Hello! Prog Anyone?

[Skot]

Hi. Im Skot.
I have been playing piano for about 12 years now, and I have gotten into more keyboard/synth stuff in the last 4 or 5 years. I have come here hoping to find some information on keyboards, but mostly to inspire me to play more!

I am a huge Prog rock/metal fan! I listen to a wide range of stuff, and I play a lot of different stuff. A few bands that have really inspired me are Dream Theater (of course), symphony x, vanden plas, pain of salvation, sonata arctica, chrome shift, dreamscape, pagan's mind, and ton of other bands that i will not mention here for sake of you not having to read as much. Anyways, I like prog.

I have noticed that this forum doesn't have a whole lot of people on it yet, and hopefully that will change soon. I'm just one more person, I guess.

Nice to meet all of you!

 

[iamthetrees666]

Hi

Hi Skot, wow youve been playing for a long time, ive only been playing solid for about 6 months now but i did a few years back when i was younger so i picked it up quickly. Im into dream theater as well, but i prefer the sounds of images and words to their new album. Not specifically the keyboard just the whole thing, Rudess is pretty amazing tho. Who are some of your favourite keyboardists?

 

[Skot]

Yes, I agree with you, Images and Words is by far my favorite album of theirs. But I also like their newer stuff. A few of my favorite keyboardists are Jordan Rudess, Michael Pinnella, Joe Zawinul, and Vivien Lalu.
I have been playing for a long time, but some of that time I didnt play as much as I should have. I have a lot of experience, but I'm not as good as I'd like to be.

 

[Laura]

Prog

I am a huge Prog rock/metal fan! A few bands that have really inspired me are Dream Theater (of course), symphony x, vanden plas, pain of salvation, sonata arctica, chrome shift, dreamscape, pagan's mind, and ton of other bands that i will not mention here for sake of you not having to read as much. Anyways, I like prog.

Hi Skot,

I love prog too! Wish I could hear those other bands you mention. (besides Dream Theater.)

I don't know if I'll inspire you because I'm a NEWbie. I mean I don't even play keyboards (yet). It's one of my aspirations for the future. Especially after I tried out the Yamaha YPG 225 76.

My aspiration is to be able to create 'progressive/ambient" tracks. For that I need keyboards for the spacy sounds & weird background chords.

I do play guitar and my biggest inspiration is Dream Theater. That's why I wrote you. Our whole family has loved Dream Theater since the 90s. My favorite dream theater songs are the ones where they are most progressive and least trying to sound "heavy metal'. The song Octavarium absolutely blew me off my ass. I love several of the songs on "Falling into Infinity"...the album that "real fans" hate. Specifically New Millenium, Hells Kitchen, Trail of Tears, Lines in the Sand. They played these at their concert in Philly... awesome!!! .

My son is a wicked guitar player who can play most of their riffs. In fact he's the one who inspired me to take up electric guitar in a serious way this year.

So I just wanted to say hi. Do you write original tracks?

I wrote on another thread that I'm trying to teach myself keyboard and I wonder if that's possible, especially if I don't read music.

 

[Skot]

Hi laura,

Thats awesome that you are trying to teach yourself. It will definitely be a lot easier because you play guitar and actually know stuff about music.

Keyboards are great because there is so many different sounds you can make with them!! I have had my korg triton for 3 or 4 years, and I still have not even scratched the surface on what i can do with that thing. As for ambient type of stuff, there are probably 150 different sounds that suit that kind of music, maybe even more. And you can tweak every single one of those to make it sound how you want it to sound. Sometime I sit for hours just playing with all the different sounds and mixing them together. My point is, this is a great thing to pick up! You can do so much with it.

Falling into infinity is a rad album, because its way different from their other stuff. I like lines in the sand and peruvian skies. My favorite DT song is A Change of Seasons. Some parts of it are so beautiful, and then others are extremely hard and driving.

I have wrote some original stuff, but not completed very much. One of my greatest faults is that i never finish songs that i start. I have pages upon pages of riffs, solos, and beats that i have never done anything with and I hate myself for it. Hopefully sometime soon i will get off my ass and finish a song or two.

 

[Laura]

Hi laura,

Thats awesome that you are trying to teach yourself. It will definitely be a lot easier because you play guitar and actually know stuff about music.

Yeah, it seems like it should be pretty easy, it would be just a matter of making the fingers move to where I know they should be. Hahah...of course, finding the time is the big problem.

Keyboards are great because there is so many different sounds you can make with them!! I have had my korg triton for 3 or 4 years, and I still have not even scratched the surface on what i can do with that thing. As for ambient type of stuff, there are probably 150 different sounds that suit that kind of music, maybe even more. And you can tweak every single one of those to make it sound how you want it to sound. Sometime I sit for hours just playing with all the different sounds and mixing them together. My point is, this is a great thing to pick up! You can do so much with it.

Sounds like you could basically do it 24-7!!

What kind of equipment did you start out on? I played a yamaha ypg 225-76 at the music store. I looked at some online places and realized I could get a 61 key model for about $100 less and it would do the same thing. I'm not going to play Beethoven so I don't need the full piano set.

I have wrote some original stuff, but not completed very much. One of my greatest faults is that i never finish songs that i start. I have pages upon pages of riffs, solos, and beats that i have never done anything with and I hate myself for it. Hopefully sometime soon i will get off my ass and finish a song or two.

Yeah, it's hard to find the time!! There is so much else to do, like practice playing an instrument now & then. Oh yeah, and WORK, I almost forgot.
Hey I have a friend who retired & went nuts with boredom & went back to her job. I bet if I could retire I could spend most of the day learning, playing, composing etc. And maybe eating now & then.

You should post some of your riffs.

 

[Skot]

I started out on a yamaha digital console piano type of thing. My parents bought it 15 or so years ago and it still plays awesome. I still play it a ton whenever i go back home.
I bought my triton le when i got more into keyboards, and that was definitely a good buy. It was like 1000 bux when i bought it, but like i said i still dont even know the half of what it can do. I bought a synthesizer (SH-201) because i wanted to figure out how to create my own sounds.

That yamaha looks pretty rad, It will probably do what you want it to. I dont know that much about equipment, and I havent really played that type of keyboard or looked into it. It looks like it would be a good choice for starting out though. Keyboards are expensive, but considering how much you can do with most of them, its definitely worth the price.

Hopefully i will try to record some stuff pretty soon. I need to buy an analog-digital converter though so i can hook up my stuff to the computer.