Keyboard chord finder helpful?

[LiveMusic]

I have a Yamaha PSR740 but I am not an accomplished player. I play guitar. But just to start getting my feet wet, would it be helpful to have a keyboard chord finder? I saw one by Snarling Dog, I think it was, about $30 or so. Would this be any better than my chord book that shows fingering for both guitar and piano? Maybe the device would be faster, I dunno.

 

Do you think this would be a helpful way to get to actually be playing some tunes... adding some accompaniment to my guitar playing. I'm just wanting to start using this keyboard but I do not want to take piano lessons. At this time anyway. Just seems to me that for those chords that I don't know, I could punch it in and instantly see how to play that chord.

 

Any comments?

 

Bottom line, I bought this keyboard but it's gathering dust and the guitar is getting all the play. I'm wanting to use it, so if you have any tips for learning keyboard, advise, please!

 

------------------

Duke

[Blue]

I'm not what one would call an "accomplished keyboard player" either, but since it looks like you aren't getting much replies so far, I'll try to throw in my 2 cents...

 

I'm not sure of the level you are exactly trying to achieve, but I think the chord finder should be useful just as an emergency resort... I wouldn't like to have to rely on such a thing. Even if I have to play some strange chord I don't know by memory, I'd rather deduce it mentally than having to use a device to show me. I'm not saying it's bad, but it's like a crutch that sooner or later one should abandon, isn't it? Moreover, I guess that little machine won't give you the fingerings, will it? Finding good fingerings to ease the progressions as much as possible is nearly as important as the notes in the chord itself.

 

In short: If you can't locate any chord in the keyboard right now, it wouldn't be a bad idea to use the chord finder -- but only as a medium in the learning process.

 

Regarding the other general question about learning to play the keyboard... I'm sure a lot of people here will give you better advices than the ones I can give you since I'm still learning, or even that friend of yours who play the piano possibly could give you some advice. Anyway, learning scales and chords (and the correct fingerings for them) is part of the process if you are serious.

 

Cheers

 

 

------------------

= blue =

[Bobro]

Well here's my opinion, you know what they say about opinions. http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

 

When you get a new piece of gear, or learn a new scale or chord or theory, make a tune with it and record it. That's it.

 

I learned this approach from a friend who is a very fine musician- he has always done this without thinking about it and I noticed the pattern years ago and followed suit.

 

Fire up the Yamaha, roll the tape and make a tune from beginning to end. It doesn't matter one bit if it's good or bad. If you're not sure about a certain chord, just play it anyway. You'll hear when it's wrong and then your natural instinct will lead you to whatever you need to do to make it right. Rinse and repeat.

 

I remember when my grandfather bought a new truck, a real beauty. A week of heavy work later, it had its first big dent. He was very relieved and said "now I can drive the dang thing".

 

-CB

[Marvster]

Hmmm, the PSR-350 (which is substantially less than the 740) has a nifty little "chord dictionary" already built-in. You can enter any root, all major chord types and the most common extensions, AND look at the chord in its inversions.

 

The chord notes show on a piano graphic and also on an onscreen grand staff (standard notation), and the keyboard gives you a cute ding-dong sound when you hit the correct keys.

 

Are you sure the 740 doesn't also have this function? Might save you $30....

 

Marv