Hi everyone, I'm Mark, from Pennsylvania. My musical background started at age 7 when I tried out the clarinet. My uncle gave me a used clarinet he bought at a yard sale for a few bucks. I played it for about a week, and decided I didn't really like it. Then, at age 8, I got a trumpet and took trumpet lessons for 4 years. Eventually I got tired of it, and quit. I still have my trumpets though, and I can still play. I'm glad I took lessons though, because I learned to read music.
My mother has a piano (spinet/upright), and I tried to play it, but my hands were too small and weak then. My mom bought me a Casio PT-100 at a yard sale for 2 dollars, so I played around on that occasionally. The PT-100 was made in 1987, and was one of the cheapest keyboards around. It has 32 miniature keys, and a tiny speaker, with no output jack. Sounds cheap too.
I didn't really start getting serious about piano/keyboard until I was 21. I'm mostly self taught, my only formal training was a semester of Music Fundamentals, and my mother taught me a little bit too. I bought a Casio CTK-2100, which was a huge step up from the PT-100, which isn't very hard to accomplish.
It's still a low end keyboard, with 61 keys, and no velocity sensitivity whatsoever, so it's hard to play it expressively. It has decent sounds, but nothing mind blowing. I got a Behringer K-450FX amplifier too, which is a great amp. I joined my college's jazz/rock club, and we jammed out every week, and performed in the cafeteria. We mostly played cover songs, but we wrote a couple of our own songs.
A few weeks ago, my friend sold me her Alesis QS8.1 for only $50!!!! It's a fantastic synth, and would have cost me at least $800 if bought anywhere else.
I also have a Burns B3 Theremin, which I'm learning how to play as well.
Hope that wasn't all too much to read. Hopefully I can meet some fellow keyboardists, and maybe learn some tips and tricks from you guys, and maybe share some of my own!
My mother has a piano (spinet/upright), and I tried to play it, but my hands were too small and weak then. My mom bought me a Casio PT-100 at a yard sale for 2 dollars, so I played around on that occasionally. The PT-100 was made in 1987, and was one of the cheapest keyboards around. It has 32 miniature keys, and a tiny speaker, with no output jack. Sounds cheap too.
I didn't really start getting serious about piano/keyboard until I was 21. I'm mostly self taught, my only formal training was a semester of Music Fundamentals, and my mother taught me a little bit too. I bought a Casio CTK-2100, which was a huge step up from the PT-100, which isn't very hard to accomplish.
It's still a low end keyboard, with 61 keys, and no velocity sensitivity whatsoever, so it's hard to play it expressively. It has decent sounds, but nothing mind blowing. I got a Behringer K-450FX amplifier too, which is a great amp. I joined my college's jazz/rock club, and we jammed out every week, and performed in the cafeteria. We mostly played cover songs, but we wrote a couple of our own songs. A few weeks ago, my friend sold me her Alesis QS8.1 for only $50!!!! It's a fantastic synth, and would have cost me at least $800 if bought anywhere else.
I also have a Burns B3 Theremin, which I'm learning how to play as well.
Hope that wasn't all too much to read. Hopefully I can meet some fellow keyboardists, and maybe learn some tips and tricks from you guys, and maybe share some of my own!
