PSR-OR700 - Yamaha PSR-OR700 » Electric Organ

Piano Chords A Chord Book And Forty Eight Popular Chords For Beginners

Thu, 24 Dec 2009 05:53:32 +0000

I am sure you have heard of Piano Chords. Well, that can be a little misleading because when you play chords, normally with you left hand, you would play chords on an electronic keyboard or electric organ rather than a piano.
When learning to play the piano you would normally learn, what I call a moving left hand rather than a three note or four-note chord. You can still use chords with a piano but you must put the bass note in first before playing the chord. So if you are playing a C chord you would play the C bass note first with your left hand then the C chord. With an electronic keyboard, you would just play the C chord and the auto-chord feature that most keyboards have will add the bass note for you.
So, for all you keyboard and organ beginners out there all you need to start with is some basic triad and seventh chords. There are hundreds of chords to learn, but guess what; you don’t need to learn them now.
Let me give you an example, if you are playing your favourite song on your keyboard and you come across a chord called C6 or C9 or even C11 what do you do, stop, and learn these chords or carry on playing and learn these chords later, if you want to. Sound confusing, it’s not really, what you do is play a simple C chord instead of the C6, C9 or C11.
When you see a number attached to a chord it means you are adding another note to that chord. So for example C6 means play a C chord and add a sixth to it, and if you don’t know what the sixth is just play the C chord and learn the sixth later.
Now I don’t want to bombard you with theory but there are certain rules when playing ninth and eleventh chords, the rule being you must include the seventh when playing these types of chords. Now, as a beginner you can substitute ninth and eleventh chords with seventh chords. So now, you have a choice, if you see a C9 chord, you can play either a C chord or a C7 chord, both are adequate and both will sound correct.
Here are the chords I recommend beginners learn first.
12 Major Chords
12 Seventh Chords
12 Minor Chords
12 Minor Seventh Chords
The 12 Major Chords are:
C, G, D, A, E, B, F#/Gb, C#/Db, Ab, Eb, Bb, F
The 12 Seventh Chords are:
C7, G7, D7, A7, E7, B7, F#7/Gb7, C#7/Db7, Ab7, Eb7, Bb7, F7
The 12 Minor Chords are:
Cm, Gm, Dm, Am, Em, Bm, F#m/Gbm, C#m/Dbm, Abm, Ebm, Bbm, Fm
The 12 Minor Seventh Chords are:
Cm7, Gm7, Dm7, Am7, Em7, Bm7, F#m7/Gbm7, C#m7/Dbm7, Abm7, Ebm7, Bbm7, Fm7
That’s 48 of the most popular chords used in modern music today. If you learn these chords, you will be able to play hundreds of songs that are widely available in songbooks and sheet music.

Should I Learn To Play Piano, Keyboard Or Organ?

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 00:31:34 +0000

The first thing to consider when choosing the instrument you want to learn is which one do you like the best. If you like them all, then we can move onto which one is the most practical for you.
The easiest and cheapest option is the keyboard. You can buy a keyboard for less then 100 pounds and you only need to learn to read music for the right hand. The left hand is made easy because you just learn left hand chords as you need them. Typically, you would start with C chord and G chord. With a keyboard, you should be playing a simple tune within a day, it’s that easy.
The piano is a more expensive option. If you buy a real piano (not electric) then you need the room, if you go for the electric option then you really should be looking at an 88 note keyboard especially if you intend taking exams. With piano sheet music, you will need to learn to read right hand (treble clef) and left hand (bass clef). You can expect to play a simple tune within a week, based on at least half an hour practice a day.
The electric organ can be a very expensive option if bought new, fortunately, there is a healthy second hand market and you can pick up a bargain. Like the piano, you need room for the organ because they are big and heavy. At the moment, there are no portable options available in the UK. However, you can import the Yamaha D-Deck organ or the Yamaha Electone Stagea organ, which are portable and very modern looking. The organ has two keyboards and a pedal board. The right hand plays the top keyboard the left hand plays the lower keyboard and your left foot plays the pedal board. It is initially more the most difficult to learn because you need to learn to play the bass pedals however when starting to learn the organ, like the keyboard you just need to learn to read music for the right hand and use chord symbols for the left hand and bass pedals.
I personally started on piano then moved to organ and I prefer the organ because of the vast amount of sounds. With a piano, you will only ever have a piano. If I had to answer the question for you then I would say start with a cheap keyboard. If you like it, move on to a bigger keyboard, a piano, or an organ, if not, it’s not cost you a lot of money to find out that this music lark is not for you.

