Gamers who play musical instruments

Keep it up, staygold! The loss of embouchure is always disheartening to me when I return to my wind instruments... it's the equivalent of losing your calluses on guitar (which I also do). But when you push past that and get to practice again it's always nice. I've got an alto sax in my corner of instruments that I've been meaning to learn... I started on flute, and the fingerings are mostly the same, which is pretty wild.

In the next few weeks I think I will finally pull the trigger on buying a keyboard so that I can try to learn piano. My loose criteria are: no more than $150; should be at least 61 keys; probably would be good to have a stand with it. There are countless examples of this on Amazon (e.g. this one), but does anyone out there have a recommendation, or suggestions for what I should look out for?

Buy a brand name that you recognize as quality. Even though you are looking for a cheaper one, a brand name one won't break after 6 months. Yamaha, Roland is what I would look for, but I am not an expert on keyboards by any stretch of the imagination.

Also not an expert on keyboards, but I did carry around a cheap one for many years hoping to learn. (Finally sold it to a friend whose daughters will actually play it.) One of the things that held me back was not having pedals - it's hard to learn songs that are supposed to have sustain when you don't. Even if you don't buy pedals now, having a model with an input for them would be good.

The other thing was not having full, weighted keys - they were just cantilevered bits of plastic. I think it just improves the feel of the instrument, but what I've learned over many instruments is that if it doesn't feel or sound good to play, you won't play it. An article I found mentioned touch sensitivity, which lets it mimic a piano's volume response. It was hard to play "Say Something" without any sort of emotional crescendo to the playing. These are both things that would drive up the price, and maybe they don't matter to you, but I wanted to mention them as things to consider in case that added niceness would help you enjoy the instrument more.

Agreed on brand names as well. That Yamaha I had has been kicking since somewhere around 2002, survived several multi-state moves, and should hopefully keep going a while longer!

Yes, yes, and yes to all of those keyboard suggestions. Hammer action keys, pedal, and trusted brand should be non-negotiable requirements. You should be able to find that for under $300.00 USD. A stand is also a great idea.

mrlogical wrote:

I claimed that Fender Play 3 months free deal, but am having trouble figuring out where to start. I had 4-5 years of guitar lessons, albeit the last one...jesus...20 years ago now? I've only spent 20-30 minutes with it so far and am just doing little exercises here and there in search of something that's hard enough for me to do.

I'm not missing anything about connectivity on this service, right? This is all just "listen to what you're playing and see if it sounds right", not like Rocksmith or whatever? I don't think it is, but want to make sure I didn't accidentally skip something crucial.

My situation is similar: a few years of lessons and classes 20 years ago, mostly classical guitar, then picking up Rocksmith a little over 2 years ago. Fender Play is much more like a simulation of having a teacher, which I've been thinking about finding to help direct me to some exercises to help with my trouble areas. I went ahead and tried the end of lesson reviews until I found something that wasn't smooth, it was level 3 for me. I've definitely found I've been leaning on Rocksmith's colors and positions, so I'm all about using it get practice in reading standard tab. Also the ukulele path has some lessons on basic singing while playing which my new coworkers are less excited about.

I finished a song! I was channeling my inner Cory Wong and came up with this little thing.

Well, it seems my export went a bit wonky and cut off a couple of minutes. Here's the rest of the song.

Your collective feedback on keyboards was informative but discouraging I think I probably need to set my price target a little higher first, sounds like the bulk of the stuff in the $100-150 range might not be quite up to snuff. I then thought to check The Wirecutter, which has done reviews of "the best digital piano for students" ($1700 for their pick, $850 for the "budget" option) and a separate "best budget digital piano" review ($500 for their pick, with a $400 budget-budget option), so, stymied again. Perhaps for now I will focus my musical inclinations on the guitars I already own and continue to push my plan to learn piano to one day in the future.

Aww, sorry to discourage! I have found that quality matters a lot in instruments though. There is probably a good budget option (well, more budget than those articles) out there for you that's still good to play. Another thing I'd advise is going to stores and trying out different models, see if you can feel/care about the different key responses and the like. Obviously that doesn't work with the state of the world right now, but for the future maybe.

There is a piano specific thread here if anyone has interest. Just having that conversation here is fine too!

First remote guitar lesson this morning. Went pretty well, to be honest.

MikeSands wrote:

First remote guitar lesson this morning. Went pretty well, to be honest.

Nice! Were you taking private lessons before and how did it compare?

No worries! Sometimes the facts are discouraging. At the same time, being realistic, I'm definitely not going to become a professional pianist any time soon, so maybe something affordable that doesn't achieve some basic functions but still lets me put my fingers on the keys and try to play a little piano will serve my purpose for now and if I really get into it I'll just know I may need to spend another $300+ to get any further. I dunno.

