Helloooo?

JamZ · 04-06-2001, 09:31 PM

What a great idea! I love having this here!
Well, Keyboard Freak, since we seem to be the only two who like to post here . . .
Do you play for your worship service, then? I play for our youth group. I love it. I find it much easier to worship when I'm playing keys than when I'm in the congregation.
I don't know much about the new equipment. My mom works in a large music store locally, but she's in the office, so I don't get as much exposure to that kinda thing. I'm concentrating more on guitar right now, as well. I found a nice Fender (Squire Affinity Strat) that I'm planning on buying later this year. I even get to use her discount for it.
Anyways, I actually have things I'd like to ask another pianist.

First, our youth group has this really nasty-sounding old Roland. We hook it up to another, smaller board (not sure what kind). The smaller one sounds okay alone, but the sound comes through the large board. I'm not much of a sound guru, but I can't figure anyway to make it sound better.

Next, I've started putting more ornamentation in my music. I can work long runs, arpeggios, and glissandos into the music somewhere. I'm kinda stuck now. Any ideas for freshening the sound up a bit?

Thanks for listening to me! Any advice you can give is helpful. I'm just glad to finally have someone to talk to about piano and stuff.

JamZ

Nate · 04-07-2001, 08:35 AM

Yes..... I play keys in our praise band. We also have a piano player, which forces me to change up my sound a lot. I can't just duplicate what the piano is doing. We play mostly contemporary praise songs....... like "Shout To The Lord" and "Lord, I Lift Your Name On High" We also do a couple of other songs..... like "Jesus Freak" and "Deeper" and "Get Down"

About the old keyboard...... there's really not that much in the way of mixers and effects that you can do to make the board sound better. If it's just a bad-sounding board... you really can't change that much. What you could do, if the old board has MIDI, is buy a sound module (like the Roland JV-1010) and use the sounds from that. Or you could just buy a new keyboard...... I don't know how willing your church would be to do either of those. But you can get a very nice keyboard for around $1000

On "Freshening up the sound"........ the main thing is to actually change the sound every now and then. Use your classic soft rock electric piano sound for softer songs.... then change to a funkier sound for faster stuff....... maybe do an organ now and then. This gets you out of a rut really fast. Also...... try adding some more variety in your rhythms........... try some syncopation (playing on the upbeat). Try playing octaves in the left hand if you normally play chords.... or playing chords if you normally play octaves. Keep the bass line interesting........ try to change notes, change octaves, change something. Don't just play one note or chord every 4 beats. About the runs, try some chord runs, do like you would do with a normal run..... but do it a little slower (do eighths instead of sixteenths, quarter notes instead of eighths, etc) and play chords instead of single notes, and don't just play a scale. Repeat some notes.... do weird up and down cadence thingys...... change the rhythm of the runs (maybe do like a quarter note chord, and then run up with a few sixteenths or eighths to a different chord and then run up again) Well..... I hope some of that helps..... look forward to hearing from you again.

nealb · 04-07-2001, 05:09 PM

I've got an casio keyboard at home - but it's not really that great for sounds, only the 127 MIDI voices - In church we have a big cool Korg keyboard with a touch screen and everything, but "i can't get no satisfaction" with my wee casio once I've played played the big one. There about six banks of around 200 voices and its just a pleasure to play. I kinda like the sound of that module you were talking about - is it as versatile as a keyboard with loads of voices, and are they really expensive? The casio has MIDI and i've got the leads and stuff for it. Sounds like fun!

neal

James · 04-07-2001, 05:16 PM

Wow, this is cool. I never expected this many people played boards here. And this is only the second day this forum has been up. This is awsome.

Jamz, about getting a fresher sound. I don't know if you have a violinist or a cello player, but I do know that alot of strings have a good sounding effect in a praise band.

If your keyboard does have different types of strings, or maybe a symphony sound, that would be a great way to "freshin' up" the sound of your band.

I know my keyboard has super slow, slow, moderate, fast, and super fast strings. If you do have some of these try using the fast ones for upbeat songs, and use the slower ones for the slower songs. They sound awsome!

I hope this helps you out.
Peace!

Nate · 04-08-2001, 01:01 PM

Hey Neal........... Sound modules are very versatile...... they are basically a keyboard without the keys. They have sounds, effects, etc, etc. You control them via midi cables from an external keyboard......... see if your keyboard has a "midi out" port on the back, it will be about 1/2" in diameter and have 5 holes in a semi-circle. If it has this port, you can control a sound module from that keyboard. The module I mentioned (the Roland JV-1010) is one of many different sound modules available. I picked that one because it is one of the cheapest, most reliable, most used, best sounding, etc, etc, etc modules that there is. The JV-1010 runs about $450 (probably more like $400 if you can find a good deal on it) A couple other pretty good sound modules under $500 are the Alesis QSR and Nano modules (NanoPiano/Bass/Synth for each application... the Nano's run about $225 each, and the QSR is $500). If you go up to around $1000....... EMU has a great line of modules that range from $600-1000 and span many different styles. Well...... I hope this answered your question.

Nate · 04-08-2001, 01:02 PM

I forgot to ask Neal, is the keyboard you're using at church a Triton???? Or maybe a Trinity?? Those are indeed awesome boards............ The onboard sequencer and sampler is a nice touch too.

nealb · 04-08-2001, 03:12 PM

Yeah I think it is - unfortunatly I haven't had a chance to play about with that, yet- but theres hope yet! I play the trumpet in church with the praise band most most of the time, and only play the keyboard in "family services" and when standing in for the other guy (who is really class), so in total thas about two or three times a month, which is a pity, after hearing what he can do with it!