10 Things You Might Not Know About the Electric Keyboard

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 14:43:33 +0000

1. Some of you may think of someone playing the electronic keyboard as a “pianist”. Well you’d be wrong. They would actually be referred to (by someone who knows what they are talking about) as a “keyboardist”. Sounds clumsy, but it’s true.
2. The term “electronic keyboard” is used to mainly describe the cheap end portable home sequencing keyboards, but is also commonly used to include many variants such as the digital piano, the synthesizer, the electric organ and the arranger keyboard.
3. Many electronic keyboards commonly use MIDI signals to send and receive musical data. MIDI is essentially a sequence of instructions that identify the sound used, the note pressed, the duration of that press, although the complexity of the MIDI system will vary with each keyboard. Some cheaper end models of electric keyboard (such as keyboard toys) simply will not output that data.
4. Many keyboards have the ability to add a “foot switch” or “sustain pedal” as it is commonly referred to. The application of the foot switch enables a pressed note to “ring” for longer and better replicate the sounds of many keyboard based instruments including the organ and the piano.
5. Electronic keyboards across the world have been commonly built by instrument manufacturers such as Alesis, Casio, Ensoniq, E-mu, Kawai, Ketron, Korg, Kurzweil Music Systems, M-Audio, Moog Music, Ne-Ko, Roland, Technics, Yamaha and Sonic to name but a few!
6. Features that keyboardists would be interested in when choosing a keyboard include touch response, after touch, polyphony (the number of notes that can be played at the same time), multi-timbre (playing more than one instrument at the same time), tempo, split point (the ability to split the playing area into different instruments), style, synchronisation, auto harmony, wheels and knobs (to control and vary different features on the keyboard) and response (weighted or spring loaded).
7. Synthesizers are actually slightly different from the standard electronic keyboard in that they can produce a variety of sounds by generating, combining and distorting signals of different frequencies. Unlike the keyboard, the synthesizer produces an electric signal (rather than an acoustic signal) which can then be played through an amplifier of some kind. Synthesizers are most commonly controlled by a keyboard device, although this is often integrated into the machinery.
8. Perhaps the most infamous synthesizer is the Moog Synthesizer, famous for its role in many 1970s and 1980s pop hits and popularly used by artists such as Jean Michelle Jarre and Duran Duran.
9. The earliest incarnations of the non-electric keyboard are the pipe organ, the hurdy gurdy and the harpsichord. The organ is the oldest of these from perhaps as early as the third century AD.
10. The first keyboard to be powered by electricity is said to be the “Ondes Martenot” which appeared in the early 20th century (approx. 1928). It is actually still played today in some French conservatoires thanks to some compositions written specifically for the Ondes Martenot. It produces eerie wavering notes and was produced by “varying the frequency of oscillation in thermionic valves”. Whatever than means…

Yamaha Electone Organ Versus Yamaha Arranger Keyboard

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 12:50:54 +0000

Over the past ten years or so, electric organ sales have slumped to all time low. Yet the arranger keyboard market continues to flourish, especially with keyboards such as the Yamaha Tyros, Korg PA-2X Pro and the Roland G70. In my opinion, the organ is much more playable as a live instrument, and using bass pedals, you can play the organ without any drum machine or automatic chords and get a fantastic sound.

The keyboard on the other hand would sound thin, definitely lacking without auto chord/bass. Of course, arranger keyboards are considerably cheaper than new organs and take up less room. This has created a new generation of keyboard players, some of which could never afford the hefty cost of an organ.

So is this the end for the electric organ. So how do organ manufacturers address this problem? Well they were and still are designed to be a piece of furniture. Great big lumps of wood, which appeal to the older generation, which is why they have the reputation of being an older person’s musical instrument. This need to be changed so they appeal to all generations. The next major change has to be the hefty cost. A top of the range electric arranger keyboard such as the Roland G70 would cost between two to three thousands pounds. The top of the range Roland Atelier organ will cost you in the region of twenty thousand pounds new.

This change may have already started with new models from Yamaha with the Yamaha D-Deck organ and the top of the range Yamaha Electone Stagea. Both are portable and very modern looking. Unfortunately, there is not a lot of information on these models unless you read Japanese. Yamaha have decided there is no organ market in the UK, Europe or the USA. So if you want one of these models you will have to import it yourself.

At the time of writing this, even these new modern looking organs are now out of date. As far as I am aware the Yamaha Stagea electone organ and Yamaha D-Deck organ do not have the “Super Articulation” that is available on the Yamaha Tyros 2 arranger keyboard. There are also a lot of brand new features on the latest crop of arranger keyboards, which include Roland G70, Korg PA 800 and the Ketron Audya, the latter, still a prototype.

So if you want an electric organ set up. You might be better of buying two arranger keyboards and a pedal board. It would be considerably cheaper than importing the Yamaha Stagea and you would be assured of the latest sounds and technological advancements.