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MusicGuys: need keyboard help (1 Viewer)

P

ProstheticRGK

Footballguy
My son turns 9 this month. We have been encouraging him to start learning a musical instrument and he wants piano lessons. Any recommendations for a good (and cheap) keyboard that will get him started?

Assume I am completely non-musical and can't even play a kazoo and explain to me like I am a 5-year-old. A dumb 5-year-old.

 
ProstheticRGK said:
My son turns 9 this month. We have been encouraging him to start learning a musical instrument and he wants piano lessons. Any recommendations for a good (and cheap) keyboard that will get him started?

Assume I am completely non-musical and can't even play a kazoo and explain to me like I am a 5-year-old. A dumb 5-year-old.
Click to expand...
I would go to your local music store and see if they have electric piano rentals. Would be a good idea, especially if it doesn't take with him. After a few months you will know if he wants to stick with it or if he should stick with it.

You will want an electric piano that somewhat replicates the key spacing on a regular piano.

 
ChiefD said:
I would go to your local music store and see if they have electric piano rentals. Would be a good idea, especially if it doesn't take with him. After a few months you will know if he wants to stick with it or if he should stick with it.

You will want an electric piano that somewhat replicates the key spacing on a regular piano.
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Is there a big difference between learning on the electric piano versus a 61 key digital keyboard?

I was actually looking at something like This keyboard that would probably keep his interest because of different songs and feedback on his playing. But I also dont want him to learn sloppy, Rock Band video game piano playing. 

 
88, baby. you want em thinking 88 from the start, jic. you don't make chess players from checker sets

other than that, do what @El Floppo says - he's the real ivory tickler 'round here

 
Check musicians friend or guitar center .. usually have deals on low end models like I got... Williams Allegro2.

Fwiw, it's not a great keyboard (upper register weighted keys barely work on ours)- but good enough to not break the bank and get your kid started and going long enough to decide if he wants to keep going

 
El Floppo is right. If you want your kid to learn “piano” you should get something with weighted keys. If it were me, I’d insist on 88 keys that are weighted. I’d look for something used to keep the price down. 

 
El Floppo said:
Check musicians friend or guitar center .. usually have deals on low end models like I got... Williams Allegro2.

Fwiw, it's not a great keyboard (upper register weighted keys barely work on ours)- but good enough to not break the bank and get your kid started and going long enough to decide if he wants to keep going
Click to expand...
Thanks for this, I didn't even have any clue what weighted keys were. This looks promising.

I'm a little on the fence, still. I want something that teaches him some serious skills, not video game piano-playing. but I also want him to get the bug for playing/practicing with something that hold his interest while he plays and gives him some of that instant iFeedback.

edit: anyone know of a teaching tool that helps with what i am looking for? We already found a teacher who would give lessons once a week.

 
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ProstheticRGK said:
Thanks for this, I didn't even have any clue what weighted keys were. This looks promising.

I'm a little on the fence, still. I want something that teaches him some serious skills, not video game piano-playing. but I also want him to get the bug for playing/practicing with something that hold his interest while he plays and gives him some of that instant iFeedback.

edit: anyone know of a teaching tool that helps with what i am looking for? We already found a teacher who would give lessons once a week.
Click to expand...
Some of these keyboards come with software.... I'd check that. Teacher will also likely give a book or sheets that will keep you kid busy

 
Looks like EF and BB already got to the heart of the question (oops, wikkid too), but yeah, I don’t know that buying a digital keyboard with fewer than 88 keys will work all that well, because if he's going to be getting lessons, those lessons will not translate to smaller-scale boards when he practices at home.  You can expect to encounter difficulties with piano teachers as a result, and that could lead to frustrations and doom the exercise to failure.  

One of my synths is 88 keys, weighted, but he doesn't need hundreds of voices, MIDI control, etc., of course, so that wheelbarrow of cash I "borrowed" from chet to finance that isn't required either.  Maybe a Yamaha P-71?  I think that's the model #.  88, weighted, digital piano.  About $400 so not cheap, but if he really wants to pick this up, that could be a good investment.  Rentals and used items from reputable sellers are also sensible options. 

 
I've been playing since I was 7, have played in every kind of band you can think of, still do, and am kind of a piano snob to the point where my wife knows the only thing I love more than her in life at the moment is my baby grand piano. Thing just oozes sex..... sorry, I digress.

