So my wonderful, beautiful, perfect wife got me a full length, 88 key, semi-weighted keyboard for my birthday. It came in last night and of course I’m a kid at Christmas and had to set it up and use it.
First of all, it is humongous! I forget what it’s like to sit in front of a full length piano. I had to completely rearrange my desk to get the MIDI cable to reach the computer’s MIDI input. After all was setup, I launched my software of choice and created a blank song to work from. Once my “studio” was setup with the right amount of reverb and delay, I picked up the grand piano sample for my synth and started to relearn piano. It is amazing how six years of piano lessons can fade. I can’t remember the name of scales but I do remember the order in which keys are flat or minor or whatever it is. B A E… etc. etc.
My fingers were like disobedient children running around the aisles of Wal-Mart while I chased them around in a wife beater and flip flops. Still wondering how I used to play in front of a hundred people, I start practice going up and down scales. 1-2-3-1-2-3-4-5.
At the end of the night I had a nice riff, a pad, a slow beat, and a small sense of accomplishment. Now I’m working to create a genre for my own liking. So far the focus is a down-tempo fusion of electronic, strings, and piano. Now I just wish I could sing or had some source for vocals.
