Does anyone play the piano/keyboard?

[Sparks!]

I've always wished I was musical, would absolutely love to be able to play an instrument, used to have a guitar back at school, was never any good with it though to be fair I didn't really practice much or have lessons though

Anyway, I am really considering learning an instrument and I've got a thing for piano covers of songs, and I think I might be a bit better at learning the piano than guitar!

So, can anyone reccomend a cheap learner keyboard? advice or tips etc.. don't want to spend a fortune just yet, just something to get me started.. ASDA do have a keyboard for £25 61 key, looks a bit cheap though but might do the trick?

Was planning on learning the basic keys then just trying to learn songs from the hundreds of youtube "how to play.... X" videos there are.
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[Paulington]

I play Piano and drums. I started on a Yamaha YPT210, about £80 iirc. I've had that 3 years or so and it's still going strong! Casio do some slightly cheaper ones which are decent quality.

Occasionally in the Trade-It! you get Upright pianos free to collector. They are quite heavy so if you can move it out people are usually happy to give it to you.

If you want a hand learning, give us a shout. .
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[The Shaggy D.A.]

The ASDA keyboard looks like cheap Chinese tat, I'd avoid it. The Yamaha PSR range is a good starting point, you can pick up one of the older models on eBay from £20 up. Try to get a 61 key model, if you've got the space go for an 88 key.

The other route is to go with a USB keyboard and use it on the PC - I use a Korg K61. That way you have a lot of virtual synthesizers available, so you're not limited to the more tinny sounding presets.
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[Sparks!]

This one any good?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/YAMAHA-PSR-160-Keyboard-Yamaha-Lessons-Music-Rest_W0QQitemZ170419789868QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_MusicalInstr_Keyboard_RL?hash=item27adcfa02c

Or this one but not sure how much hes after

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/YAMAHA-PSR-175-Keyboard-Mint_W0QQitemZ280437651270QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_MusicalInstr_Keyboard_RL?hash=item414b62f746
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Current Toys: Honda Africa Twin for road & touring | Yamaha WR426 for the muddy stuff and enduros

Life is an adventure.

[The Shaggy D.A.]

Of the two I'd go for the 175, for the extra octave. Either will be OK for you to start with though.
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[lostboy]

I'm learning my missus to play the radio.

I play the keyboard badly and you need one thing to play other than a keyboard patience, go to toys r us plenty of good sized keyboards there for around £70 to learn to play on.
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[Phoenix]

Just go for one with 61 full size keys no half arsed ones. It's best you scan youtube aswell to see how they sound if you can't go to a music shop and try them out, sound sampling varies considerably and you want a good one because with crappy sampling nothing you play will sound any good. I have a Korg i4S, it's pretty old and bloody heavy but it's a good keyboard, i'd love a piano purely for the proper sound but I don't really have the room nor can I play well enough to justify the cost and space sacrifice.

[Mr Dunkable]

I play the piano... have done for years.

had a thread a wee while back about it, me asking for pieces to play.

I don't play keyboard but i play piano... if you get me?

So i can't really reccommend any keyboards, but i can say that the yamaha digital pianos are awesome.

i got mine last year and it's great, MIDI output/input and the like.

To be honest, i think you should get some lessons to start with when you get yourself a keyboard/piano.

Learn how to read music first, then work your way up.

I already knew how to read music and the like before i started playing, i also play guitar so i've always been pretty musical...

But if you get lessons and work your way up, you'll be able to play more and more stuff. I only did my grades up to grade 4 before stopping that, now i just get some music and learn it. Harder stuff than most can play

So, i say learn piano

Although if you do that, you'll have to play more classical style pieces to start with, and when you get better you can move onto piano covers of songs.

hope this helps

Dunc
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[Paulington]

[Ste]

This chicken has got impressive keyboard skills.
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[Mr Dunkable]

[Annabella]

I agree with Dunc, learning to play the piano is more transferable to playing the keyboard than the other way around.

