, eventually, I should keep trying.

Word. That was an amazing autobio Dr. John did. Booker seemed to have been quite a character. It wasn't so long ago that one of my main things on the internet was tracking down those hundred hours or so of live Booker tapes, and then YouTube came along with a bunch of video footage I'd never seen and it was like "damn." Hey, you know what's a good documentary, is the one about Monk....called....I think it's called *Straight No Chaser." Tons of great footage. I knew the big records and a little bit about his life and the same handful of his tunes everyone plays, but lately really digging deeper inside his music, it's amazing to see great footage, even if he did have kind of a sad life. Also, another old chestnut, *The Universal Mind of Bill Evans* -- just him chatting with his brother and demonstrating things on the piano. Oh yeah, speaking of piano footage, here's one I saw about a year ago, *Glenn Gould The Alchemist*. Fucking amazing footage of Gould performing, up close and personal, the Bach E minor Partita and a bunch of stuff. I know there were the two big movies relatively recently about him, but this one's from the 1970s, I think, and isn't so much about his (kind of weird) life, but his playing.

What's up with no DVD of *Bayou Maharajah* (docu about James Booker released last year)? Weird. I bet there's some footage in there I'd like to see.

That's just classic. Both been there as a recipient and a giver. Reason number 1 to avoid the club scene. Lots of "customers" out there. Whatever, I only do it for the money.

I don't have anything really crazy (keyboard player, so who cares, amirite!), but a guitar player (unknown to me at the time) actually called "Drown in My Own Tears" and before I could get out "so, like Eb, Bb, or what" he was like "Yeah C is good." OK, so do some gospel in C. With guitar! For me that was pretty cray.