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Keyboardist or Synthesist? Which are you?


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My late dad who was a great saxophone player,and my sis is a great clarinetist.Me I had to fight for every note.When I told my dad,I'll never make a good pianist,he looked at me,looked at my synths and said"Son,I could never get the sounds out of those things you do,I wouldn't know where to begin".So I proudly wear the name Synthesist and will finally start taking lesson at the old age of 63.My new px 5s demands it.Which do you consider yourselves or both or something altogether different ? Just curious....

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Oh, definitely a synthesist. Card-carrying, hard-core synthesist.  (Well, not actually card carrying but I have a Physics degree kicking around here somewhere.)  As a keyboardist I totally suck.  There, it's out in the open now.  I feel a great weight has been lifted from my shoulders. :D

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I wanna become an Imagineer! :D

 

Seriously though, I'm no pianist by any stretch.  Synths and organs however I manage to squeeze out a tune or two.  I wish I'd had the opportunity to take lessons in my younger years but I've been doing it on my own for so long that it's second nature for me now.

 

Here's a hypothetical situation.  Imagine you were stranded on a desert island as a child with only a solar powered keyboard to keep you company.  Sort of "Blue Lagoon" without Brooke Shields. ;)

 

Could you imagine the riffs you'd be playing after a while?

 

Anyway, I'm drifting again...  Count me in as a synthesist though I don't really like the way the word rolls off my tongue. :)

 

Gary

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Definitely a 'synthesist' here.

 

I took piano lessons for all of about 8 weeks back in 1981, because I thought that was what I would have to do to become Gary Numan. The fact that I couldn't make weird sweeping noises and blips and blops made me realise that being a keyboardist wasn't what I wanted to do, more that I wanted to be a 'soundscaper' like a mad scientist aka Thomas Dolby, or be like Brian Eno in Roxy Music. Then again, with a bit of practice I could come up with simple melodies and bass lines ala Vince Clarke, The Human League, OMD and other such synthpop artists.

 

A virtuoso Rick Wakeman I will never be, nor will I be a Billy Currie or Howard Jones (both whose playing I love). I can realistically reach the playing abilities of Vince Clarke, Phil Oakey and even Gary Numan though, all who are not keyboardists in the traditional sense. Whether I will ever be as successful as them, well, that's doubtful!

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Not sure. Have a long history of making noises on a large variety of things, from drums/percussion to pianos, organs, wurlies, fender rhodes, earliest synths, workstations, software, pots, pans, furniture.  Studied "serious" music in college in the 70s with NJ Percussion Ensemble, did alot of very interesting stuff with all kinds of noise-makers including tape collages, stuff we made ourselves (I once played 2 brake drums, 5 pieces of plate steel hung on a rack, several gongs and tom-toms-I was only one player, what a sonic treat, sort of like a multi-car pileup set to music) had to study classical piano in college-my teachers tried to break me but I won, i got out still partially sane, playing the school Steinways was a treat. I had become fascinated with Hammonds backing up some really gifted players here in NY/NJ whacked at those a little and came across all manner of electronic stuff to attach to B3s to mutilate sounds, got to play the first "Memorymoog" what a beast. As a school music director used keyboards constantly in my shows and classroom, had to learn to create full arrangements with keyboards and got kids to laugh by creating weasel-farts and other comic sounds through the miracle of technology! Retired now still don't know what I am but still fascinated with sounds and music designing, playing, mutilating, musical comedy/obscenities (why I loved Zappa so much). Sorry long post couldn't stop myself, I'll pay for this later!

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Not sure. Have a long history of making noises on a large variety of things, from drums/percussion to pianos, organs, wurlies, fender rhodes, earliest synths, workstations, software, pots, pans, furniture.  Studied "serious" music in college in the 70s with NJ Percussion Ensemble, did alot of very interesting stuff with all kinds of noise-makers including tape collages, stuff we made ourselves (I once played 2 brake drums, 5 pieces of plate steel hung on a rack, several gongs and tom-toms-I was only one player, what a sonic treat, sort of like a multi-car pileup set to music) had to study classical piano in college-my teachers tried to break me but I won, i got out still partially sane, playing the school Steinways was a treat. I had become fascinated with Hammonds backing up some really gifted players here in NY/NJ whacked at those a little and came across all manner of electronic stuff to attach to B3s to mutilate sounds, got to play the first "Memorymoog" what a beast. As a school music director used keyboards constantly in my shows and classroom, had to learn to create full arrangements with keyboards and got kids to laugh by creating weasel-farts and other comic sounds through the miracle of technology! Retired now still don't know what I am but still fascinated with sounds and music designing, playing, mutilating, musical comedy/obscenities (why I loved Zappa so much). Sorry long post couldn't stop myself, I'll pay for this later!

Sounds like you would fit right in with Blue Man Group.

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Synthesist for me too. The reason I prefer synthesizers over keyboards is because synthesizers have that long row of black and white buttons along the front. These can sometimes be very useful for certain effects, like changing the pitch of oscillators.  :lol:

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I am a synth player or synthesist. I have been a drummer most of my life. I wanted to start composing/songwriting back in 1989 and since I was not a guitar player, I bought a synthesizer. :) I like to create my own sounds/tones/patches.  I am still not a guitar player or piano player so I use sequencers, arpeggios, phrases, sampling, touch pads, etc. for performances, the only keyboard playing I do is to create on-the-fly live jam phrases or samples.

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