Posted on 04/03/2010 5:09:52 AM PDT by Freedom'sWorthIt
I was recently reminded of how our Grammar and other, um, correcting Free Republic members - beloved as they are - are invaluable to our growth as individuals and as Free Republic posters....
(see http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2485902/posts?page=5 post 3 and 4 for that latest reminder...)
Anyway, Joel Schnoor of Apex, NC, has written this blockbuster book (a sleeper best selller) that I want to recommend to all Grammar "Police" here on Free Republic and those who "grow" from their corrections, um those marvelous teaching moments.
Electronic Keyboard Thingies are the BEST!!!!!
You can change the Voices on them to sound like an Organ, or a flute, or a “Thousand Strolling Strings” or whatever!
You can add Beats!
You Make instant Accompaniment!
You can pick it up and take it with you!
AND BEST OF ALL.....
IT NEVER GOES OUT OF TUNE!!!!!!!
Yamaha makes the Best ones, with Casio a close second. Avoid radio Shack Knock-offs.
Authentic Gospel Music uses Blues Riffs! LOL!
Here is MY Piano recital Experience:
My Piece was “Fur Elise” by Beethoven.
My Piano at home was a Steinert Spinet, with lovely action, and I could play the piece perfectly.
My teacher rented an Eleven Foot Concert Grand Piano for the Recital.
The action was SO STIFF (it had to be, I guess for such a BIG piano), that I had to POUND every key to make it even make a sound. So much for a nuanced performance.
I quit lessons the next day (at the age of 10) and continued to teach myself piano and guitar.
One more tip (well, actually two):
If you want to learn to play a real piano, an electronic piano will do fine, so long as it has:
1. 88 keys;
2. Weighted hammer action.
That is true.
The Weighted Keys part is REALLY important.
However, 74 keys will work for MOST music, even Classical.
Unless You are going REALLY DEEP into Rachmaninoff or Liszt, or Someone else who likes the LOWEST or HIGHEST notes! ha ha ha!
Another thing.
61 keys: an easy carry.
74 keys: a Schlepp.
88 keys :FUGGEDDABOUTIT!
LOL!
One of my big beefs is the confusion some show using “ensure” for “insure”, and vice-versa.
Oy
Make sure the parts of the sentence that are supposed to be parallel really are parallel, of the same part of speech, and make sense.
You’re right.
They’re many different uses of words that sounds like “there”. Their meanings are sometimes confusing.
Oh - I agree. I almost lose my mind when posters play fast and loose with those two words!
oh my - sorry - am a bit sleepy from being up at 4 am this morning!
There are a LOT of uses of words that sound like “there”. Over there is the kind that means possession - such as their big fat toes won’t go in those shoes. And, then, we can see that they’re walking down that road barefoot.
Once they lose their shoes, they really can run, losing all that might hinder them, and finding themselves loosed from the chains that bind.
:-)
Would you please ensure that there is a way to insure each of us in these interesting times?
LOL! You are very kind....well...it was not enough coffee!
OH, THAT “um”!
Now I gotcha.
Will work on my “um’s”.
OH - ha ha ha ha ha!
You taught yourself guitar? So did I!!!!
The first “real” song that I played was “Blowin’ in the Wind” by Bob Dylan as written in the Peter Paul and Mary songbook that I purchased.
How many roads must a man walk down
Before they can call him a man?
How many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?
Yes and how many times must the cannon balls fly
Before they’re forever banned.....
The answer my friend
Is blowin’ in the wind
The answer is blowin’ in the wind.
How many years can a mountain exist
Before it’s washed to the sea?
How many years can some people exist
Before they’re allowed to be free?
How many times can a man turn his head
And pretend that he just doesn’t see?
The answer my friend
Is blowin’ in the wind
The answer is blowin’ in the wind.
How many times can a man look up
Before he sees the sky?
How many years must one woman have
before she can hear people cry?
How many deaths will it take
Til we know
That too many people have died?
The answer, my friend,
Is blowin’ in the wind
The answer is blowin’ in the wind.
The answer is blowin’ in the wind.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLUDJlx5jEc
(Joan Baez does it best!)
But I never attempted piano again - until now!!!!
Thanks for the story and the memory....I need to pull that old guitar out and strum it a bit.
No worries even the best of us have been known two make a mistake or too. ;-)
What does “weighted hammer” action mean and how am I to be sure the keyboard has it?
Thanks for all the tips.
OH ....... LOL!
Now that is tooooooo funny - whew! That makes two times today I have laughed til I my sides hurt - the first one being when I went to church this morning for a glorious Easter service!
Hope you have had a beautiful Easter Sunday also!
Mine has been awesome to the max.
I had a great Yamaha keyboard a up until a few years ago - and either gave it to someone or sold it in a yard sale.
What was I thinking?
Spend a little while getting the feel of the keys of a real piano.
When trying out electronic keyboards, you’ll notice that the keys on the least expensive ones have a a very light, feather touch. Pay a little more and get the kind with the “weighted hammer” effect; these take more force to push and have some momentum in them, just like the real thing.
“weighted hammer action” means that the keys are given weight to simulate the feel of a real piano hitting different thickness strings. Fat long strings for the low notes, and skinny short strings for the high notes. It is very subtle!
Good Ol’ Bobby (Zimmerman) Dylan!
That was the first song I learned Too!
Glad I SKIPPED Kumbayah!
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