When it comes to electric piano/keyboards, there are significant differences that can end up hurting or helping a beginner.  The main one you've read - weighted keys.  A real acoustic piano (those big ugly things your grandma had that sat in the living room that was used as a picture frame holder that no one was allowed to touch) has full weight keys such that there is a need to understand pressure and feel when using them.  There is a resistance that becomes the unspoken language between the pianist and the piano he plays.  That resistance and weight to the keys is the basic difference between being a musician and being Frankenstein beating the keyboard.

IF you are going to give someone lessons to learn the instrument you are handicapping them if you don't get a keyboard of any style that doesn't have full weighted keys.  Nonweight plastic keys that are on cheap keyboards aren't keyboards, they are toys.  And worthless for the purpose of learning the instrument.  Fake weight keys are an abomination.  You will see keyboards that look like they have full weight keys and say they are touch sensitive but they are fake - hollow plastic or faux wood programmed with a synthetic sensitivity that does not teach the player the resistance necessary in the keys.  If you don't know what you are doing, playing that warps your ability to play the piano instead of just beating the keys.

Beyond that, I would caution against getting an electric keyboard with a ton of bells and whistles.  If it gets turned into a toy that is how it will be treated.  Beyond that, if your kid has no basis of musical understanding (reading music, understanding basic theory) then the start of learning is very grind oriented and repetitive where having the ability to midi in a drum kick like John Bonham is sitting int he room isn't really necessary.  Done right, the first lessons for a beginner should be about 30-40 hours of memorizing the keyboard, basic scale structure, timing difference, reading the actual clefs written, and getting comfortable not looking at your hands when you play.  When I taught (and when I am teaching my kids now) I spent the first 3 hours just hitting middle C with both thumbs in a timed structure that varied.  

So all that to say, get full weighted keys, 88 key board, with as few bells and whistles as possible.  You can find a simply electric piano in the 400 range that will suit your needs, Casio, Yamaha and similar are fine for a first step instrument.  And don't worry about it looking like a real piano.  It's a waste of money.  

And with all of that in mind - one of things you need to watch and understand for your son is that there are two ways to play the piano.  There are piano players and there are keyboard players.  And there is a difference.  A piano player plays the full board, melody, base chords structure, left hand dominant bass and everything in between.  You walk into a fancy restaurant and there is a grand piano playing pretty music - that is playing the piano.  A keyboard player plays maybe one riff of a lead line that stands out (I'm Sailing Away Intro for example) and then the rest of the music is hitting the basic chords of the song because the rest of the band plays their parts.  You can be both, and move back and forth between both skill sets but they are two distinct skill sets.  What I see many younger people do these days is be a keyboard player, not a piano player - which is fine.  In my current band I am basically a keyboard player, unless I am leading a song.  

You can pick up being a keyboard player and being the glue that holds a band together that way relatively quick because you only need to learn the chord charts.  Going full piano player requires a lot more work.  And reading full piano sheet music / orchestration charts is another skill for a piano player where a keyboard player can get away with a guitar chart and common sense.

Finally - he has to practice every day.  Every day.  45 minutes at least. If you don't do that - unless he is a savant - you don't learn.  The most common mistake parents make when their kids are learning the piano is not making them practice because it seems like they know the current lesson.  You would be surprised how good kids are at memorizing the first class of lessons on a piano and look at their hands the whole time to play what they remember, and not actually learn the lesson and what the note looks like on paper and so on.  That sounds and looks great for first level lessons.  It handcuffs them when they lessons start getting harder and everyone realizes they can't read music and have no idea what the teacher is talking about.

 
ProstheticRGK said:
Thanks for this, I didn't even have any clue what weighted keys were. This looks promising.

I'm a little on the fence, still. I want something that teaches him some serious skills, not video game piano-playing. but I also want him to get the bug for playing/practicing with something that hold his interest while he plays and gives him some of that instant iFeedback.

edit: anyone know of a teaching tool that helps with what i am looking for? We already found a teacher who would give lessons once a week.
Click to expand...
 Believe it or not,  YouTube is a great tool if you want to learn songs. You can find a tutorial for just about any song. 

If you think he needs instant gratification of working on a song while still learning how to play from scratch do a search for 3 and 4 chord songs.  

There is a massively common chord structure that every musician knows cold that is the basis of a ton of songs.   That is the C D G Em progression. I won't write out the theory but it is basic and easy to learn. 

