pinkfloydcramer

“We’re not a real band! We don’t even have microphones!!”

I have one of those, not working (think it's a power supply issue, I hope to resuscitate soon). They have been going for $800-1000 on Ebay. Like KC member Kanker, I am a fan of the way the mono Steinway sample responds and plays (I remember him being ragged for liking it). EQ'ing helps with the midrange "banjo" factor but it's still noticeable. Per the advice of another forum member, it worked well for layering with other pianos to help them cut through the mix. I still would like to see a hardware piano module. I used the Micropiano for a long time, it worked great but I always wanted a better low register. I used to have the EMU B3 module. EMU came out with a piano ROM for the Proteus 2000 series, online samples sounded great, but I don't think many bought it as it was was pricey.

I would play on sunny beaches I would play for star-bellied sneeches I would play for pirates on boats I would play all of Mr. Norton's notes I would play while I walked the plank I would play 'til I robbed a bank

I would play in bands I would play for fans I would play for tips I would play on ships I would play in bars I would play in cars I would even play guitars More drivel by pinkfloydcramer

I've always liked BS&T but I'm ashamed to admit I've never heard that track til today. I wish I had a note for note transcription of the whole thing, I think it's tremendous.

I would advise anyone starting out, to just PLAY every chance they get, with other live musicians, to learn how to listen and interact and pay attention to what is going on around them- foregoing the security of playing with machines that never deviate. Where that is done (bars) is optional- there's a whole lot you can miss out on spending your whole "career" catering to drunks (don't ask me how I know this). IMO a mix of live performance situations is best: churches, schools, bluegrass festival parking lot jam sessions, bars, whatever.. I know these are wasted words, as anyone checking in here is way past the "starting out" point. My other advice would be to "f*k the money", but that's easier said than done. I'm looking forward to playing some light,"smoove" jazz tonight with some talented musicians I have never played with (other than the bass player), at a civic event. No rehearsal so all I have to go on is a set list- no problem, it's fairly simple stuff. The pay isn't great but I don't care, I have some better paid solo gigs this weekend to take up the slack.

My path to jamming included transcribing solos that I liked by my favorite players and playing lots of gigs in loose, somewhat less than Madison Square situations where you could experiment and try things out and the 3 drunks in the audience didn't care (that seemed to work for Phish, who learned how to play while in a house band together). Mostly, doing it as often as possible, whether at home or on stage. I still do that, lately focusing on playing along with funk drum loops (usually not BT's as keyboard players can do their own bass and harmony) and improv'ing every chance I get. I think a big part of jamming is building up your vocabulary by listening to and playing different styles and genres, and synthesizing them into something of your own. That includes classical, "legit", written out music. it's always nice having more stuff under your fingers. @Kuru, I like to combine Folsom Prison with Cow Cow Boogie. 😃

They found a guy who could kind of swoop up to the high C on Carry On, also he could sing the Brad Delp (once, twice a night at most) if he strained. Bass player wanted so badly to play like Geddy Lee, but it would come out choppy. Drummer thought he was a clone of Neil Peart- in a way he was because he had no swing- terrible time and meter, to boot. I wasn't much better, at the time, could kind of get the notes in, at best. Just the usual phenom of newbies trying to jump right in to complex stuff before we could play simple stuff well. A band director in a school music program could have brought us along. From there I joined my 1st real band, we played a lot of fun 80's music and played gigs at bars and on campus. Drummer died, it fizzled, and I joined my 1st blues band, by virtue of winning a blues showdown contest we got booked as the 1st band to play the'89 Delta Blues Festival in Greenville, MS (harp player went on to pretty much rule Beale Street in Memphis, had the house band at the Rum Boogie). Keeping with the blues, I integrated one of the alternating house bands at a late night blues club in Jackson, MS. I should never have gotten the gig, but the bandleader liked the way I followed and supported him on organ, keeping it simple. I was a 1-trick pony with the 1 trick being a good ear and good relative pitch, I was good at leveraging that. Back to the house band: Bandleader was from S Lousiana, as a young man he migrated to Chicago to take part in the blues scene 15 years or so, then moved back South. His Chicago contacts enabled him to get booked at the '93 Chicago Blues Festival, so off I went, Opie with the entire cast of Sanford & Son, MS to Chicago in a funky old van, to take part. We played on a stage on a side street packed with people that had such reverence for the blues..never forget it. Not much to talk about, or that I want to talk about, after that; other than I went on the road with country bands in the 90's and after that to playing 23 sets a week while in the house band at a big, late night honky-tonk. I've done occasional blues gigs since then, one of which was opening for BB King 2008. I'm sure there will be more to follow. Last Friday I was able to see Tab Benoit. Now THAT was a band.

