Hi everyone

I am presently working through the Anna Butterworth Harmony in Practice book. I do loads of baby-sitting and think it is best to play through the examples, etc. as I am working. I have made up my mind to definitely get a portable keyboard so I can do all my theory studies from grades 7 to 8 while I am baby-sitting. Does anyone have any suggestions. By the way I have to be able to carry it when I am walking. I probably won't use headphones at baby-sitting because I must be able to hear if the children wake up but guess I could use headphones at home, if I even decide to ever use it at home. Thanks.

Melody

By the way my usual instrument is piano, if you haven't already guessed. lol

An adult student of mine bought one for about £20 from Argos to take upstairs and work on her theory in bed when her husband was watching films downstairs.

The only equipment I used for my theory were scrap paper, pencil and rubber.

That's the best way - that's all you have in a theory exam!

That is true that all you have in your exam. I want to learn also lots of aural stuff such as intervals and get myself recognising them quickly. I do that at home with computer software but at baby-sitting I can put in extra practice.

I used the piano too when working at harmony! Gradually, I got to know what worked without it, but I did find it useful for quite a while to be able to turn to it and check things. It was a while before I was happy with things like accented passing notes and the like without playing it. I also couldn't get my head round why sometimes a dissonance worked and sometimes it didn't. I needed to hear it - outside my head, because inside my head wasn't always dependable!

I was quite taken with this one

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/5400540.htm

It's pink!!

You can also get those sort of flat, flexible touch senstive ones - i don't know what they cost but i remember seeing one in our local music shop one time!

ooh yes rach069 - do you mean the roll up ones, they're really portable but not cheap

The pink one looks rather striking. What do you mean by the roll up ones. What are they called please?

I've found the roll-up ones on-line. The price is not too bad at about £40. Has anyone ever tried one of these. If I got that pink one from Argos would I be able to properly test out things like diminished chords and get the proper sounds for aural practice?

Would you say the pink one has full-sized keys? Thanks

[quote name='Melody Amour' date='Aug 25 2007, 10:05 PM' post='579051']
I've found the roll-up ones on-line. The price is not too bad at about £40. Has anyone ever tried one of these.


I tried one in Holland and the sound was truly awful

Thanks for that, HazelKay. That is the answer that I expected someone to come back with. I don't think I will be getting one of those. I am still trawling.

I agree with the advice to only use paper and pencil to prepare for the theory written. But for your idea of intervals practice and harmony exercises (or even testing out the melodies you compose) or for just having fun, it is nice to have a keyboard. The rollup ones are really terrible. You have to have it laid just right on a flat surface, press the keys just right to get any sound at all and sounds drop out for chords etc. Don't do it.

Why not buy an inexpensive melodica? Extremely lightweight and portable, no batteries, good for your breathing, interesting in its own right as an instrument for around the campfire or while sitting under a tree in a park, etc. You could pretend you are the keyboard pied piper for the kids you sit!

Hohner has a new cheap Student model being made in Asia that you could get for less than the price of the hot pink keyboard from argos.

http://www.thomann.de/gb/hohner_student_me...60f07e309f06104

This morning I have been looking at melodicas. I like the portability factor, the no batteries or electricity factor and the fact that you can have a tube so it can be placed on a desk. Now I am about to ask a stupid question. I don't suppose there are any that sound like a piano, are there? I notice there are different ones such as the soprano and alto. I would really like to have a good and accurate sound to play the harmony exercises, chords, etc. Why isn't there a keyboard that size for just that purpose?

How does this sound? A Yahama PSRE203 from Chamberlain Music, plus I would have to get the adaptor, stand and music bag to transport it. Do I need a bag for the stand as well so it does not scratch the keyboard? Carrying all that with my Anna Butterworth books will be about 5 kgs. I hope that won't be too heavy.

I suppose it will be sufficient for composition purposes at some other stage.

Do you need the stand?
For just trying out harmony and stuff you can probably manage to find a suitlable surface to put it on.
If you were doing serious playing then a stand would be better so you could be sure of correct posture.

Actually you are right. I won't need the stand. That will one less thing to buy and carry.

The small keyboards will run for ages on battery power. You don't really need to carry an adaptor either. Have you looked on Ebay? There are loads of keyboards there.

Excellent. That is even better. No, I haven't looked on Ebay. I didn't know if it would be as easy to return stuff if there was a problem. I will have a look and see what they have, but for now I'm off to baby-sitting.

I bought a Yamaha PSS-50 from ebay to use for theory + ear training.
At least here in the US there were quite a lot of tiny cheap keyboards available.
One thing to look for of course is to make sure they have enough polyphony for your needs. (e.g. it's hard to do 4 part harmony with only 2 note polyphony!).
Unfortunately I can't find right now the web pages I was using for research when I got my "toy" keyboard.


Edit - this web page contains lots of information on old cheap "instruments" such as you can find on ebay.
http://weltenschule.de/TableHooters/instruments.html

Just looked on Ebay. There are loads to choose from so will have to sort out registration and narrow down the area, etc. Thanks guys.

Hi everyone. Just to let you know, my keyboard arrived today and I have been having such fun on it. It will be great for learning harmony and other bits and I am really pleased with it. I must admit I wouldn't swop my acoustic for it though and feel happy to have the best of both worlds. Thank you Petrat for suggesting the PSR series in a post I read of yours when I did a search. It looks like Xmax in my bedroom.
Thank you all for your helpful suggestions.