camperbc

Mine should be delivered tomorrow, can hardly wait!

Thanks everyone, for your kind comments; much appreciated!

I have just mounted my new Presonus Eris E5 XT studio monitors on the wall behind my Privia PX-870. I think these look quite nice, and they sound incredible. I certainly won't have to add a subwoofer to this setup, as they indeed provide plenty of bass all on their own. I prefer to use the monitors AND the piano's four onboard speakers simultaneously... the combined sound definitely gives the instrument a much fuller, "more enveloped" sound experience than either just one or the other could ever provide on their own. Here's a photo of my current setup:

As some of you likely know by now, I have recently returned to playing, after a decades-long hiatus, having purchased a new digital piano (Casio Privia PX-870) in October. I'm enjoying it immensely, although I do kick myself daily for not having kept at my music all of these years, particularly when I think of the many thousands of dollars that my parents had paid out for years of formal training (University of Toronto's Royal Conservatory Of Music) for both my brother and myself. Anyway, it's all water under the bridge now, as I am back playing once again and having an absolute blast, despite my health issues which really limit the amount of time I am able to sit at the piano. (irreparably crushed upper vertebrae, permanent nerve damage to both hands, advanced Rheumatoid Arthritis in fingers, wrists and elbows, severe Polymyalgia Rheumatica in shoulders and hips, off-the-charts RLS and IBS) I was very pleasantly surprised to discover that I was still, after about 40 years, somehow able to remember/play every single note of most anything from all of my favourite composers, (Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, Schubert, Wagner) which I had mastered way back in the late 1970's. But the big issue I've been having lately is that I really suck at sight reading now. I suppose that my advancing age, worsening eyesight, and of course the fact that I hadn't read a single musical score in decades certainly hasn't helped. Also, I doubt it helps that I'm viewing my sheet music on a relatively small (9.7 inch) tablet. Anyhow, even though I can still play pretty much anything that I had ever learned way back then, when I now attempt to learn something new, it's a struggle. If I could just sit there at the piano in relative comfort for an hour or two at a stretch, I'm sure that I would soon begin to catch on again, but Jeez, my spine just never wants to play nice anymore! So, due to my spending so many hours flat on my back in bed these days and thus having oodles of spare time on my hands, I have discovered that when I lay here and read through a musical score once or twice, I am then able to play it perfectly well the next time I sit at the piano. This sort of reminds me of the recent thread on here about a boy who desperately wanted to learn to play piano but couldn't afford one, so he ended up drawing out a keyboard on a piece of paper, and he practiced/learned this way. Some forum members were a bit sceptical that this could be 100% true, (myself included) yet if someone had told me that they could just look at a rather complicated musical score for a few minutes and then sit at the piano and play it through in its entirety, precisely as it was written, without any music placed in front of them, I would have found this to be a bit hard to swallow too... and yet this is precisely how I am currently learning new material. So I'm curious if perhaps others too might be learning to play something new in this rather unorthodox fashion, or am I just an alien or something? Perhaps someone may want to give this method of mine a try, and just see if it might come easily to them as well?

Thanks Brad! Looking forward to hopping back in the saddle again!!

Hello, and greetings from scenic Fogo Island, off the north coast of Newfoundland, Canada. My name is Glen, and I have just joined this forum. A couple of days ago I ordered a beautiful new Privia PX-870 online, and I can hardly wait to play it! I am returning to the piano after an almost 40 year hiatus... I'm sure that I've forgotten much of what I learned all those years ago, but as I am retired I now have all the time in the world to re-learn! I will post photos of my early Christmas present once it gets delivered... likely late next week. I am really looking forward to becoming an active, contributing member of this fine forum!