Buying a Piano or Keyboard: Advice for Beginners

People sometimes ask me: Can I (or my child) learn to play on a keyboard, or do I need a real piano?

You can learn to play using a keyboard. Many of my students have done so.

Still, at some point, depending on your interests, you may find yourself itching to get an acoustic. Here are some thoughts on both sides of the divide. Continue reading

Playing Chopin and Clementi on the Steinway (that lives in my Mac)

It’s a quandary. I need to make recordings for this site, and I’ve been trying to decide what to use: my Yamaha upright piano, or my keyboard-plus-virtual-Steinway setup.

The Steinway in question is the library of recorded samples from Garritan. I trigger them by playing my Roland FP7 keyboard and record my performance as a MIDI file using ProTools.

Here are two movements of a Clementi Sonatina I just recorded using the Garritan.

Allegro

[audio:http://doctorkeys.com/newblog/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Clementi-Allegro3.mp3|titles=Clementi-Allegro3]

Andante

[audio:http://doctorkeys.com/newblog/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Clementi_Andante4.mp3|titles=Clementi_Andante4]

You can hear the Chopin (a gorgeous mazurka) on this page. Continue reading