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Simplified chord fingering mode - how can I change tone?


beebauman

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I am missing my left hand but am able to hit one key with it. I want to be able to play simple chords on the left side. When ACCOMP (auto-accompaniment) is turned ON but an accompaniment pattern (e.g. INTRO, NORMAL, VARIATION, etc.) has not been selected yet, the piano goes into a simplified chord mode where it plays chords based on single key presses. How do I change the tone (instrument) for this mode?

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There are a few approaches that may work for you. For selecting tones in any of the auto-accompaniment modes you simply select your right hand tone while the accompaniment is playing the way you would always do it, using the tone select buttons and the rhythm will continue. You can switch rhythms and tones independently whether the rhythms are playing or not switching tones while the rhythm is playing will not interrupt the rhythm. Make sure the PX rhythm button is lit of course.

 

The other thought is to use the "one-touch preset" option by holding the rhythm key for 2 seconds which selects the best right hand tone for the rhythm you've already selected -you must select the rhythm first for this to work. All the other auto-accompaniment functions stay the same. Using "registrations" will store your tone, rhythm selection all in one place but this may be more complicated than you (or I!) will ever need, I find it tricky to switch registrations around.

 

I have the PX-350 and comparing manuals I see these functions are pretty much identical. The other possibility you may wish to try (I have used this mode and it works quite well I think and recognizes many of the most important chords except some of the "extended" voicings used in some jazz tunes) is the "full range" auto-accompaniment mode, all of these modes are selected as you may already know by holding down the "accomp on/off" button for 2 seconds  and scrolling through the menu with the up/down arrows. Full range recognizes your chords using whatever fingerings you need with any keys anywhere on the keyboard left or right hand and still lets you play single line melodies as you hit chords. The other choice is to use the "Casio chord" mode which recognizes 4 different types of chords and which can be played with immediately adjacent keys on the left side of the keyboard. Sorry for the long response, hope this helps. Let me know if you have any more questions.

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Thanks for your thoughtful reply. I am already very familiar with all the options you describe. None of them allow me to play chords using the simplified fingering modes without starting a rhythm while maintaining the capability to change tone. Again, I can play chords with one finger when ACCOMP is ON and the rhythm has not been started. But the piano uses an organ sound and there's no way to change it.

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BradMZ, Thanks for letting me know about Mike being away. To answer your questions:

 

1) I've got the PX-330.

2) The organ sound that I want to change is produced only by the chord section (the left side; what Casio calls the "Accompaniment Keyboard"), not the melody side.

3) I have tried all the chord fingering modes including Casio Chord.

 

To be clear, when ACCOMP is ON but the rhythm hasn't been started, Casio Chord mode does exactly what I want -- I can play chords using one finger. It's as if I was pressing all the chord keys at once on my own -- however, I cannot change the tone used for this mode, and I want to make it sound like a piano.

 

Thanks so much for your help.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hmm...I've tried this as you did and it seems to work on the PX-350 the way you want it to. I pick my "tone" first as i would when playing the keyboard without the rhythm accompaniment, then select a rhythm accompaniment and my tone stays the same as the one I picked. Is it possible you are selecting the one-touch preset mode instead of plain "rhythm" mode? if you hold the rhythm button for 2 seconds or longer, it switches to preset rhythm mode, instead of just plain rhythm mode-the difference is that presets have right hand tones stored as part of the preset and can't be changed but will respond just like the plain rhythm mode for auto-accompaniment.  It isn't very obvious if this is what is happening-both modes look the same on the LCD-there is nothing to show which one you are using on the LCD. And the same buttons will be lit for either mode as far as I can tell. Let me know if this works. And yes, Mr. Martin travels alot but does check in here as often as he can. He was the one who managed to get my XW-P1 repaired with no hassles, a real gentleman and very professional. Also check out pianomanchuck's posts-he has a great video about the PX5s and PX350 which is almost identical to your PX-330. Very helpful, knowledgeable poster. (Hope you're not offended I dropped your name here pianoman, sorry if I did!).

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Hi Jokeyman123, I am familiar with one-touch preset mode, and I think you may have misunderstood my question, or maybe I wasn't clear enough, unless I'm missing something. I suspect that you're talking about the tone of the chords played DURING rhythm accompaniment. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm trying to change the tones used for chords played in the simplified chord mode that is activated once ACCOMP has been turned ON, but BEFORE any rhythm has actually been started. In this mode (assuming a simplified chord fingering modes is selected, e.g. CASIO CHORD), pressing a single key on the left side plays a chord. It's as if you've pressed all the keys in the chord at once. But the chord is played in an organ sound and cannot be changed. I want to be able to change it.

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Hi beebauman, I to would like to play an auto chord, Casio or one fingered without the auto accompaniment\rhythm playing. As you mention it doesn't appear to be possible to do this for any other tone than a single organ tone. Have you succeeded in getting a response to this query? If so I wonder if you could update me

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Hi Dinkser, as detailed above, I have the same problem as you. As of yet there has been no answer. The frustrating thing is that I seem to be having a difficult time getting people to even understand the question. I think you are asking the same thing as I am though, so that's comforting. Let us know if you find anything.

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So sorry, I also went on vacation after my last post and before your reply.  Just now seeing this.

 

I'm not experienced with the PX-330 itself but I might have some ideas.   Try going through the preset rhythms.  Does the tone used in the Casio chord section sound like they change as the rhythms change?   If not, then changing the tone used in Casio chord mode may not be possible.  

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BradMZ: No worries. Thanks for getting back to me. No, it doesn't change when you change the rhythm or one touch preset for anything else. Yeah, I don't think it is possible, but I was hoping someone here could come up with something I was missing or maybe some kind of clever hack.

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I totally understand what you want to do.  Unfortunately, the px-330 is limited on it's user tweakable features.  In some Casio models, like MZ-2000, the tone being used for the Casio chord mode while accomp is not running is the same as the tones used in the preset rhythm parts (bass & chord parts).  User rhythms don't behave this way on the MZ.  All of them use acoustic bass layered with piano no matter what tones the user rhythms parts call for.  It sounds like the entire bank of rhythms on the PX-330 behaves the same way as the user bank on the MZ.  In that case, changing tones in the Casio chord mode isn't possible.  I know of no other way to create a chord that is triggered by a single key on the 330.

 

A PX-5s would easily be able to do this.  On that keyboard, a chord phrase could be created and triggered from the keys in a zone.  The phrase would transpose depending on the key pressed.  Chord type would be limited to whatever chord you recorded unlike the Casio chord system where pressing 2 keys creates a minor chord.  

 

Sorry.  Maybe a 330 or 350 user here has a trick I don't know about.  

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  • 9 years later...

Beebauman, I have an older Casio that does exactly what you want.  With Casio Chord on, it has a row of instruments dedicated to the chord.  So left hand chord instrument is independent of right hand instrument.  There are only 12 instruments, but this was a cheap keyboard.  I hope the more expensive models didn't cut out this feature.  I have a Yamaha with the same issue.  The chord mode only plays 1 instrument - an electric organ sound. 

 

David

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