These are the most affordable keyboards with hammer action keys and a pedal. I’m looking specifically at the M-Audio, Korg, and Yamaha. I own the Yamaha shown here and it is awesome. I’m sure that the M and the Korg are great as well.

From Amazon
IMAGE(https://i.postimg.cc/mrF19v4S/C09-E3810-CB66-41-FA-813-F-AA5-F1-E8-DCB6-A.png )

From Musician’s Friend
IMAGE(https://i.postimg.cc/GtRDdqZx/FADB02-BA-B23-A-4-FE0-B2-CC-D0-A85-BFFFEED.png )

tuffalobuffalo wrote:

Nice! Were you taking private lessons before and how did it compare?

Yeah, it's a music school that (normally) runs classes on the weekend at the local school. They've arranged for some of the teachers to continue classes over zoom, so it was essentially my regular class with my regular teacher, just remote.

A few things were harder - like when he demonstrated chord fingerings for me, but overall much the same as usual.

MikeSands wrote:
tuffalobuffalo wrote:

Nice! Were you taking private lessons before and how did it compare?

Yeah, it's a music school that (normally) runs classes on the weekend at the local school. They've arranged for some of the teachers to continue classes over zoom, so it was essentially my regular class with my regular teacher, just remote.

A few things were harder - like when he demonstrated chord fingerings for me, but overall much the same as usual.

Nice! Glad both of you can keep it up.

Fredrik_S wrote:

I finished a song! I was channeling my inner Cory Wong and came up with this little thing.

Well, it seems my export went a bit wonky and cut off a couple of minutes. Here's the rest of the song.

YO!! That is sick! How did you record it? I’m assuming you played all guitars and bass. Some sort of drum programming, and some midi horns? How close am I? Very nice guitar work. Both the grooves and the solos were killing.

I’m gonna go listen to it again.

RawkGWJ wrote:
Fredrik_S wrote:

I finished a song! I was channeling my inner Cory Wong and came up with this little thing.

Well, it seems my export went a bit wonky and cut off a couple of minutes. Here's the rest of the song.

YO!! That is sick! How did you record it? I’m assuming you played all guitars and bass. Some sort of drum programming, and some midi horns? How close am I? Very nice guitar work. Both the grooves and the solos were killing.

I’m gonna go listen to it again.

Ah, thanks so much! I use EZ Drummer 2 for all the drums and the horns are midi triggered by Fishman's triple play system I have for my guitar. The guitars and bass are just bass and guitars, and I use TH-U for all amps and fx and such.

CPTNaters wrote:

Love this thread! I've been a longtime listener to the podcast (2008 during the Gorgeous Rob producing days) and lurker occasionally on the forums. Actually came to find out about GWJ from a buddy that used to play drums in an old band back during that time. I'm in a Progressive Metal band out of Fort Wayne Indiana (Cory Banks' hometown) called Thematic. Everyone in the band are nerds and gamers. If you like guitars, catchy melodies, anime, and video games you might like our tunes.

Here's the title track from our latest album Skyrunner:

I'm the bald guy with the 8-string Strandberg Boden and triforce necklace

-Nate

I really like both of those songs. Your songwriting and songcrafting are wonderful. The slide guitar adds a really cool feel to your songs.

Yousician update:
First I want to talk about the price. For a one year subscription it costs $110.00 USD for just the piano lessons. $180.00 USD for everything, which includes piano, guitar, bass, vocals, and ukulele. That is not cheap. To put it in perspective though, how many private lessons with a teacher would $180.00 get you? The guy I use to take lessons from charged $50.00 for 50 minutes.

I thought it would be a little more interesting if you could hear what I’m learning so I made a short video. I’m an amateur at video editing. Please forgive the weird text issues. Also, that’s not me playing. I set it up so that the app is playing the piano parts.

I think Yousician owes me a little something for all the shilling I’m doing for them.

RawkGWJ wrote:
CPTNaters wrote:

Love this thread! I've been a longtime listener to the podcast (2008 during the Gorgeous Rob producing days) and lurker occasionally on the forums. Actually came to find out about GWJ from a buddy that used to play drums in an old band back during that time. I'm in a Progressive Metal band out of Fort Wayne Indiana (Cory Banks' hometown) called Thematic. Everyone in the band are nerds and gamers. If you like guitars, catchy melodies, anime, and video games you might like our tunes.

Here's the title track from our latest album Skyrunner:

I'm the bald guy with the 8-string Strandberg Boden and triforce necklace

-Nate

I really like both of those songs. Your songwriting and songcrafting are wonderful. The slide guitar adds a really cool feel to your songs.