@Stokely, I wish I had read your post when I was starting out. My 1st band was the worst, never got out of the garage, practiced 2x a week on the same 4 songs (Foreplay/Longtime- Carry On My Wayward Son-Tom Sawyer- Locomotive Breath). It was an act of a merciful Deity that we never played a gig, the audience would have torn us limb from limb,. Oddly enough though, I still have a soft spot for those songs.

🤔 and with that information I anticipate a frenzied contest on KSS to see who can enlist Craig to be in their band. But that would have to be restricted to those of us who actually have a band, which would be about 3 posters here? FWIW I'm in 4, sub in 2 more.

I guess I'm like Jimmy, then..I have acquired a decent dreadnaught and find myself wishing bar chords were a little easier. It may be best to go to the next smallest size. My hand size doesn't limit me much on keys, but I can't reliably stretch beyond a solid 9th interval.

I enjoy using my Yamaha CP73 on those type gigs, would enjoy it more if it was 76 key C to C. The main reason I use it is because of the reality (in my world) of extremely cramped stages, with patrons jam-packed into a small place. The people I play with regularly tend to put more bodies on stage than what it is designed for. The only time I miss the extra keys is when playing boogie woogie, which I don't do that often. For LH pinky-to-thumb (broken octaves) I like to go considerably lower down, while still having the high keys available- doesn't matter to me if my trashed ears only hear the "thunk" (no pitch) on keys above E6, I know exactly what I'm playing. A local legend (now deceased) never carted in anything more than a 61 key, semi-weighted board (like the Motif Classic) and you couldn't tell the difference in his playing. That worked for him, at least- I was never more miserable than when I played an Electro on those type gigs. I was ecstatic when I went from it to a Roland RD64 that had a much superior keybed and finger-to-sound connection. I was surprised how much difference the additional 3 keys (with low A) made, too.

Just don’t objectify her. Even if she asks for it.

I can see how the OP would feel awkward from all this drama arising from his harmless thread, but he has nothing to apologize for. Montunoman2 has always struck me as being the consummate gentleman. So the new rule is, no remarks on an artist's perceived physical attractiveness? Poor DB.

Exactly. A waste of time, IMO. And yet here I am, wasting time.🙂 There is almost no overlap between what I play and what she plays, other than Rhapsody in Blue, which I have been struggling with for years (only so I can be "that guy who memorized Rhapsody in Blue", a good way to kill 15 minutes at a restaurant gig). Some of the passages with multi octave leaps, it barely seems possible to execute like she does. Hardly a novel observation, but my appreciation is deepened by my experience with that piece.

Yesterday my girlfriend came down with what she thought was a cold, due to that our only physical contact was a hug during the brief time I came to see her. But the "cold" got worse and yep, she tested positive today. Definitely milder symptoms than what she experienced in 2019, but I will warn her about the possible vertigo- glad I checked in here and thanks for the tip! I had it for the 1st time last summer, some months after my 2 shots. Refused the Paxlovid (glad I did) but also decided to forgo subsequent boosters- time will tell if that was wise. If I contract it and symptoms are severe, I suppose that will be a data point. Not much worried but not eager to repeat the experience, either (it sucked) and it would be a short term financial hardship, what with plentiful work lately, and equally plentiful bills. Glad you are doing alright, Craig, and also glad you are not pregnant! 🙂

