Thx alot of all the replies

Anyway to make things clear,the reason I asked about the price is because I need to plan for my budget,I will learn both,it is just a matter of time(and money,lol).

After seeing all those youtube videos,I've decided to choose piano than keyboard,but violin still remains.

May I know how much usually a starter piano cost?

Here is a picture of my actual size toy keyboard. The brand is Fujicom. I guess it does not really matter. It is still an unknown brand anyway.

TS, it is nice you finally made up your mind on what instrument to start with. Good luck and have fun practising.

This post has been edited by faceless: Sep 28 2010, 08:50 AM


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digital or acoustic? i believe ml888 can furbish u with the info...

btw, faceless, wondering, why is the nails on your left hand? cannot figure out what instrument u play. unless u using left hand guitar/pipa/zheng?

@faceless-Thx

@Karenalvin-I think I should go for digital 1st,I googled and those acoustic 1 look like will cost a bomb,lol

Karenalvin,
I was playing the guzheng and suddenly I remembered to get details of the keyboard. I decided to take a picture of it. Wow, I didnt know people will pay attention to these details. The battery in may camera was too weak to take another picture so I did not bother to remove the nail for another picture. I thought people would be more interested in the size of the keyboard.

well... new digital piano aint too cheap either. i mean weighted keys and stuff. RM 2k plus in general.

and faceless, just curious, do u use left hand to pluck the zheng?

TS,
Hah, cost! That rememinded me that I was interested in the paino when I was a child. I choose the keyboard instead I waited till it was RM99 to make a purchase I am not brand conscous.

Karenalvin,
I thought you were more observant than that, actually. Since the left hand was in the picture, it indicates that the right hand held the camera and took the picture. So I am not left handed as he may be inclined to think.

The guzheng is played with both hands. It uses the same concept of melody with right hand and bass accompaniment with left hand. Unlike the piano you can actually filp it arround.

Let's take playing the chord c with piano for an example. (Thumb is no 1 and little finger is 5 as per standard piano fingering notation) You will use this fingering on the notes 1c, 3e, 5g for right hand. For left hand you will use 5c, 3e, 1g. With the guzheng you use the same fingers for the same note regardless of right or left hand.

This post has been edited by faceless: Sep 28 2010, 11:32 AM

Is gu zheng that hard on the fingers until must wear plaster? Never tried it b4

You do not use plasters to pluck. The plasters are are used to hold/stick the plucturms into position. Pleasuresaurus as a guitar player, you already know the answer to the question you asked. 1) Can you play without pluctrums even though it hurts after several hours of playing? 2) If you use pluctrums, do you use them because they sound better than using finger nails?

alright. so u use 2 hands plucking. haha... sorry man, always have the idea u pluck wid one hand on the zheng. my bad. keke

Maybe you confused it with the quqin. They look similar but the guqin is a fretted instrument (like a guitar). I am not too familair with that instrument. I imagine it plays like a guitar with one hand plucking and the other hand stopping the strings at the frets.

Keyboards are electrical while pianos are traditional.

Therefore keyboards have much more flexibility over pianos. They can be wired into computers for direct sound recording, sound processing for effects (through programs such as Absynth) and other useful software such as Synthesia. Keyboards are also portable compared to pianos. Price-wise I'm not sure...should hell a lot cheaper.

But a comparison of the 3 instruments you listed...I'm guessing keyboards a definite winner.

I heard that keyboard can also play piano tone,is it true?

i think can but keyboard keys are shorter than piano so still cant get the real effect of a piano

well... technically u can play guitar, drums, violin, etc on a keyboard, but how it sounds and the techniques u can apply is obviously limited.

TS,
I think what Karenalvin means is string players are very particular with how you touch the strings. The pressure you apply in plucking can sound differently each time you pluck it with different pressure. Not many people are bother to learn this skill. They are more concern about the ability to play out the song. We can talk more about acquiring this skills when you choose acoustics.

As it is a keyboard can have sounds of many instrument. Even my cheap keyboard has the sound of 118 different instruments. I have not heard of pressure pads (thanks to Karenalvin for bringign it up). Now I know, when I get good at the keyboard, I would not mind paying the extra for pressure pads. Even then it is not good enough. Let me take voilin as an example. The pressure I apply is one factor. The speed I pull the bow is another factor. I think you can imagine the many possible final products when I just change these two factors. The same goes for drums. I am sure you played badminton. I am sure you have realised that hitting the shuttle with a swing is different than hitting it with a swing and a bit of wrist work. Drums are struck the same way too.

I'm not familiar with gu zheng - didn't reealize u play it like a piano. For me, its inconsequential playing with or without plectrum - if it hurts u suck it up and get used to it, although I would play with a plectrum. Not because they sound better then finger nails, rather my nails aren't long enough for plucking.

Pleasuresaurus,
I am too lazy put on pluctrum most of the time. There is too much hassle involve. I use it because it sound nicer. So when my mood is right, I wear the pluctrum. Perhaps you should try ivory plectrums. They sound best on metal string. Although I seldom seen ivory guitar plectrums. You may end up getting guzheng plectruns instead. You may not get it so easily at any music shops unless the shop sells guzheng. Furthermore the size is not condusive for guitar playing. If you are that curious you can borrow mine

This post has been edited by faceless: Sep 29 2010, 10:54 AM

Ivory plectrum?! Like real elephant ivory? Wow, talk about Mastodon. Is it brittle? Could probably machine it down to guitar pick size if it isn't too hard to work with.

Yes, elephant "tooth". Hey some snooker white ball are still made out of ivory.

Turttle shell is the second best. That is according to guzheng players. Although I would say my guitar plectrum (look like nylon to me) sound as good.