If it isn't hijacking the thread too much... is there anyone here who has actually taught on a digital before?
If you had to do it for a while, would it be acceptable?
Full Version: Digital Keyboards -a Hidden Problem?
QUOTE(ad_libitum @ Jun 30 2008, 08:25 PM) 
If it isn't hijacking the thread too much... is there anyone here who has actually taught on a digital before?
If you had to do it for a while, would it be acceptable?
Yes, I have. I guess I have to say it depends on the digital.
I'd prefer not to have to do so for the higher grades: up to grade 3 or 4 is perhaps ok if it's a digital with everything working well. I have to teach on an aged and (probably) vandalised digital at school: most of it works but it's not brilliant.
QUOTE(ad_libitum @ Jun 30 2008, 08:25 PM)
If it isn't hijacking the thread too much... is there anyone here who has actually taught on a digital before?
If you had to do it for a while, would it be acceptable?
I have taught a pupil who achieved grade 4. I have only ever taught on a digital - and he only had a keyboard on a stand with a plug-in pedal to practice on!
I'm sure that you need an acoustic for higher levels, although come to think of it, I was using my digital from grade 5 -8 and up to the present day although recent lessons on my teacher's Yamaha grand have made me notice the difference!
Mine is an Akai - not heard that make mentioned but it sounded the best of all the ones I tried 10+ years ago. I am very interested in the conversation about linking the digital to a mac but don't quite understand how it gets around the key action/sonority conundrum.
Mel
A digital piano isn't physically producing a sound when you hit a key - the key is more like a switch that tells the software to play a certain sound file, related to that key, and subject to various modifications depending on hard you belt it, whether you use the pedal etc.
That sound file is then fed through an amplifier and speakers somewhere in your digital piano..
So you can re-route it at various points - you can tell the piano to use a different set of sound files, or you can simply feed the piano's own sound files through a better grade of of amp and speaker.
As to what to stick where, I'll have to leave you to somebody who can explain better...as a translator, I just have to talk about this stuff, rarely have to DO it!
That sound file is then fed through an amplifier and speakers somewhere in your digital piano..
So you can re-route it at various points - you can tell the piano to use a different set of sound files, or you can simply feed the piano's own sound files through a better grade of of amp and speaker.
As to what to stick where, I'll have to leave you to somebody who can explain better...as a translator, I just have to talk about this stuff, rarely have to DO it!
QUOTE(mel2 @ Jul 1 2008, 09:37 AM)
I am very interested in the conversation about linking the digital to a mac but don't quite understand how it gets around the key action/sonority conundrum.
It doesn't help with the key action at all. The advantage is that the sound can (depending on the software) be much better than you would get from the digital piano itself. But it still feels wrong. QUOTE(nspei @ Mar 26 2008, 04:27 PM)
Good day everyone....
My first, and regrettably lengthy post: once again it's the discussion of the digital keyboard vs. the real piano.
At the moment and for the last ten months I've been using a weighted-key Yamaha digital piano to work out on. Twenty years ago I was a professional pianist, life then did it's get-in-the-way thing, but now I have the time to return to my first love (hooray!)
I think it is well-nigh time to get a grand, and I thought it might be interesting to share the reasoning behind the decision. Whereas the Yamaha is OK for scales, most arpeggios, and a few other technical workouts, I've begun to suspect it's now doing as much harm as good to my playing.
Obviously, in areas such as sustain and colour, no digital keyboard can deliver the breadth of expression of a tuned and regulated grand. BUT, and here's my theory, there is a more insidious problem, and that's to do with playing weight.
My relatively precise measurements indicate a playing weight of around 65 grams at the edge of the white keys: well and good, perhaps a little heavy, but not a terrible thing. The black keys have a playing weight at their edge of about 80-85 grams. As one gets closer to the fall-board, the black keys can take up to another 60 grams to produce a tone.
This inequality is much much more than I remember from the grands of yore that I remember playing. Certain Chopin studies (eg Op. 25 No. 8 in D flat) become very peculiar exercises as I grapple with key inequalities.....I appreciate that the grand piano action, consisting of levers, pivots etc, as it does, will also display differing key weights, but I'm imagining to a much lesser degree.
As I live very far away from any grand pianos I haven't been able to put the theory to the test, but soon that will be rectified. My question is basic: am I completely wrong in my theorising? I'll find out soon enough but I'd hugely appreciate anyone's experiences with this issue. I've made a few long distance phone calls to piano stores but unfortunately it wasn't very productive.
Thanks in advance for your input!
My first, and regrettably lengthy post: once again it's the discussion of the digital keyboard vs. the real piano.