I bought a used Kawai ES920, returned it when it died after a few days. The action was good for a stage piano but IMO not as realistic (due to shallower key dip) as that of my ES110, other than being slightly heavier (key weight wise). My personal preference, which may differ from most here as I had heard good things about the ES8 action- AFAIK the same as the 920. My gold standard for hammer action is that of my Yamaha YC88, but the ES110 punches above it's weight for how light and relatively inexpensive it is. I just wish it was a tad heavier. RE 73 keys, that's a sore point with me- and now you people are going to hear about it: 73-key boards are only E to E for the purpose of sucking up to Guitar World. Why should the function of the instruments with which we express ourselves, be dictated to us by disturbed people who seem to think that a block of wood with pickups and strings, is an extension of their penis? Except for Kiru, of course..and also of course, biological female axe slingers, who seem to have a different attitude. C to shining C makes more sense for me. From where I stand, nothing is lost by being able to use a couple of keys below E. And what is gained, is being better able to play all the funk and NOLA tunes that are in Eb. Not to mention all the music written in C. C to C would also be of benefit to the transpose button enthusiasts, who play everything in C. They need products too, bless their hearts!

Those 2 still come in handy for my restaurant piano gigs. Baby Elephant Walk is my go-to whenever a mother comes up to the piano holding a baby- it almost always gets the mama bouncing first, the baby soon after. So far no babies' heads have exploded, thats a good thing.

I always thought of it as the minor pentatonic scale plus the flatted 5th- the scale tone that made my head explode as a kid when I was jamming on the Pink Panther theme and Baby Elephant Walk. But I didn't know nothin bout pentatonics or scale tones then, all I knew was that my head was exploding. And that I liked it.

I’m no fan of playing instrument samples on a keyboard but some things IMO work better than others. Banjo or Cajun accordion samples don’t have nearly the mojo of the real thing but they’re fun if you play them stylistically. Keyboard fiddle, as far as I’m concerned, is only good for goofing on the Motel 6 “we’ll leave the light on for ya” theme. What contributes to the fakeness and cheesiness of keyboard virtual instruments, IMO, is pitch bending. Because with a harmonica or guitar, the timbre changes with the bend, with samples the timbre stays constant. Blues harmonica pitch bending is the worst. Ugh. It’s really not hard to pick out the notes on a diatonic harmonica (as a lot of solo performers have discovered), it’s just a matter of getting a good airtight seal on the individual notes. I think chromatic harmonica comes off better, as it is not so reliant on bending. I’m still fond of Donald Fagan’s synthesized harmonica sound on his Nightfly album. It’s a good example of doing something cool, knowing it’s not going to fool anybody. But I am not abreast of the latest VST’s, unlike some here. I assume things have improved in eliminating the cheese factor in pitch bending and other aspects.

If trumpet wouldn’t do that, flugelhorn would..or should. What the world needs now is Chuck Mangione.

Any reason why the Yamaha CP73 wouldn’t work for a controller? It has MIDI functionality similar to that of the YC73 (AFAIK), similar key bed, cheaper.

As a LLBCWM (low level blue collar working musician) I still like modules, but only tabletop variety, sitting on top of keyboards that have adequate space for them. I regularly use a Keyboard Partners HX3 organ module that holds its own with any emulation IMO. But the creator is constantly tweaking and improving the source software, with each update dumped into hardware devices..I would think that that blurs the lines, somewhat? I also have a non-working Nord Electro 2 rack I intend to rehab as it would be a great compliment to a couple of my gigging boards. I used it for 10 years and it was indispensable. They’re going for $800 range on eBay when available, I wonder if that’s all due to aging hardware die-hards such as myself.. As I have been gifted an iPad (basic model, not Pro) I’m sure the day is coming soon when I show up at a lounge gig with the typically cramped stage area, with nothing but it and my M-Audio Code 61 controller. I’m thinking the Kong Module may be the best bet to get started, hoping I can resist buying a Roland XV-2020 half rack or some such. Sorry for the tangent! Carry on! 🙂

I like my Yamaha CP73 or Kawai ES110 for those situations. For an amp I use my (1st generation) Motion Sound KP100s which sounds good enough- but I would like something lighter and more hifi, so following this thread. I upgraded the stock speakers to better quality Eminence but it wasn’t much of an improvement for AP, It still shines for EP and organ.

I'm mostly a bourbon guy. Beer is like Koolaid to me, I don't drink it much because I have to get bloated before I feel much of an effect. On those occasions I do drink it, it's likely to be Coors Light because that's what they have at the American Legion where I play. Pairs nicely with Copenhagen and Skoal.