1st Piano

By Mike Shaw If you're reading this article, you must think you or someone you know is too old to learn to play a piano, keyboard or organ or any musical instrument for that matter. So lets give you the quick answer, "no you are not too old". Now I think I should actually re-phrase the question, "Do I want to learn to play a musical instrument?" If you can ask yourself this question, whatever age you are, then you should be able to answer positively. So let's assume you have reached retirement age and you are in your sixties. Let's also assume you have some saving and a pension and you need a hobby to fill up your time. You decide that you want to learn to play a keyboard instrument. The next step is, do you want to learn to play an arranger keyboard or electric organ. If you want a new electric organ such as the Roland Atelier, its going to cost you anything up to twenty thousand pounds. Having said that, the organ market is all but dead...

By Mike Shaw Over the past ten years or so, electric organ sales have slumped to all time low. Yet the arranger keyboard market continues to flourish, especially with keyboards such as the Yamaha Tyros, Korg PA-1X and the Roland G70. In my opinion, the organ is much more playable as a live instrument, and using bass pedals, you can play the organ without any drum machine or automatic chords and get a fantastic sound. The keyboard on the other hand would sound thin, definitely lacking without auto chord/bass. Of course, arranger keyboards are considerably cheaper than new organs and take up less room. This has created a new generation of keyboard players, some of which could never afford the hefty cost of an organ. So is this the end for the electric organ. So how do organ manufacturers address this problem? Well they were and still are designed to be a piece of furniture. Great big lumps of wood, which appeal to the older generation, which is why they have the reputation...

The first thing to consider when choosing the instrument you want to learn is which one do you like the best. If you like them all, then we can move onto which one is the most practical for you. The easiest and cheapest option is the keyboard. You can buy a keyboard for less then 100.00 and you only need to learn to read music for the right hand. The left hand is made easy because you just learn left hand chords as you need them. Typically, you would start with C chord and G chord. With a keyboard, you should be playing a simple tune within a day, it's that easy. The piano is a more expensive option. If you buy a real piano (not electric) then you need the room, if you go for the electric option then you really should be looking at an 88 note keyboard especially if you intend taking exams. With piano sheet music, you will need to learn to read right hand (treble clef) and left hand (bass clef). You can expect to play a simple tune within a week, based on at least half a...