[OT - What are you listening to right now?]

Avishai Cohen(bassist), especially after checking some rhythm 'decoding' vids on youtube.

[New Roland Fantom]

IMHO, Roland gears aren"t the 'good at first impression' type thing. Hope the new fantom will be a future legend like the fantom x at least.

[Time for another pedantic theory question]

To me it"s a standard (better) version of major chord with 3rd in the bass. A 9th to avoid the doubling of 3rd and make it fuller. If you play a series of this chord in parallel, you"ll sense more of its 'major' flavor. I play it a lot while doing Stevie Wonder tunes.

[Not affected?]

Hopefully the drummer is nice, then.

 

Maybe buy him a metronome a very unserious totally joke gift that he shouldn't read into at all.

In fact he practices quite hard, with a metronome and all the 'correct methods'. But his groove is very weak. It takes me forever to lock in with him. He"s the boss" friend and a local celebrity. Guess this job won"t last too long for me.

[Not affected?]

Occasionally playing with world tour caliber players has meant having batteries with easy, human and rock solid time. The music feels so good we all can play less - and more is expected of me I always felt.

 

Depending on the genre, less-than-stellar batteries (whether its the drummer or bass player with rushing or drifting time), are sort of the analogy to KB players who don't know the real changes, or soloists who play the same scale across everything. It's amateurish.

 

That being said, a lot of us are, honestly, amateurs. We have holes in our playing. We have problems being able to play what we hear in our heads. We too often try to say too much, play too many notes, and end up saying nothing at all. We step on the bass player, or don't lock with the rhythm section. A work in progress.

 

To the OP - pragmatic advice when playing with poor drummers would be "don't contribute to the nightmare". Play less, feel free to take both hands off the keyboard until you can feel where time is established. No one wants to hear the band have an internal tempo war - so try not to be part of the problem. If you can provide an anchor for the drummer, he may appreciate it - maybe. When drums and bass aren't locked, I think you kind of have to pick one to go with for the tune, or the evening. And then hopefully not find yourself in that line up again.

 

No, no one can 'play an anchor' for him. He just doesn"t interact at all.

[Not affected?]

Thank u for the input. Things are a bit complicated since covid. The drummer is a friend of the club boss, as the band leader I can"t fire him. Even if I can, there"s no one to replace him in this small town. The bassist and I moved here last year for this job, which pays good. Thx again.

[Not affected?]

I found some players (piano players) less affected by a problematic rhythm section, especially bad drummers. While I myself always end up not being able to play or just messing up my own playing. I know this sound silly..but any helpful opinions?

[Billy Joel vs Elton John ... Who's a better player?]

Composition wise, I prefer Billy.

[Digital piano with realistic action under $2000?]

I just "downgraded" from a CP4 to a Roland fp30. (Pior to Cp4, I played a Roland FP4 at home and gigged on a yamaha grand almost daily.) I couldn't belive the Fp30 has such a more piano-like action to me than the CP4. During the one year of owning the Cp4, I struggled to warm to it(sound and action) but with no success. The Fp30 also gives your finger some good workout. Switching from it to the yamaha grand I gig on is effortless. Also, I can play some classical pieces on the Fp30 with ease, while it seems impossible on Cp4(It may be just me.).I also own a Kawai ES 8,which is a beautiful instrument (better sounding than the Cp4 IMHO). But its key action is a little bit too light for a practice board, though it plays beautifully as a gigging board. So now the FP30 has my favorite action among the 3.

Now I'm a Roland guy again, and I wonder how much better the FP90 and RD2000 are than the FP30(With my respect to all the fellow mumbers' opinion here, I have to try these myself and sincerely I think you should , too ).

 

[Kurzweil PC4]

Medeli made Kurzweil sp4-7 keybed.

[Roland FA-07]

A fatar action seems more like a response to the complaints for Fa 06's, instead of a purposeful upgrade.

[Roland FA-07]

My fantom x6 with 4 srx cards sounds and feels better than the jupitar 50 (which I owned and sold)to me. That's why I'm not too curious about the fa series since it's supposed to be lesser than the jp50. It may be just me.

[OT - What are you listening to right now?]

Hank Jones & Roberta Gambarini's duo recording "You're there".

[Yamaha CP4]

Big Thankyou to NoLights and Al Quiin !Your information and explanation solved my problem perfectly.

BTW,I tried some new higher-end Yamaha clavinovas(not the top models) recently, to find the action to be more natural than earlier yamahas. In fact, they reminded me a bit of my Roland FP4, bottoming out softer, unlike CP300. I don't know if it's how CP4 feels like.

[Yamaha CP4]

Hi, my dear cp4 owner friends, here I have some question.

Is the cp4 keybed like Cp300 keybed?

Here 's my story.I practice on the FP4 in the day and gig on a yamaha G5 grand at night almost daily. The best thing about FP4 is that it takes no warm-up during the transaction between it and the G5 grand. Practicing on the FP4 doesn't make the first 30 mins on the Yamaha grand feel weird. Everything's smooth and natural.

But it's not the case with CP300. A month ago, I rehearsed intensely with a band on a CP300 which belongs to the reheasal room. A responsible and expressive keybed as it has, my first 30 mins of evening gigs was totally ruined , because I had to readjust my touch to the grand piano.

I want to know if the keybed on these newer yamaha models like CP4 are improved to feel more natual. Anyone has the experience of playing some hours on CP4 and then switching to a real grand?