Has anyone successfully learned to play keyboards after 40 years of playing guitar? I mean I get the theory and all, in fact it seems easier to understand chords and scales on a keyboard than on guitar but my hands are very clumsy in that position and strangely after fretting with my left hand for 40 years my right hand is more dexterous on the keyboard and the left is stupid again.

Maybe I should take some lessons.

Have you looked at a Roland GR55 guitar synthesizer? Unless you really want to learn a keyboard.

Mark, are you still practicing singing while playing? Just curious.

As a long time keyboard player, I'm of the opinion that if you can play guitar, you can pick up the keyboard without too much trouble. The left hand is what gives most people trouble, and if you can already play chords on the fretboard, you're way ahead of the pack. Lessons are always a good idea. Let us know how it goes.

Mark

If you are interested I will loan you my ARP2600 reissue to play with for awhile

quote:

Originally posted by ChicagoSigMan:
As a long time keyboard player, I'm of the opinion that if you can play guitar, you can pick up the keyboard without too much trouble. The left hand is what gives most people trouble, and if you can already play chords on the fretboard, you're way ahead of the pack. Lessons are always a good idea. Let us know how it goes.

Being a lefty guitar player, I assume this could be an advantage on the keyboards?

quote:

Originally posted by nhtagmember:
Mark

If you are interested I will loan you my ARP2600 reissue to play with for awhile

Yeeeeeeee! That’s quite an offer.

Was the 2600 the synth from Close Encounters?

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Originally posted by 6guns:
Mark, are you still practicing singing while playing? Just curious.

My practice has been lazy at best.

quote:

Originally posted by mark123:

quote:

Originally posted by nhtagmember:
Mark

If you are interested I will loan you my ARP2600 reissue to play with for awhile

Yeeeeeeee! That’s quite an offer.

Was the 2600 the synth from Close Encounters?

I looked it up. Close Encounters was the 2500. R2-D2 was the 2600.

Mark - it’s a 2600 reissue by Korg. It’s 60% of the size of my original 2600 and it’s a patch cord monophonic unit.

If you’re still interested drop me an email and I will box it up and ship it to you.

If nothing else, it’s fun to poke around on

Yes it will help you learn faster by already having chord/scales/rhythm knowledge. You just have to learn the mechanics of working the keyboard.

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Originally posted by Butch 2340:
Yes it will help you learn faster by already having chord/scales/rhythm knowledge. You just have to learn the mechanics of working the keyboard.

Yeah, it’s not so easy making the fingers do what the brain knows.

Any easy songs to learn on keyboard?

I would suspect that achieving left-right independence would be the hard part. With guitar, your hands work (pretty much) together, unless you are Mark Knopfler or someone like that. With a keyboard, you are playing a bass part with the left hand and a melody with the right, sometimes these note sequences are barely connected to each other, in a musical sense. Touch typing probably transfers more skills.

There are lots of songs that are pretty easy to learn. Home Sweet Home by Motley Crue is super easy, based in C.

If you understand the root/third/fifth/seventh theory then you're already ahead of the game. One challenge is that (like the guitar) a lot of keyboard chords are best voiced in a musical context using inversions. Right hand is typically color and melody, left hand is bass/octaves.

Watch some youtube videos on how to properly finger chords. No rules of course, but there are classical mechanics.

There are an amazing amount of resources on youtube now. Lessons for almost every pop song you can name, with multi-camera angles, keyboard visualization, scrolling music, etc.

The key is to find songs you want to play and decide you're going to learn to play them, and just keep figuring it out until you can.


Do you mean more on the synth side (i.e. "Jump" by Van Halen), or just keyboards in general?

Just wanted to mention a few things from running a studio for years. Get your first, that is high quality with nice keys and such. After that if you buy another you can go rack mount for space and use #1 to play the keys on the rack mount and every subsequent rack mount you purchase.

quote:

Originally posted by Butch 2340:
Yes it will help you learn faster by already having chord/scales/rhythm knowledge. You just have to learn the mechanics of working the keyboard.

I knew guitar before playing piano/keyboards, never had formal lessons. This video showcases pretty much exactly how I learned, how I taught myself. Like McCartney, I can't read music, but I can still squeeze out tunes and melodies. In an old life, I used to compose and record my own songs, so I used that knowledge to learn keyboards.

I have a little Roland JDXi and i REALLY like it.
I'm not a keyboard player but I can play it OK.

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Originally posted by ScreamingCockatoo:
I have a little Roland JDXi and i REALLY like it.
I'm not a keyboard player but I can play it OK.

Here's what I'm working with now:

• M-audio Keystation 49e
• Akai MPC Live
• Old school stereo

I need more room here. I'm going to put the stereo, record player and records under the bench.

quote:

Originally posted by Prefontaine:
Just wanted to mention a few things from running a studio for years. Get your first, that is high quality with nice keys and such. After that if you buy another you can go rack mount for space and use #1 to play the keys on the rack mount and every subsequent rack mount you purchase.

Someone local is selling a Roland VK-8 that I was thinking of picking up but they have mixed reviews.

quote:

Originally posted by fwbulldog:
... Do you mean more on the synth side (i.e. "Jump" by Van Halen), or just keyboards in general?

I'd like to be able to semi-competently play a keyboard but I do like the thick synth sounds better than a tinkling piano.

I am not a huge fan of the beep-boop synth tones (for example Rainbow in the Dark by Dio, bleh, that song can do without the keyboard altogether) but those thick and rumbling and atmospheric tones are more my style.