Recent Posts

1

Genos2 / Genos 2 multipad problem

« Last post by ugawoga on Today at 01:13:00 PM »

Hi
Delving more into multpads, things get a little strange.
When using the preset multipads all is ok It follows the chords of the style that you play.

So i set about recording two notes alternating for two bars in C for a synth enhancement.

All done, the first chord it plays the sounds just right which is D flat Major7th
When i hit the multipad with a G7th it is an octave higher than i wanted. All using chord follow no repeat.
I cannot find out  whether the multpads can have different inversions.

I am just wondering if there are certain limitations with multipads.
If i want  a different inversion have i got to make another multipad??


All the Best
John

2

Genos Styles/OTS/Multi Pads / Re: How to find the melody?

« Last post by robinez on Today at 12:52:30 PM »

I started Simply Piano this month.
I’m surprised about the results.

I tried Flowkey before.
But for me it wasn’t the help I needed.

lot's of good advice in this thread, but also advice that suits the more experienced players.

Personally I think that you started in a good way by starting to use simply piano. But I got the feeling that you stopped with this, which I can understand. I would advice you to go use the Yousician app, It's less serious than simply piano and more gamification elements to keep you motivated.

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Genos Styles/OTS/Multi Pads / Re: How to find the melody?

« Last post by RoyB on Today at 12:39:01 PM »

Mike

We are on the same page. That is why the program and its tutorials together concentrate on the practicalities and are light on theory, and why they demonstrate how to arrive at the main chords and chords patterns and progressions for any key without having to know any music theory beyond what a chord is. Hopefully, in time, it would all become instinctive.

My own experience is that, after finishing my brief piano lessons at the age of 8, and before I moved on to home organs and then arrangers, for 25 years I played piano at home in my own way in a hybrid fashion, a mixture of playing by ear, playing by copying and playing by reading music. Although my early piano lessions taught me to read music (as long as it isn't too difficult), I tended not to stick to it and ended up improvising the left hand part around what was written. During this time, the type of chord patterns and progressions you talked about did become instinctive. When I listen to a song, I can sketch a visualisation of the chord progression in my head from how it sounds - it may not always be 100% at the beginning but it will be close.

I also developed a habit of playing chord inversions instinctively to transition between chords, and I use chord inversions alot. I was not aware of it at the time, but I now understand that it is a technique known as 'Voice Leading'.

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Genos Styles/OTS/Multi Pads / Re: How to find the melody?

« Last post by mikf on Today at 12:01:56 PM »

Roy, that’s great but I always get concerned when people mention theory. The fact is that unless you are trying to become an orchestrator or arranger or concert pianist, playing music is largely about understanding simple patterns. That’s all most people need, and what they should concentrate on. Theory makes it sound much more of a challenge than it actually is. For example there is no need to understand what chords are useful in which keys once you grasp that there are actually only 3 main chords and they are exactly the same pattern of major and minor thirds in every key. Similarly chord progressions in popular music are repeating patterns, with occasional exceptions.
When people fail to see this as a small number of patterns, music can seem like a tsunami of data, hundreds of chords, thousands of songs and become very intimidating. But when you think in patterns it becomes much simpler.
Mike

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Genos Styles/OTS/Multi Pads / Re: How to find the melody?

« Last post by RoyB on Today at 10:58:42 AM »

Mike

Your point about some chord derivatives containing too many notes to play with one hand is noted in my program for those derivatives, meaning that the only way of attempting to play some of them on an arranger is by missing out a bunch of notes, and perhaps playing them inverted as well.

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Genos Styles/OTS/Multi Pads / Re: How to find the melody?

« Last post by RoyB on Today at 10:49:41 AM »

Mike and others

I agree with all of that, which is why the emphasis on the help tutorial part of the program will be on the KEY side of the program and practical chord usage and how chords relate to scales. I hope the program can be a useful tool to help learn and understand that, and help beginners to learn chords and to play in key scales other than C by seeing what chords work in those scales, and to help them learn those chords and use them in progressions. The working assumption is that there are some hobbyists who are beginners to keyboards and have little or no music theory knowledge, and who may not yet even be familiar with scales. The chord derivatives part is just a handy look-up reference for those (like me) who need to lookup chords from time to time for some chord derivatives in more complicated keys when they are used in sheet music (which is why I started the program in the first place for my own use).

