NAMM 2024 ran from Thursday 25th to Sunday 28th January. Here are the highlights from the major piano, keyboard and synth-related companies. Highlights JoeCo has announced its BandMate multichannel backing track player for live performance playback plus MIDI, with accompanying app. It’s designed to provide a more robust solution for […]
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The Christmas holiday season is nearly upon us for another year, and here is our gift to you. Over 45 minutes of relaxing piano arrangements featuring thirteen well-known Christmas carols and songs. We hope you enjoy. Track timings Photo credits (from Pexels) Free images from amazing photographers, used under Pexels […]
With Yamaha announcing the launch of the Genos2 it’s clearly a step up from the Genos but also is pitted alongside Yamaha’s other high-end arranger workstations, the PSR-SX900 and PSR-SX700. We have already compared the PSR-S and PSR-SX models but now we provide a summary and spec sheet for the […]
Introduction In the 1980s Casio produced a number of small, budget keyboards capable of recording sound samples and allowing the user limited manipulation over those sounds, as well as providing other basic functionality we had come to expect from digital musical instruments of the decade. Here we take a nostalgic […]
There are a huge range of scales in use in both Western and non-Western music. As well as the very common major and minor scales are a whole host of others used in a variety of different musical styles, genres and cultures. Here we have assembled 56 scales with the […]
If you’re an up and coming musician, making sure that you get heard over the other hungry artists out there can be a challenge. But with the right strategies and a proactive mindset, you can bump yourself up a notch to stand a better chance at building a fan base […]
Introduction “Danny Boy” is a popular Irish folk song. It is also known as “Londonderry Air” due to its original tune, which comes from the Londonderry Air, a traditional melody from Northern Ireland. The lyrics to “Danny Boy” were written by Frederic Weatherly, an English lawyer, in 1910. Weatherly was […]
With Christmas on its way we wanted to provide some very easy, basic arrangements of popular Christmas carols and songs so that almost anyone could play recognisable melodies which can be enjoyed and sung to, even if they have very limited music reading and piano/keyboard playing experience. Presented here are […]
Looking like a cross between a computer keyboard and a grid controller, Yamaha introduces its new finger drum pads, allowing players to create rhythms using just their fingers. These brand new products, currently comprising of the FGDP-30 and FGDP-50, run from an internal rechargeable battery and feature an on board […]
Introduction It’s one of the most common cultural songs used in the English-speaking world today, and probably has been for well over one hundred years. Happy Birthday is thought to have evolved from a song used as a morning greeting in an infant school setting during the 18th century. Over […]
Clavia’s gorgeous and feature-rich Nord Stage keyboard first debuted in 2005, meaning we’re fast approaching 20 years as the Stage 4 has just launched. Kitted out in striking red and boasting stunning piano, EP, organ and other sounds ripe for performance, they’ve become a staple part of well-off musician performers […]
Introduction Your DAW is at the centre of your music-making lifestyle, but you don’t want to be tied to simply operating it using a mouse, trackpad or computer keyboard. Of course it’s doable, but it’s not always fully intuitive or as immediate as you’d like. You may be a proficient […]
With the recent news that Novation has expanded its FL Studio-based FLkey controller keyboards to include 49 and 61 key models, we now take a look at the four-strong devices and compare their features. Each of the controller keyboards has been designed with Image Line Software, the makers of FL […]
Being totally honest, I prefer pianos to remain as the manufacturer intended. However, many people look to enhancing or altering the look of a musical instrument by decorating it in some way. This is certainly possible, but it’s important to plan and research what methods are best for the particular […]
Casio is a well-known brand offering a wide range of digital pianos and music keyboards. Here we look at the main ranges of instruments which come with 88 keys. An electronic instrument with 88 physical keys most closely mimics the majority of acoustic pianos, and removes the need to transpose […]
You can hardly fail to have noticed the speed with which artificial intelligence (AI) tools have arrived on the scene and are now talked about, used and exploited in many areas of society and subject areas. Whether you think AI is a good or bad thing, and to what degree […]
Anyone with an interest in mathematics as well as music may take look at the two time signatures — 3/4 and 6/8 — and initially think they are equivalent. After all, 3/4 is the simplified fraction of 6/8, right? Well, yes, partly, but in music these are not simple fractions. […]
Learning to play a musical instrument continues to be a popular pastime for both children and adults, complete beginners and returning learners. Here we look at the advantages and disadvantages of learning to play the piano using online services, along with listing some popular services. Why Learn the Piano Online? […]
In the world of digital pianos, Kurzweils don’t seem to get nearly as much recognition among the general population of musicians as, say, Yamaha, Roland or Casio, and yet the company has been producing high-quality instruments for many years. In this article we look at the current offerings from Kurzweil, […]
Students of the piano, particularly those who have had some more formal training or lessons at some point, will likely be familiar with the concept of musical scales. They may well have been drilled to practice these at every opportunity, to the point of boredom and fatigue. So why exactly […]
In 2006 Yamaha launched its first DGX (digital grand) in the ‘600’ series. Previously, as early as 2002, Yamaha introduced the DGX line with the DGX-200, followed by other models including models in the DGX-300 and DGX-500 line. They also brought out YPG models which had similar specifications to an […]