churchkeybob

Lately after church, I come home and search out the facebook live streams of a number of local churches just to see what others are playing. So far what I've seen wasn't what I was expecting. Two things are happening in this area. One is that a lot of churches need to work on their presentation on line. The sound mix of their music is stunningly poor. Two is that a coulple of churches let their MDs write and perform their own songs. This would be cool if they had just a little more talent, none the less, it isn't working in my opinion. I think they are trying to get away from the pop and formula music but originals don't seem to cut it. I'd like to brag on my church and our music except for the last two years we've been playing the formula music too. I thought it was just the new MD and his choice of music but after reading through this thread I guess it's happening at other churches also. I'll pat myself on the back by saying that last year my church wanted to purchase Ableton and I talked them out of it. here comes my opinion again, the first time you hear what Ableton can do, it's cool. then after it's used on every song it gets really old. Cheers. ~BOB

Sending my condolences. I'd give you a hug if I could. ~BOB

Okay. there's a lot to unpack in this thread so far. It sounds to me like a meeting is needed with all keys players and the church board to research this a little more. I've been playing Kurz boards for the last twelve years starting with a sp88, then a sp4-8, then a PC3LE and now a PC3A8. So obviously I'm on board with the Kurz ideas. When we've had guest players and new players work the keys they all need simple choices for sounds. therefore we still keep the SP4-8 around just for those times. I haven't met one player who could navigate my PC3A8 and I believe the nord would be just as intimidating. ~BOB

With the board upside down check all the screws you can see to make sure they haven't come loose. I had lost some screws also, not easy to find replacements. ~BOB

I have two PC3a8s that I bought a couple years ago as "for parts not working". I was able to get both of them up and running and have had both of them apart a few times. One is kept at church and the other at home. I've replaced the mod wheel assemblies on both and hope to upgrade the replaced ones with A.C.s trim pot upgrade when I have time. I have had the problem with the sliders sending the value of where they're set after hitting a hard bass note. What I found on my board was that a number of screws had fallen out of the bottom of the board causing it to flex more. Once I had tightened everything back up the problem went away. For simple repairs I recommend learning how to take your board apart. First time may be intimidating however so much cheaper than sending it out for repair. ~BOB

SP88 still holds a soft spot in my heart because is was my first digital piano. I played APs my whole life and only started playing digital about ten years ago. I can say the SP got me started and after one year I was ready to move on. I now play a PC3a8 which is light years ahead of the old SP, however the SP88 was inspiring enough to get me going. ~BOB

We could start a sticky "How to train your soundman". I've given up on expecting to be heard in the churches I play mostly because they're volunteers. Although one of the offenders is a guy who used to tour with a national act and run sound. What's worse is that a lot of churches now stream the whole service to facebook and the mix that was set up for the room just sounds horrible on FB. Even last Sunday the pastor asked us to share the sevice to our friends and I just couldn't. Nothing I played made it to the stream. ~BOB

I looked for my cassette travel case for three hours. Wow, this hasn't been opened since 1991. I had another case of cassettes that stopped working, so not all the keyboard music that influenced me is here. but kind of fun to see it again. also wanted to try the new attachment option. ~BOB

My beef is with tire stores selling front end alignments with a new set of tires. The sell is "you don't want your new tires to wear out prematurely" If the old tires were worn evenly, the steering wheel is centered and the car drives normal, odds are you don't need an alignment. The next step is to show the customer all the suspension parts that are worn out. Almost all suspensions have a little play but most customers don't know that. So if a tech shows them that a part has some play, it's an easy sell. bottom line is; If your car is wearing out front tires or the steering wheel isn't centered, get it fixed. If it drives as it should and dosn't wear the front tires unevenly, Nothing needs to be fixed, don't waste your money. I've seen techs build a $1500. repair bill on this kind of work when it wasn't needed. I completely recommend regular oil changes, brake inspections and drivetrain maintenance as outlined in the owners manual. And that's another thing. Who reads their owners manual? I've been the owner of a shop restoring classic cars for over forty-one years and it doesn't matter if it's an old car or a new car. Most of my customers have never read their owners manuals. When it comes to my own vehicles. I once owned an 83 Suburban that I drove to 520,000. miles pulling a car trailer and never even rebuilt the motor. Good maintenance and luck. ~BOB