However, pianos are expensive and take up lots of space. Try and find a keyboard with weighted keys if possible. Make sure there are 88 full sized keys too
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[Dragonfly]

I used to have the coolest keyboard every that cost about £400 and was limited edition to. But had to sell it to save house which I wish I didnt do at that time but I know who owns it and they will not sel me it back. God I love that thing I have a piano now which needs tuned and can get boring, you can only ppretendyour playing classical to ppeoplewho are wearing formal wear and not ssynthstar in concert with people with multi ccolouredhair and big shoes.

Anyhow pay a bit more and make sure you can hit more than one key at a time or its annoying,touch response to!
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[Shreddie]

[Sparks!]

I don't even know what a professional synthesiser is (nor can I spell it lol !) I just want a basic keyboard to learn on. The person selling the PSR-175 wont sell out of auction so i'll see how the bids go.. if not I'll keep looking for another yamaha or a casio.

I don't intend on getting lessons really, don't see point in piano lessons as I'll prob never get to play a real piano .. maybe keyboard lessons but I'll see how I go with trying to learn from youtube
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Current Toys: Honda Africa Twin for road & touring | Yamaha WR426 for the muddy stuff and enduros

Life is an adventure.

[Shreddie]

[pitslayer]

I sort of do, I have a few classic 80s keyboards, brother has a few synths as well, but being a Guitar player keyboard isn't to hard to play I just cant be bothered to transcribe lol can play
Axel F
Mortal Kombat
Take on me
Poker face
Top Gun theme
Improv canon in D

[Shreddie]

[neil.]

I'm not a professional keys player by any means, but I do play the guitar/bass and am a sound engineer and train people to use a certain DAW package, as well as provide tech support to folks using the keyboards/pianos where I work.

I would like to add to the already-excellent advice given by Shreddie and say it might be a good idea to get down to your local music shop and try out different keyboards/stage pianos. You may or may not like weighted keys and different manafacturers use different methods to weight their keys so they all feel different. Weighted keyboards are also more expensive than those that are not (at entry level anyway), so if it's something you're don't end up sticking with, you'd have spent more money on it. Your playing style may also mean that you don't want weighted keys (or it could mean that you do!). I would also consider tuition if you feel serious enough about taking it up.

Yamaha stuff is really well built and the sound librarys are excellent IMO - to me they've always come out on top with the sounds you get for that price bracket, and their XG standard craps all over GS and GM (more sounds, more effects etc). I personally decided on getting 2 P70 weighted keyboards for our department and they have done very well and are popular with the students. We also have 4 PSR-E303s as an unweighted option, and a Motif 8 kicking about (bloody awesome).

Add a computer into the mix and then you're gonna enter a whole world of 'fun'!

You never know, you may end up like this guy:


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2005 YBR125 | CBT 22nd February 2008, Theory passed 6th May 2008, A2 passed 27th June 2008.

[pitslayer]

[Sparks!]

Well I got myself a new yamaha keyboard!! Learning off of YouTube is hard but I've learnt basic chords so far and learning some songs like beatles - let it be. Albeit a basic chord version still sounds really good

all in all not as easy as it looks but really like it and want to keep learning
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Current Toys: Honda Africa Twin for road & touring | Yamaha WR426 for the muddy stuff and enduros

Life is an adventure.

[hellkat]

I wish I did.
I had lessons when I were a nipper, but I bunked, cos the nun who was teaching me kept rapping me on the knuckles with her ruler when I played a wrong note

Now I love listening to piano music
In fact, can I just take this moment to brag:
I'm going to hear Ludovico Einaudi at the Royal Albert Hall in March
*bought meself a ticket for Xmas, woot, can't wait*

Am tempted to feck orf to Pescara to see my mate Gianni, and go see Einaudi there, as well... business and pleasure, always good.
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[Mr Dunkable]

[bwfc4eva86]

Grandpa used to be a music teacher so he taught me to Grade 3 on the piano while i was at High School, then Beer and boobs became more interesting.

Just started to get into Producing my own Trance Tracks, so now i have Logic studio and Yamaha MM6 Synthesizer.

http://www.musiciansbuy.com/mmMBCOM/images/yamaha_mm6yamkit.jpg

Still never be as good as Above & Beyond, but im having a go
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