Try this... search Sweet Home Alabama.  For the piano, the entire song is 3 notes over and over.  D D... C C... G G. G G.

That's the whole song. And you can cheat and play all three notes together at the same time,  never move,  and play the entire song with the recording. 

 
bigbottom said:
Wow, that is a lot of great info. 
Click to expand...
Thanks. I missed my calling of being a history teacher that moonlights as a keyboardist on the weekends in dive bars playing classic rock all,night with a little Beethoven as ambient sound very now and then. 

Just please don't ask me to play Piano Man anymore.  Really. I get stabby.  

 
I have an old beater piano in my garage that I play on from time-to-time. Nothing like a cold beer on a summer night, garage doors open,  banging out tunes, and the walkers in the neighborhood will stop on the sidewalk for a minute or two to listen.

I'm a ham and egger at this point - I could read music when I was younger - but now play by ear and will write a song now and again. Probably a keyboardist by Yankee's definition. My dream is a baby grand in my living room, but every time I think I am ready to go buy one I think about those summer nights in the garage and how raw and simple it is.

So not sure I will ever get my baby grand. 

 
ChiefD said:
I have an old beater piano in my garage that I play on from time-to-time. Nothing like a cold beer on a summer night, garage doors open,  banging out tunes, and the walkers in the neighborhood will stop on the sidewalk for a minute or two to listen.

I'm a ham and egger at this point - I could read music when I was younger - but now play by ear and will write a song now and again. Probably a keyboardist by Yankee's definition. My dream is a baby grand in my living room, but every time I think I am ready to go buy one I think about those summer nights in the garage and how raw and simple it is.

So not sure I will ever get my baby grand. 
Click to expand...
Get the baby grand.  My wife always tells me that I have a very distinct look in my eye when I am playing a baby grand that I only have one other time in life, and that is personal.

Sexiness aside, I hear you on the beater.  I have a dead, 4 steps out of key, upright in my game room that every now and then I just beat the crap out of that can probably be heard up and down the block.  

I am keeping it for a very specific reason that might be a thought for you with yours.  Actually 2 possible reasons.  Option one is to buy a duplicate and back them up to each other so that the sound of one vibrates through the other and have a dueling piano, off key, setup that would be a mutated old west setup.  Option two is to actually pull the pianos guts out down to the structure and install a midi recording board superstructure inside the piano's shell, bolt an electric keyboard into it, and turn the upright into a stand alone recording unit that you would only see once you actually sat at the piano.  I've seen the setup a few times and I love it more than I should.

 
Aerial Assault said:
Looks like EF and BB already got to the heart of the question (oops, wikkid too), but yeah, I don’t know that buying a digital keyboard with fewer than 88 keys will work all that well, because if he's going to be getting lessons, those lessons will not translate to smaller-scale boards when he practices at home.  You can expect to encounter difficulties with piano teachers as a result, and that could lead to frustrations and doom the exercise to failure.  

One of my synths is 88 keys, weighted, but he doesn't need hundreds of voices, MIDI control, etc., of course, so that wheelbarrow of cash I "borrowed" from chet to finance that isn't required either.  Maybe a Yamaha P-71?  I think that's the model #.  88, weighted, digital piano.  About $400 so not cheap, but if he really wants to pick this up, that could be a good investment.  Rentals and used items from reputable sellers are also sensible options. 
Click to expand...
I'm a long time fan of Yamaha P series. Love them. Yamaha has (historically, imo) stayed just a bit ahead of the curve on weighted key digital pianos. They introduce newer keybed (hardware) designs and/or technology advancements (tone generation) in their higher end models then gradually add that to their lower end models over the course of several years. So even their lower-end instruments end up being very good, imo.

ETA: Also durable AF. My first one endured about 10 years of playing 3 hours a day, still had resale value at that point, and the guy I sold also sold it a few years later. I still (infrequently) play a P-250 that is nearing 20 years and still going strong. Solid instruments. Great feel and (sometimes) sound.

 
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VandyMan said:
I'm a long time fan of Yamaha P series. Love them. Yamaha has (historically, imo) stayed just a bit ahead of the curve on weighted key digital pianos. They introduce newer keybed (hardware) designs and/or technology advancements (tone generation) in their higher end models then gradually add that to their lower end models over the course of several years. So even their lower-end instruments end up being very good, imo.
Click to expand...
Tbh, I wish we had spent the extra $150-200 for a Yamaha. 

