ssleon64

I have certainly gotten tired of pressing Function, scrolling through backwards 4 or 5 times on the keypad to Lesson, hitting enter, scrolling through to PhraseLn, hitting enter again, and pressing down on the keypad every time I want to play a song. I had to look it up multiple times before I finally got it memorized, and I cannot imagine trying to teach such a complicated process to a 5 year old, much less a 2 year old. I understand that they were trying to cut costs with flash memory, but there ARE some settings that it can save (like Contrast, thankfully). Why not this one as well? Or, alternately, why not make it a single button press? There are so many "conveniently located" buttons on the keyboard I never press and still don't know what they do. But the function I want every time I turn on the keyboard is buried in the settings. There's no way around it: it is a bad design.

I have been frustrated with my LK-280 for a number of reasons, but one of the big ones that I can't seem to change is the beat that plays before practicing a phrase. I'm not sure if it's actually called the "beat" but it's the 4 clicks that play before I practice each section, and that lights up the rectangles above the tempo and measure display. When I'm practicing a phrase over and over again, it really gets on my nerves to have that long pause and annoying sound. I want to play the phrase, look at my score, and then immediately try again. It would make practicing faster and less bothersome. But at the very least it'd be nice to get rid of the clicking sound. And it's even worse when there are EIGHT clicks. It reminds me of someone clicking their drumsticks together before a song, saying, "A one, a two, a one, two, three four" except that they keep going on and on: "A one, a two, a 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16." I have literally counted up to 16 waiting for the beat to stop. So there are certain phrases I absolutely hate practicing simply because I'm spending a quarter of my practice session listening to that sound. I have scoured the manual for some way to turn it off. There does not seem to be one. Holding down the metronome button and turning the beat down to 0 does not change it for the preset song I am practicing (Moonlight Sonata). If I have to download Moonlight Sonata onto an SD card to make it go away, I might try it, but I'm not really looking forward to trying to figure out all the stuff with MIDI, as the manual is horribly written and notoriously opaque. This is my first keyboard, and it's definitely been fun learning to play, not to mention relaxing now that I can competently play Moonlight Sonata. But it really interferes with the relaxation to hear that same clicking over and over and over again. There seems to be so much about this keyboard that doesn't make sense and can't be changed, and most of the changes reset every time you turn it off. I'm about ready to sell it and get a new one. Or maybe smash it with a sledgehammer in time with the stupid beat. If there's anyone who knows how to fix this, or knows that you simply can't, please let me know. (Don't bother to tell me things like, "You should keep it on because you need that to keep on tempo" or whatever it's for. You can't "persuade" me not to be annoyed by it, and I just want rid of it.) It's not the only thing I dislike about the LK-280, but if the beat can be turned off, even if I have to do it every time I turn it on, I might still keep the keyboard and not write a horrible review for it. Sorry if I sound like a prick. I'm just annoyed and needed to vent my frustration with this machine. I do hope somebody can help me with this. Thanks for your time! -Leon