Thank you!! I appreciate the kind words. Speaking of Skyrunner, I actually have a cool update I'd love to share with you all. We've released a full length 16-bit animation tie in video for the album. I hope you all enjoy it and it brightens your quarantine days.

Had to redo our basement due to water damage, decided making the guitar display pretty was a priority. Got a String Swing to hang most of the guitars (cheapest acoustic and electric not included), and they look, put simply, cool.

IMAGE(http://u.cubeupload.com/MilkmanDanimal/StringSwing.jpg)

Front to back, Hagstrom Super Viking, Epiphone Dot, Tacoma DM2, Hagstrom Ultra Swede, Charvel Desolation. Neglected to think about how dry my basement is, and for some reason, after owning it for around 22 years and almost indescribable amounts of abuse, I picked it up the other night and there's a straight-line crack from the bottom of the bridge to the edge. As clean as it is, it has to have been a two-piece top, glued together, because it's perfectly down the middle. Somehow, I feel like taking it to a guitar shop is not going to happen, so it's back in a case with a humidifier (where it's typically lived), but this was the first good guitar I ever bought, and I've spent thousands of hours with it. Sigh.

CPTNaters wrote:

Thank you!! I appreciate the kind words. Speaking of Skyrunner, I actually have a cool update I'd love to share with you all. We've released a full length 16-bit animation tie in video for the album. I hope you all enjoy it and it brightens your quarantine days.

Holy cow.. that's a full length movie. Gonna have to find some time to check it out.

I found one of those as well in my nice acoustic. I want to build an enclosed case now not only for dust prevention but proper humidity.

RawkGWJ wrote:

Yousician update:
First I want to talk about the price. For a one year subscription it costs $110.00 USD for just the piano lessons. $180.00 USD for everything, which includes piano, guitar, bass, vocals, and ukulele. That is not cheap. To put it in perspective though, how many private lessons with a teacher would $180.00 get you? The guy I use to take lessons from charged $50.00 for 50 minutes.

Yeah, FWIW I've been taking Skype lessons for a few months now. $195/month for weekly 1 hour lessons.

ColdForged wrote:
RawkGWJ wrote:

Yousician update:
First I want to talk about the price. For a one year subscription it costs $110.00 USD for just the piano lessons. $180.00 USD for everything, which includes piano, guitar, bass, vocals, and ukulele. That is not cheap. To put it in perspective though, how many private lessons with a teacher would $180.00 get you? The guy I use to take lessons from charged $50.00 for 50 minutes.

Yeah, FWIW I've been taking Skype lessons for a few months now. $195/month for weekly 1 hour lessons.

Apologies, if I’m flogging a dead horse here.

If I thought it was a crappy product I’d be pretty angry, and I’d probably ask for my money back. Yousician is a high quality product. I’m kind of amazed at how good it is. When it comes to music, I’m pretty damn picky. Yousician isn’t perfect. There are some minor interface issues and a few features that I feel are missing. But they got all of the important stuff right. When playing four note chords, it knows when I’ve played just one wrong note. And it doesn’t give any false misses either. When I play the chord accurately it knows. That’s more than I can say for Rocksmith. Rocksmith gave me false misses all the damn time. It got to the point where I stopped paying attention to Rocksmith’s assessments of my playing and just tried to enjoy the experience.

SallyNasty wrote:

If you haven't already, Fender still offering 3 months of online lessons for FREE. I have been dabbling there and the lessons look fairly solid, depending on your level of play. Good way to supplement your lessons while stuck inside.

Hey gang, if you didn't get in on this earlier - they extended it to 1 million accounts. I will probably subscribe(pay) once it ends as I am actually enjoying it.

I don’t know how good this app is. All I know is that it’s had a price drop from $8.99USD down to $0.99. It seems like the thing that sets it apart is that you can give it a chord progression and it makes a looping backing track that follows your chords. It has several different versions covering various genres. I’m going to buy the core version and probably the jazz and funk versions. I have no idea how long the discount will last.

SessionBand Original

edit
After spending like 2 minutes with it I decided to get the original, jazz2 and 3, drums, blues and rock. Still not sure how legit it is, but it seems to be really good. Caveat: there is a funk and soul version which is free but costs $9.99 to unlock the app.

I've never really recorded anything, but with the break and with trying to improve I've been noodling some. This ain't Podunk-level by any stretch, but I was curious about trying an intro for our hopeful future gigs based on an old favorite. Behold!

ColdForged wrote:

IBehold!

Excellent! Is the intro part an original composition or is it lifted from somewhere else?

If it’s an original you should think about adding vocals to it. I don’t know how much of a sense of humor you have about your music, but you could do a Spinal-Tap-ish thing like


We are Hellion
From the beyond
We have come to...
ROCK! YOU!!