I grew up playing at a fairly serious level,  and this williams feel isnt great (good enough as a starter, but not for any remotely serious playing)

 
El Floppo said:
Tbh, I wish we had spent the extra $150-200 for a Yamaha. 

I grew up playing at a fairly serious level,  and this williams feel isnt great (good enough as a starter, but not for any remotely serious playing)
Click to expand...
I tried a Williams Allegro at Guitar Center last year. Did't buy but it sounded pretty good in headphones.

 
Yankee23Fan said:
Thanks. I missed my calling of being a history teacher that moonlights as a keyboardist on the weekends in dive bars playing classic rock all,night with a little Beethoven as ambient sound very now and then. 

Just please don't ask me to play Piano Man anymore.  Really. I get stabby.  
Click to expand...
If you ever move to Houston, I have a spot for you in a southern rock band. 

 
I remember years ago right out of college, and I was at a buddies wedding in downtown St. Louis. He married some gal in a sorority, so there was probably 25-30 beautiful just-out-of-college girls at this wedding.

There was a piano in the lobby, and as the night wore on and I had a few drinks in me, I sat down and started playing a few tunes. A few minutes later, the brides uncle or grandfather, can't remember, sat down and we were playing stuff together just having a ball.

Within 10 minutes there were probably 50 people around the piano, including said sorority girls, singing and having a blast. It was pure awesome, and I quietly thanked my mom for making me practice my piano lessons when I was 7 years old.

Fast forward to my own kids. I'm trying to get them to take piano lessons. So they ask me: "why should we take piano lessons?"

What I wanted to say was: "You never know when you will have the opportunity to play for 30 sorority girls who are lonely at a wedding, drunk out of their minds."

:lol:

 
bigbottom said:
If you ever move to Houston, I have a spot for you in a southern rock band. 
Click to expand...
It moved.

Seriously though, not kidding... we are actually planning a trip out there to look at houses.  I have friends and family out there and we are thinking that New Jersey might not be the awesome glorious place to live that we were lead to believe.  

I know right?

 
ChiefD said:
I remember years ago right out of college, and I was at a buddies wedding in downtown St. Louis. He married some gal in a sorority, so there was probably 25-30 beautiful just-out-of-college girls at this wedding.

There was a piano in the lobby, and as the night wore on and I had a few drinks in me, I sat down and started playing a few tunes. A few minutes later, the brides uncle or grandfather, can't remember, sat down and we were playing stuff together just having a ball.

Within 10 minutes there were probably 50 people around the piano, including said sorority girls, singing and having a blast. It was pure awesome, and I quietly thanked my mom for making me practice my piano lessons when I was 7 years old.

Fast forward to my own kids. I'm trying to get them to take piano lessons. So they ask me: "why should we take piano lessons?"

What I wanted to say was: "You never know when you will have the opportunity to play for 30 sorority girls who are lonely at a wedding, drunk out of their minds."

:lol:
Click to expand...
Yup.  All of this is 100% true.

 
ProstheticRGK said:
My son turns 9 this month. We have been encouraging him to start learning a musical instrument and he wants piano lessons. Any recommendations for a good (and cheap) keyboard that will get him started?

Assume I am completely non-musical and can't even play a kazoo and explain to me like I am a 5-year-old. A dumb 5-year-old.
Click to expand...
If you want Jr to someday get action with a bunch of drunk, lonely sorrority girls you must act quickly...his future happiness is at stake!

 
Yankee23Fan said:
It moved.

Seriously though, not kidding... we are actually planning a trip out there to look at houses.  I have friends and family out there and we are thinking that New Jersey might not be the awesome glorious place to live that we were lead to believe.  

I know right?
Click to expand...
Great job market, good economy, reasonable cost of living, good food and a southern rock band opportunity. How could you lose?!?

 
El Floppo said:
If you want Jr to someday get action with a bunch of drunk, lonely sorrority girls you must act quickly...his future happiness is at stake!
Click to expand...
Jr. will hopefully have serious game already when he gets to that age; he is the spitting image of me. He will be a world class panty-dropper, though, with keyboard skills. Girls like guys with skills: nunchuk skills, bo staff skills, piano skills.

