I have been playing the piano since I was eight years old. I started on a small electric organ that my mother found at a garage sale. My mother taught me all she knew and soon I needed my own teacher. I began teaching myself to play as I learned to read music. A few years later I received my first official piano teacher. In addition to classical training, he taught me theory and improvisation techniques. He also focused on enjoying playing and included popular songs of my choice in our sessions. I quickly learned to love chords, scales, and theory, especially how it allowed me to improvise and create my own accompaniments to the songs I listened to on the radio.
In high school, I started composing my own music and work on more advanced technique with more teachers. By then I had graduated from the rummage-sale organ to an electric piano. At age 16 through I received my first upright acoustic piano through the kindness of a friend and neighbor who believed in my talents. I continued to enjoy improving my piano playing in college and had learned to play the pipe organ at church. Yet I had never really learned to keyboard. Actually, as a poor college student I bought a used Rolland digital piano from a friend since my upright was still residing with my parents. Looking back I find it ironic that I hated the “artificial” feel of the semi-weighted keys and never utilized the organ or electric piano sounds. Though I considered myselft somewhat of an audiophile, I had not yet developed an ear for or an appreciation of moden pop and rock keyboard sounds.
It wasn’t until 5 years ago that I started keyboarding. At that time, three friends from my local church conregation had started playing together. They are very talented musicians who played drums, bass, and guitar in previous bands. They knew I could play the organ at church one day mentioned that they were working on some cover songs and wanted to add a few songs that had some prominent keyboard parts. It all sounded very intriguing. I had never played in a band. The closest I had come to that was accompanying for a choir or congregation. I didn’t even own a keyboard.
My first time practicing with them I was very green unsure of myself. I borrowed a keyboard from another band that played in the same warehouse where we practiced. I was not very good at keeping time with the drummer and I always played expressively as a soloist. I had no idea how to glissando, comp, or meet any of the expectations of a rock band. And I had no idea what all of the hundreds of sounds and effects programmed into the yamaha mo8 should be used for. It took me about 2 years to learn the hardware well enough to feel comfortable choosing my own synthesizer workstation. But there were so many more lessons along the way. I probably learned the most though practice with my band and though the online community or musicians. This site is dedicated to helping those developing their keyboarding skills to find answers to questions as well as music that they can start playing today.