hi all,

just wish to enquiry, is there any keyboard classes for adult? will it be too late for a person age 25 to learn keyboard (I don't have any music background,can't even read note, just played guitar for fun last time)?
i'm dreaming one day that i'm able to play electronic keyboard,
since i'm affordable now, what class can you all will suggest to me? what equipment should i have for startup? how much should i estimate to start this hobby? Or should I give up electronic keyboard n choose to stick back to guitar? Hope to get your professional opinion.

well, great effort!
respect!

well, i have a non-professional opinion

May sound naive but, follow your dream. You'd be surprised at what you can achieve. And you have nothing to lose. No harm trying and if it doesn't work then leave it. Sure as you get older you learn slower but if it's just for fun then there's no pressure right?

i think is never too late... u still got a long way to go... but just don't give up if this is your dream. nothing is impossible. =)

im no professional but there are classes out there for adults too. just go to any main music school and ask.

dude, just remember it's never late for everything... from what i see that you're keen in the keyboard and yet confuse between picking up the keyboard or sharpen your skills on the guitar. i may suggest that you give a try by playing the keyboard first then probably invest on a low budget ones. cause keyboard and guitar are both differend feel in terms on playing the instrument. but if you really dig both of it then play both, it's always good to be a multi instrumentalist. one more thing, 25 is still at the age of learning man, so it's still good that you're picking it up now.

If guitar is your dream, learn it.
If keyboard is your dream, learn it.
If you can't let go both of it, learn both (but of course you need to be "rajin".

Anyway, if you learn for fun, you're not late..AT ALL.

Age is not a problem anyway...

I totally agree. Age is no barrier to learning music. As long as you can maintain the passion, no instrument is too difficult.

Just be sure to hang in there for the first year of classes or so, cos' they're probably going to make you play kiddie tunes and stuff. But once you get past that, that's when you get to learn more interesting tunes.

*Sigh* Could remember 3 years back, I tried to take up piano lessons. But Having to play "Mary Had A Little Lamb" & "When The Saints Go Marching In" in 3 different keys just killed off the interest...

Basically, grade 1 is for kids. Actually grade 1 was written for kids because majority kids learning music (not according to Malaysia). That's why we have to go through this.

But I am not stuck with it, I like some kids songs too.

Thanks for giving me so much confidence.... since all ppl here said age doesn't a matter, i would go for it.
but before this, which music school should i look for ? i'm living in KL, any suggestion?
as a beginner for keyboard, what is the basic thing i should learn? n what type of keyboard i can purchase?, i probably can afford around 1k to 1.3k for buying a instrument, the rest might saves for classes....

This one...I think Bentley Music school can consider (I don't know how is their syllabus) but I read somewhere in their site that their examination are under Trinity College.

What is the basic thing you can learn? Well, you should first meet your teacher first.

61 keys maybe? Better wait for another comment, I don't know much things about keyboard anyway..

Any other opinion~~??

Get your music theory right before progressing too far into playing the instrument. Many folks (incl. myself when I first started) tend to overlook theory but I can tell you, with good music theory knowledge, everything else will fall into place.

Also, the same music theory applies to all instruments, so should you tire of the keyboard and wanna learn a few other instruments in future, knowledge of music theory speeds things up quite a bit.

Life is about learning! Learning is fun! Skillful and talent = richness!

does that means that i should attend music theory class first? im wondering, once in a week for keyboard classes... n everytime is just 30 to 40min... is that enough? the remaining pratice at home?

theory classes should come together with ur practical lessons. yeap, u have to practice on ur own at home.

I started keyboard at what...age 20...guitar at maybe 21(which i gave up...too tough for me)?? LOL.

If u can play guitar, keyboard is a piece of cake. Keyboard is very easy to play, it's not like piano.

Now i play a bit of keyboard and even piano. Playing piano is very different though, as it's analog instrument and the keys feedback is much stronger and you might not get use to it if u only play keyboard. Much more controls are needed. But a bit of pratice and you'll get the hang and feel of the piano keys.

At any rate, i still think piano/keyboard is much easiear to start compared to guitars....u won't be an expert in no time, but picking up is definitely easier...maybe i have short fingers, which is a disadvantage when playing guitar. My fav instrument is the electric guitar. There's nothing like a few power chords to bring down the house down.

Good luck!

Yup, theory comes TOGETHER with practical. Apart from hammering away at your instrument of choice, you should also take the time to read up on the subject of music theory and see how it relates to your practical.

For that, I think the "Handbook of Music Theory" Grades 1-5 & 6-8 by Loh Phaik Keng should suffice. Any subject mentioned in those books with which you need further clarification, look it up on Wikipedia.

This post has been edited by changhao: Dec 8 2006, 12:59 PM

hey guys, juz survey the price n classes, they recommend me Casio CTK-900....said suitable n nice to beginner...., wat u all think?? price is RM1200,

Err...i won't choose Casio really. If possible budget wise, go for a decent Yamaha.

There's a few things to look out.

(1) Make sure it's at least a 5 octave keyboard (61 keys).

(2) Check the feel of the keys. Also, get one which has "soft-touch"(or is it after-touch? can't remember terms), meaning the key is emulating the behaviour of analog keys. This means that the sound/volume response to how hard or fast you hit the keys. Cheap keyboards don't have this feature. IMO, this is very important.

(3) Check out how many polyphonic voices the machine is capable. This means simultaneous sound channel at the same time. The more the better. If you don't have enuff voices, then if you're playing a song with the backing rythm etc(each instrument takes one voice channel), and you hit more keys than the machine can handle, you'll not get the sound or it'll overwrite the sound of the earlier channels.

(4) Check out the number of instruments availble on the keyboard. Also, those expandable ones will be better, meaning you can add your own or additional istruments.

(5) Test out the keyboard and the quality of the sound. The same instrument "etc: string" will sound much different between different keyboards.

That's all i can think of for the moment.

Choose wisely!!!

Updated:

Here's the models from local yamaha site:
http://www.yamaha.com.my/Products/pk3/pk4.html

The DGX-305(RM2,100) and DGX-205(RM 1,600) looks interesting and more importantly, it has 76 keys! Both has touch sensitive feature. (The CTK-900 also has the feature according to the Casio website).

I'll suggest you try out these models yourself at both CASIO and Yamaha showrooms.

Personally, I'll go for better sound quality, keyboard control and more keys(very important if you want to play piano pieces).

if budget allows, the full 88 keys DGX-505 looks very interesting... ...

This post has been edited by Matrix: Dec 9 2006, 09:58 AM