 
Yankee23Fan said:
Is it true I don't have to take the bar exam If I meet all the other criteria?
Click to expand...
Admission Without Examination Information

Eligibility Requirements

In order to be licensed in Texas without taking the Texas Bar Examination, you must demonstrate that you:

Hold a J.D. from an ABA-approved U.S. law school

Are licensed to practice law in another state

Have been actively and substantially engaged in the lawful practice of law as your principal business or occupation for at least 5 of the 7 years immediately preceding your application

Have never failed the Texas Bar Examination

In addition, you must

Be certified by the Board as having present good moral character and fitness

Score 85 or higher on the MPRE

Satisfy the requirements of Rule 2(a)(5)

Be willing to take the required Oath

 
bigbottom said:
Admission Without Examination Information

Eligibility Requirements

In order to be licensed in Texas without taking the Texas Bar Examination, you must demonstrate that you:

Hold a J.D. from an ABA-approved U.S. law school

Are licensed to practice law in another state

Have been actively and substantially engaged in the lawful practice of law as your principal business or occupation for at least 5 of the 7 years immediately preceding your application

Have never failed the Texas Bar Examination

In addition, you must

Be certified by the Board as having present good moral character and fitness

Score 85 or higher on the MPRE

Satisfy the requirements of Rule 2(a)(5)

Be willing to take the required Oath
Click to expand...
Done. Sold.  

Gonna buy a 10 gallon hat.  That's still the style, right?  I already have a belt buckle bigger than my head.

 
I don't understand the weighted keys. 

Sounds like like playing a $25.00 acoustic with strings 2 inches off the neck.  Versus a properly set up Goldtop with perfect intonation.

 
E Street Brat said:
I don't understand the weighted keys. 

Sounds like like playing a $25.00 acoustic with strings 2 inches off the neck.  Versus a properly set up Goldtop with perfect intonation.
Click to expand...
In a normal regular old piano, the key that you hit is actually the end cap of a long lever system that is designed to strike a string.  When you push the key down it either drops a hammer head or pushes a hammer head up into the string. (and the difference between an upright piano and a grand piano is significant to a piano player)  The softer you hit the key the softer the hammer will hit the string, and the less sound it will make.  The harder you do it, the louder the sound.  There is a natural resistance to that due to the weight of the key/hammer piece.  And no two hits are exactly the same.  In the end the piano is a string instrument like a guitar is but it is also a percussion instrument like a drum is because the hammer is hitting something.

That natural weight of the key/hammer and with it the need to create different points of force to get different volumes of sound is the touch of playing the piano.  Depending on where your finger hits a real key, the level of sound is different because of the torque needed to slam the hammer from the end of the key as opposed to the top of the key.  When it comes to tonality, a piano can be played for any tone.  The key/hammer striking the string does not create tone it creates sound.  the different keys used in combination create the tone.

When you have the fake keys that aren't weighted you don't learn how to play the instrument.  You learn how to hit it, but not play it.  You are doing the percussion, but not the strings.  You also lose the ability, if you are reading music, to add the emotion of the song by changing volume within in the song.  Fake weighted keys and touch sensitive keyboards mimic the sounds but don't teach you the resistance inherent in the acoustic keyboard.  For a beginner it warps their understanding of playing the instrument.  And you don't learn how hitting the keys in different spots can change the sound you use.  Playing a sound on a real keyboard using predominant flats like the key of Db makes you more often than not play the white keys (the few there are) near their top or neck.  You have hit them differently to get the same sound you would get if you were playing a song in Cmaj and hitting the white keys at their end or center.  With a fake keyboard there is no difference when you hit the key, the computer generates the sound regardless.  With a touch sensitive faux board, you get closer to the real thing but's not the same.

For me, I can play anything with a keyboard you put in front of me and my current electric for the band I am in is a touch sensitive faux key keyboard.  But it is wired into the sound system, and the projected volume isn't controlled by me, but the sound board for the entire band.  If I play it by myself during a solo or a transition with nothing else coming out of the sound system, I have to play it with a different feel than I would have on an acoustic piano because there is no give in the sound - it's robotic, not melodic.

 
@Yankee23Fan Yep.

Based on the budget RGK suggested, he'd probably get better results from a quality used instrument than of a bottom-of-the-barrel new one. And by better results, I mean junior's learning process.

 
E Street Brat said:
Thanks YF. Are organs touch sensitive as well?
Click to expand...
Depends on what you mean by an organ.  A true organ is a multi-keyboard instrument, usually piped for sound, though modern electric ones don't have pipes.  Many versions have pedal systems that are part of the instrument not unlike a basedrum in a drum kit.  

