Anyone play piano? I figured I'd start a thread so that I have a place to discuss my current experiences. I purchased a Kawai CE220 a year ago or so. I played classical piano up into a bit of college but then stopped for 8 years or so. It's been incredibly rewarding to get back into it the last year or so. So, the CE220 has been great because the wooden keys really give it a fairly authentic touch. At any rate, it's good enough that I can stand to play it. The sound isn't great, though. In retrospect, I probably should have just purchased the Kawai VPC1 and built a cabinet for it. I recently bought Synthogy's Ivory II American Concert D VST, so I'm now bypassing the internal sound processing.
The Ivory II American Concert D is just an amazing sample library. It's 49 GB worth of samples and it's absolutely incredible sounding. The way notes decay is just fantastic. It's very realistic. They even have pedal noise samples!
Here is a recording I made of a The Secret Life of Daydreams. Let me know what you think and any criticism is more than welcome! Listen for that pedal noise. It's there if you have good headphones and the volume is up. I tried to keep it subtle. Let me know what you think.
The only issue with Ivory II is that I'm getting some static/clipping issues for some reason. I haven't been able to isolate the cause yet. That's one reason why I recorded a very simple piece to begin with. The clipping occurs when many notes are played loudly. I have the settings tweaked so that I can get through Clair de Lune without issue, so that'll probably be what I tackle next.
Here's what my current setup looks like:
My goal eventually is to get a Kawai K5 upright so that I can avoid this whole digital thing, but for now, I'm getting by. I'll post stuff about my current repertoire at a later date.
I played a lot of piano as a kid. Finished my Grade 8 Royal Conservatory and went on to play other instruments. We have a piano, but I never play... I really should pick it up again.
Any tips on getting back into it?
Sounds great! Nice rubato and flow, it was beautiful. I'm totally not a pianist and may be full of it, but maybe slightly more connected/longer notes in the right hand to emphasize the cantabile marking? Could be something with the virtual sounds and sustain or whatever too.
Congrats for bravely posting! I wonder how a tuba solo would be received...
3. Pick 1 simple piece you really like and focus on that as your goal.
So... Not this then?
Yeah the electronic/virtual piano sound is pretty good. Virtual sounds for wind/brass range from almost acceptable to downright awful!
ugh.. Chopin
If you want to try a slightly game-ified approach Songs2See (and steam link) might be of interest, particularly if someone else has already done the work of converting the songs you're interested in into playable form.
I have not used it myself but it certainly looks like a useful learning tool.
I'm sorta looking at getting the model you have. I was in Walton's (probably best known music shop over here) one day though and the Yamaha rep was randomly visiting and charmed me into playing with higher Yamahas. I now need to go back and play the kawai's again. Oh decisions, it's a lot of money:/ no major rush, since I used the cash I was gong to spend to pay off my car loan, I'll be a while saving up again! My bro has the slightly older version of the kawai. My dad hates it, but I really like the feel of it when I'm playing.
I've never played actual piano, but I have a diploma in teaching the electronic organ from 10 years ago. Currently playing timpani in a brass band (the genesis of my lust to learn music again) for the last two years and learning the French horn since November. Horn is bloomin' hard!
Good stuff. My daughter actually taught herself how to play piano (well a keyboard anyway) and read music solely by watching youtube!
I haven't touched a Yamaha digital in years, but my sister had an older model of one of those Kawai's that had the same kind of weighted keys, and it was light years beyond the Yamaha's tech at the time.
You know what, I was wrong. i was full sure that was the model i was looking at. I just went back to my emails with my brother from last year and found the right number.
I'm going to try out the Kawai CA65. My bro has the older model of it. The corresponding Yamaha would be either the Clavinova 470 iirc (but as you can see a iirc from me ain't worth much).
There is only one Kawai dealer in Ireland, and it is in Dublin however, so I have to really make a full day of it to try these out close together...and then order from the internet to save a couple of hundred quid. I do like the feel of my brother's Kawai alright. I was doing a bit of reading about them a while back and people said that the choice comes down to which you like playing more. More people seemed to go for the Kawai at that point.
Edit: That is awesome karmajay. She must be really interested in playing to do that! I'm planning on learning piano for the technique (and I'm in love with classical piano music for the last two years). Playing the organ technique was definitely part of it, but the piano is a whole other ball game. I'm going to get a teacher to make sure I develop all the good habits right from the start. I'm a bit lucky in that I can skip all the theory and (albeit rusty) reading skills and jump right into playing.
I'd love a real piano as well, but I'm a renter so no joy! It is the sound that my dad doesn't like on my brother's one. I don't mind it so much, and he does have very nice headphones with it. I'm half hoping to convince them to sell me theirs, since my sis in law just had a baby and they didn't play it much in the first place - they said I've played their piano on my visits more than they have. haha.
The biggest problem with piano shopping is that the place in Dublin has all their stunning grand pianos on the ground floor. By the time you get to the top floor where all the digital ones are you are a drooling mess from oogling the vintage beauties.
I wonder how a tuba solo would be received... :)
Igor Kamenz
Honestly, I wouldn't have minded the Schumann you linked but the octaves on that piano seemed WAY off. Unless it was some sort of "performance practices of Schumann's time dictated a slightly out-of-tune piano," it sounded to me like... he was playing on a slightly out-of-tune piano.
The second interpretation was much better, plus it had the added bonus of a properly tuned instrument.
Arise!!!
Tuffalo, did you stick with this? Currently cooped up at home I've been debating trying piano again. I only played up through late grade school, so I'm way rustier, but I've always wanted to try an instrument again and digital pianos are quite reasonable these days.
Oh, awesome. Thanks for the links. I’m thinking of buying this. Just something basic to play around and maybe learn.
Donner DEP-20 Beginner Digital 88 Key Full Size Weighted Keyboard, Portable Electric Piano with Sustain Pedal, Power Supply
Timely!
My daughter (7) recently started taking lessons (since cancelled) and I thought I'd try to re-learn. I played between the ages of 6-11 or so before sports started demanding all my after-school time. My wife's uncle, who is a musician, recommended this Casio after hearing it recently and comparing it to the Yamaha that he uses as a cheap 'play around with' keyboard.
Now that I decided to re-learn, I have no idea where to start. Maybe I'll check out that Alfred book. Anyone have thoughts on the kindle version of stuff like that? I do have an iPad Pro for work that I could put the book on to be readable at the keyboard, but I worry that it's the kind of book where I'll be wanting to flip back and forth between pages a lot and I find that process to be less than ideal with digital books.
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