At the moment and for the last ten months I've been using a weighted-key Yamaha digital piano to work out on. Twenty years ago I was a professional pianist, life then did it's get-in-the-way thing, but now I have the time to return to my first love (hooray!)
I think it is well-nigh time to get a grand, and I thought it might be interesting to share the reasoning behind the decision. Whereas the Yamaha is OK for scales, most arpeggios, and a few other technical workouts, I've begun to suspect it's now doing as much harm as good to my playing.
Obviously, in areas such as sustain and colour, no digital keyboard can deliver the breadth of expression of a tuned and regulated grand. BUT, and here's my theory, there is a more insidious problem, and that's to do with playing weight.
My relatively precise measurements indicate a playing weight of around 65 grams at the edge of the white keys: well and good, perhaps a little heavy, but not a terrible thing. The black keys have a playing weight at their edge of about 80-85 grams. As one gets closer to the fall-board, the black keys can take up to another 60 grams to produce a tone.
This inequality is much much more than I remember from the grands of yore that I remember playing. Certain Chopin studies (eg Op. 25 No. 8 in D flat) become very peculiar exercises as I grapple with key inequalities.....I appreciate that the grand piano action, consisting of levers, pivots etc, as it does, will also display differing key weights, but I'm imagining to a much lesser degree.
As I live very far away from any grand pianos I haven't been able to put the theory to the test, but soon that will be rectified. My question is basic: am I completely wrong in my theorising? I'll find out soon enough but I'd hugely appreciate anyone's experiences with this issue. I've made a few long distance phone calls to piano stores but unfortunately it wasn't very productive.
Thanks in advance for your input!
I used to have a Roland digital piano but sold it some three years ago for a Yamaha baby grand acoustic piano. The Roland was quite good, the key weighting was fairly authentic but compared to the acoustic piano there was just no comparison. The weighting produced by an acoustic piano is a physical pressure exerted by the various linkages coupled to the hammer action and in physics parlance invokes Newton's third law, viz, to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction; quite complex and precise and little changed since its invention by the great Cristofori Bartolomeo. A digital piano, on the other hand, has no linkages or hammers, the keys are switches which turn on or off sound generators containing sampled sounds taken from real acoustic grand pianos. The authenticity of the sound depends on various factors but most importantly the bit rate at which the sound was sampled, e.g., 24 bits/96 khz is better than 16 bits/44.1 khz. They are totally software driven. The weighting in the keys is achieved simply by strips of metal with counter weights positioned along the lengths of the bits of the keys you can't see. Digital pianos are convenient but if you are serious about playing the piano they are no substitute for a good acoustic one. Of course a good digital piano (Roland HP3/HP7 etc) is far better than an out of tune, clapped out old upright acoustic.
I practise on a Yamaha Clavinova and managed to see myself through Grade 5.
But I felt a very distinct difference between the digital piano, and my lousy old out-of-tune acoustic piano.
On the digital piano, I hear my fingers/nails clicking on the keys. But even the old acoustic does not give the same problem. If I am not wrong, the response of a digital piano is slightly slower than an acoustic. As a result, I first hear my fingers hitting the key, before the sound of the note played reaches my ears. Hmm... does anybody else have the same experience?
Now going for Grade 6, my new teacher watched me play my Grade 5 exam piece, and she told me that I am too tense in the hands, and hence my wrist problems. She taught me some "arm-drop" techniques which all seem to work very well on her acoustic, producing brighter and longlasting tones. But on my digital piano, there is no significant difference between the two techniques. I cannot practise the "arm-drops", or the "bouncing" that is supposed to de-stress my tight hands.
I am trying very hard to find a suitable piano for my budget now. Tough choice to be made!
But I felt a very distinct difference between the digital piano, and my lousy old out-of-tune acoustic piano.
On the digital piano, I hear my fingers/nails clicking on the keys. But even the old acoustic does not give the same problem. If I am not wrong, the response of a digital piano is slightly slower than an acoustic. As a result, I first hear my fingers hitting the key, before the sound of the note played reaches my ears. Hmm... does anybody else have the same experience?
Now going for Grade 6, my new teacher watched me play my Grade 5 exam piece, and she told me that I am too tense in the hands, and hence my wrist problems. She taught me some "arm-drop" techniques which all seem to work very well on her acoustic, producing brighter and longlasting tones. But on my digital piano, there is no significant difference between the two techniques. I cannot practise the "arm-drops", or the "bouncing" that is supposed to de-stress my tight hands.
I am trying very hard to find a suitable piano for my budget now. Tough choice to be made!
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