If you just mean an electric keyboard/electric piano that calls itself an organ, it depends on the cost, style and brand.

 
VandyMan said:
@Yankee23Fan Yep.

Based on the budget RGK suggested, he'd probably get better results from a quality used instrument than of a bottom-of-the-barrel new one. And by better results, I mean junior's learning process.
Click to expand...
I think this is my approach, now. Scouring the local music shops and Guitar Centers for an 88-key, real weighted key rig with no fancy bells and whistles. Seems like Casio and Yamaha are the class of the group? Also, any other advice on features?

 
ProstheticRGK said:
I think this is my approach, now. Scouring the local music shops and Guitar Centers for an 88-key, real weighted key rig with no fancy bells and whistles. Seems like Casio and Yamaha are the class of the group? Also, any other advice on features?
Click to expand...
A built in metronome.

 
ProstheticRGK said:
I think this is my approach, now. Scouring the local music shops and Guitar Centers for an 88-key, real weighted key rig with no fancy bells and whistles. Seems like Casio and Yamaha are the class of the group? Also, any other advice on features?
Click to expand...
Look for one that has a music holder (usually detachable).

I recommend built-in speakers for your situation.

Three foot pedal inputs is better than one. One would work for a while, but you'd probably hit a road block in a few years if he sticks with lessons.

Decent pedals. Any small square-ish footswitch is crap, imo. The pianos stock footswitch(es) should not be a major factor, but bonus points if the piano you like comes with decent pedals. Otherwise you can easily get good foot switches separately on Amazon or any music website. Just need to confirm compatibility due to manufacturer-specific polarity.

 
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VandyMan said:
I'm a long time fan of Yamaha P series. Love them. Yamaha has (historically, imo) stayed just a bit ahead of the curve on weighted key digital pianos. They introduce newer keybed (hardware) designs and/or technology advancements (tone generation) in their higher end models then gradually add that to their lower end models over the course of several years. So even their lower-end instruments end up being very good, imo.

ETA: Also durable AF. My first one endured about 10 years of playing 3 hours a day, still had resale value at that point, and the guy I sold also sold it a few years later. I still (infrequently) play a P-250 that is nearing 20 years and still going strong. Solid instruments. Great feel and (sometimes) sound.
Click to expand...
Nice.  The pro keyboardist I jam with has a P-71 or perhaps the next model down (on the road so not posting links, doublechecking info before posting, etc., sorry) that he uses for quick songwriting.  He loves it and I thought it had a nice feel when I tooled around with it. 

And not that he needs it but big echo to what YF said.  I'm a bass and guitar player who can halfway play decent synths and Hammond B-3 for jazz and rock after years of self-teaching.  Could I play in a hotel piano bar on a baby grand?  And keep customers interested?  Enh, maybe.  But could I play a Bach concerto without weeks, maybe a month of intense study?  No (and maybe never).  (Particularly since my sightreading is bass and guitar-focused.)  YF and players like him are the real deal and he's what I would try to train my kid to be rather than a rock-pop-country band keyboardist.  If the kid gets good at the real stuff, they'll be able to handle the lesser role with ridiculous ease.  But it sure doesn't work in reverse.  

 
Last edited by a moderator:
ProstheticRGK said:
I think this is my approach, now. Scouring the local music shops and Guitar Centers for an 88-key, real weighted key rig with no fancy bells and whistles. Seems like Casio and Yamaha are the class of the group? Also, any other advice on features?
Click to expand...
Pedals (e.g., sustain).  And accessories like a stand and even a bench are sometimes included in the packages that Yamaha and Casio offer, which is convenient.  

 
ProstheticRGK said:
My son turns 9 this month. We have been encouraging him to start learning a musical instrument and he wants piano lessons. Any recommendations for a good (and cheap) keyboard that will get him started?

Assume I am completely non-musical and can't even play a kazoo and explain to me like I am a 5-year-old. A dumb 5-year-old.
Click to expand...
I haven't read any posts but I would suggest getting a keyboard with weighted keys.  

 
Has technology advanced to the point where members of a band can jam together on line?  Might be fun to form an FFA virtual band.

 
bigbottom said:
Has technology advanced to the point where members of a band can jam together on line?  Might be fun to form an FFA virtual band.
Click to expand...
A little online research indicates that latency is an issue if the players are more than 500 miles apart. Bummer. 

 
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