For my birthday - Part 2

This post continues with notes about my recent 63rd birthday. My last post was about the things we did to celebrate but this time I'm going to talk about a gift I got myself.

I have played the piano since I was about 6 years old. At first, my parents found old upright pianos that people were giving away. Then, they bought me a spinet piano. Then, when I moved away from home I took the piano with me because neither of my parents played. But as I moved around, the hardest thing to take with me was the piano. But I couldn't leave it behind. Playing the piano is like a combination of expressing emotions, reacting to beauty, creating art and providing entertainment. Leaving that behind was never an option. But then, in the 1980's, electronic keyboards became more practical and useful. They actually sounded good and weren't just gimmicks. Also, the key sensors were good enough that when you hit the keys with different velocities, the sound changed like it would in a real instrument. Also, you could connect a digital piano to a computer and record what you were playing and then play it back and accompany yourself. Also, you could purchase orchestral scores and enter each of the parts yourself and play it back through sound modules that sounded a lot like the instruments of a real orchestra. It was like having your own orchestra at your disposal but every part had your own individual interpretation.

But one limitation was always that the keyboards didn't feel right. They usually only had 61 keys and the keys didn't have the right feel to them. They were too easy to press and didn't offer the right feedback. Playing too long on those keyboards would ruin your touch for a real piano. Then I bought a Roland A80 keyboard controller It felt just like a real piano (and weighted over 40 pounds!) but it was only a controller. It also cost over $1,000. It made no sounds of its own. And the sound modules needed an amplifier. Over the years, I had all that stuff but it was hard to have enough room to keep it all going and whenever we changed the house around, it was hard finding a new place for all the stuff. When we moved, my amplifiers got ruined in storage and I haven't played by electronic instruments in over 7 years.

Enter the Yamaha P-35 (pictured above). It has everything I need all in one package. It has an 88-key keyboard that feels like a real piano. The piano sound is magnificent and it has its own amplifier and speakers. Plus, it has a headphone jack so I can practice and play as loudly as I want and make as many mistakes as I do and not bother anyone! It's like a dream come true. And all this for only $449. At that price, you know it's not perfect. It comes with 10 different sounds: two different grand pianos, two different electronic pianos, two different pipe organs, two different harpsichords, a string section and a vibraphone. I wish they would have replaced one of the harpsichords with a jazz organ and one of the pipe organs with a drum kit. But I bought it for practicing and performing the piano. Who cares what other sounds it makes? It comes with a duo mode that would be great for teaching (you each use half the keyboard but the sounds are in the same octave) and it even has a metronome.  It has MIDI ports (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) so you can hook it up to other sound modules and a computer, too. Many newer keyboards only have USB connections for a computer. That limits what you can connect to. I get excited just talking about it.

But if that wasn't enough, I found a great music store in Austin, TX called Austin Bazaar that sells this piano and includes a stand for the keyboard, bench to sit on and headphones at no additional charge. It's everything you need but at the same price that other places sell only the piano.

If I can figure out how to include a sound recording on this blog, I may record some of the things I play with this wonderful piano. That is, if I ever take time away from playing it!

[Update: Something else I wanted to add about this keyboard. I almost didn't get it because the P-35 has only 32-note polyphony. That means it can only produce 32 sounds at once. Here's a link to a short description of polyphony at the Yamaha site. You might think that's no problem because you have only 10 fingers and even if you're playing in Duo Mode, there would be at most 20 fingers. The problem comes in when some of the keys continue to make a sound after you release the key. That's the case when there is a decay of the sound like a normal piano. The sound doesn't just stop when you release the key like in an electronic organ. And the key sounds even longer when you hold the damper pedal. So, is 32-note polyphony a problem? Not that I have found so far. I use the pedal a lot (probably too much) and I am an advanced pianist and I'm often hitting 8-10 keys at once a lot. I have yet to hear a note being cut off when one of the 32 sound generators switches over to a more recent key press. Yamaha has somehow figured out how to handle this well. Granted, their newer keyboards have higher polyphony that this (most have 128-note polyphony) but that may have been to take some of the strain off the microprocessor doing the voice switching. I am more impressed than ever with this keyboard! I am glad I bought it.]