Ebay. My favorite store. In the last two months I bought two Kurzweil PC3A8's. One was listed as "needs repair or for parts" in an auction format and the other was listed "for parts, not working" in a buy it now. So I decided the risk was worth the price and bought them both. Both were new units damaged in shipping. The first one worked right out of the box but needed a pitch wheel pot. The second one wasn't working right until I did a hard reset and it's worked perfectly ever since. So now I'm learning to build my sounds on my PC3a at home and transfer my files to the one I left at church. ~BOB

A big "Thanks" to all involved. ~BOB

1A: Music 1B: Restoring classic cars. Music has always been with me since I was a child. Cars since 3rd grade and now a business for the last 42 years. ~BOB

Last week playing a good Friday service at a church we've never been to before. The sound guy shows up a half hour late so we only had thirty seconds of sound check before the service and then found out there were no working monitors. At sound check I hadn't realized that the keyboard had been turned off and back on so the Kurz was in programs instead of setups. so without any monitor I hit the two button pushes I always use and since I couldn't hear what I was playing, I played an oboe sound for sound check instead of EP. At least I discovered the issue before the first song. ~BOB

I didn't think I moved too much until my church started streaming our performance on face book. Watching myself do what looks like some sort of nerd dance while jerking my head sideways from time to time! Why didn't anyone tell me? ~BOB

I hear you BIF. I cover piano from my keys three, maybe four times a year. Changing the key of a song, changing songs and even adding extra parts to a song on the fly seems normal to me now. Tim. Thanks for your post. I like your triangle paradigm. ~BOB

"perils and pitfalls" In the last nine years, I've played at two churches. Two years playing duet traditional hymns on a concert grand with an organist and seven years playing a mix of contemporary and traditional hymns on a Kurzweil with a band. In my limited experience the perils have always been leadership issues. Everything else can be worked on, but poor leadership will make all the work impossible. Like what was said earlier in this thread, ~BOB

Two weeks ago I thought about starting this same thread. I decided that complaining about people who volunteer their time and talent wasn't very fair. However sometimes I just need to complain. At my church I've been playing with pros who challenge me and make me a better player. Then about six weeks ago our drummer dropped his motor cycle on his leg, our pianist had knee surgery and our guitarist took some time off. The replacements have been very disappointing. I ended up starting and leading every song and trying my best to make it all work. I covered piano parts, Guitar parts and even worked in some percussion since the replacement drummer couldn't keep time. Well now looking back, I guess these "less than pros" make me a better player too. ~BOB

You have my sympathy as I have been were you are now. Keep yourself healthy and make your music. ~BOB

Well I never thought of triple strike as "dreaded". It just is what it is. Today in church, I layered it in with organ and strings when our pianest couldn't play and it filled in the sound quite nicely. In the Artis I'm really looking at the PC3+core64 sounds with stage piano simplicity for around 2K. I might even like the six strike piano too. ~BOB

Hello. Let me indroduce myself. My Name is Bob Reeve and I've played the piano since I was six. I realized last year that I've been playing for over fifty years now. I used to visit Sonikmatter every evening. Just three years ago I was sitting in church thinking "someone should play that electronic keyboard up there". Long story short I figured "It can't be that hard" So started my passion for more sounds and voices. The first board was the church's Kurzweil SP88x. Nice but not enough. So I bought an SP4-8. What a cool board. This last month I sold my one hundred year old Harrington baby grand and then the church offered to buy my SP4-8. So now I'm looking forward to getting the new Kurzweil Artis (wish they could get them to market sooner). Well that's my life story to now. Cheers! ~BOB