The purpose of the program is to be a practical help tool, rather than a theory learning tool. So the emphasis of the help tutorial will be to demonstrate how chords relate to scales (using information from the program), how easily to get to the diatonic and chromatic (secondary dominant) chords (without getting bogged down in music theory) and why they are important, and then give simple practical examples of how they are used in chord progressions (I hope to give one example of a very popular song from the 1960s where all 6 of the diatonic and chromatic major chords shown, plus some of the minor chords, or their 7ths, are used just in the first verse).

Another aspect I will be promoting in the help/video tutorials is to practice using the chord inversions shown in the program, and I hope to demonstrate the practical benefits of chord inversions in the tutorials.

Regards

Roy

7

PSR-SX900/SX700/SX600 / Re: How can I quickly switch on/off the "vocal harmony" function

« Last post by DerekA on Today at 09:58:20 AM »

It would be ideal, as we suggested to Yamaha many years ago, if there were two independent instances of reg banks that could be active at the same time (one bank for normal playing and a global bank, e.g. for basic settings such as pedal settings or reverb/VH settings). Unfortunately, this request has not yet been taken up by Yamaha ...

Yes, I can see how this would be useful.

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Genos Styles/OTS/Multi Pads / Re: How to find the melody?

« Last post by mikf on Today at 09:46:16 AM »

Keith
When people know the scale they can just remember major and minor chords are both notes 1 3 5 of the appropriate scale.
But your way is the 4/3 …3/4 is also a very good way to remember the pattern - essentially a major third is 4 semi tones and a minor third is 3 semi tones. And a major chord is a major third and a minor third, a minor chord is one minor third and one major third, and a diminished chord is all minor thirds. It’s all simple patterns,
The half diminished chord is always written like this - F#min7b5 - and can look intimidating. The notes following the scale method would be 1 3 of the minor scale, the flattened 5 th of the scale and the added 7th. Fairly easy to work out the notes without a table. But even easier is to recognize that it’s a half diminished and their pattern is always two minor thirds and a major third.
It’s all about memorizing only 3 or 4 patterns to do everything, instead of hundred of individual chords.
One thing that you can’t get around though is how difficult these extended/altered chords can be to play on an arranger even if you know the notes to play. Piano players do this across both hands, so adding notes is relatively simple, but using lh chord drivers with a split on an arranger these chords can sometimes be really hard to finger.
Mike

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PSR-SX900/SX700/SX600 / Re: Re-Arranging Register Banks

« Last post by Bernie9 on Today at 09:41:28 AM »

I have it now, Chris.  It is much appreciated.

Bernie

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Genos Registrations & Playlist / Re: Marcos Mendez Registrations

« Last post by Tony09 on Today at 09:41:08 AM »

Thank you so much Mark for asking your question and thanks also to Chris for the links.

Since reading your posts I've become totally hooked on what Mr Mendez has provided on his website. I'd never heard of him before. He's great. He explains some things that I've never seen anyone else do. If you're a beginner or intermediate like me you are going to benefit from what he teaches.

Apparently his web presence was brought about by the regulations around Covid. 

I downloaded his Freebies set and am very impressed by it. Eager for more (of which there an abundance) I found in his Digital Classroom that "After April, 2020, the monthly fee for materials will be $50 / month." I interpreted that to mean that if I subscribe it will cost me $50 a month. Oh no! I can't afford to put out $50 a month on my hobby. I later came to realise that isn't what it means. It simply means, if you want to purchase the songs he's covered in any particular month, it will cost $50. Some months  have 4 songs, some five. Do the sums. It probably averages out at $11 a song. The Freebies pack is equivalent to any month so you get quite a bit for $50. See for yourself.

His Freebie set introduced me to a beautiful song I'd never hear before, "This Is The Moment" from "Jekyll & Hyde".

As to his registrations, I really like them as they have a good mix of voices, apart from volume level which I find too loud. So I'm tweaking them, which is something we all do to other people's regs anyway.

So anyone who hasn't already done so, download his Freebies and give them a try. I'm sure that, like me, you'll be ordering a few of the 30+ months currently available.

I have no connection with Mr Mendez or his associates.

Thanks again,

Tony