sergio

I did the Google search and it's like another world... Drum machines, sequencers, etc. I'll do some more research, but it seems like too much to learn. Also, how do I use it with the PX780? Maybe I'll look into another section in the forum that deals with it. For me, it would be ideal if Casio offered some sort of software complement to add to the many rhythms they already offer... Anyway, that's for the future, maybe...

Oh, I forgot about the "Cuban" thing... Yes, Cuba is deep in my soul, much more than I thought, and the trip earlier this year was a great one! I agree that I have "two sides" in my songs, hopefully more as time goes on. I love all kinds of music, and I listen to many different things, but the Cuban melodies and rhythms surrounded me since birth. My mom was a piano teacher (never taught me or my brother) and she was passionate about music, specially the old Cuban songs that my grandmother used to sing. Anyway, when I came to the US I "despised" all that Cuban stuff and embraced the 60s and 70s (never disco, sorry). It's only as I got older that the Cuban "stuff" came back, later with a vengeance. Trivial personal stuff, but I'm old, what can I say....

The older I get and the more I learn, the more in awe I am of nature... And I'm not religious. I love to travel and have been to a lot of places. I really prefer the cities, museums, etc., but I also like nature, like the Canadian Rockies. If you're fortunate enough to stay in one of those "old time" hotels built by Canadian Pacific, you've been close to heaven. Thanks for the comments. It's funny how a song changes so much using a different rhythm. Which brings up another question that I have from the folks that know about equipment, etc., that I know nothing about. I like the rhythms in my keyboard, but would love to be able to choose from a wider range. Is there something like that to complement the keyboard and how difficult is that to set up? I'd appreciate any thoughts... Not a big deal, but I'm curious.

Checking through my files I found this song… I originally re-interpreted the melody in a different rhythm and called it “Rockies Ballad”. Listening to the original now, I kind of like it, not bad. It’s a mediocre video because back then I wasn’t paying too much attention to making them. I hope you like it. BTW, the photos are from the Canadian Rockies, and I highly recommend everyone to visit those places at some point... Awesome! My webpage: www.sergiosongs.com

You know, I feel so awkward commenting on anyone's music because I lack the entire background, and most of the conversation here goes way above my head. I can tell you what I think about it, but please take this with a grain of salt... I like the arrangement and the video. I'm not familiar with the equipment, which I guess is very versatile. How does it compare with a regular keyboard with rhythm like my PX780? Anyway, what I expect in a song/piece is to have some "direction", meaning that I like a melody line that is identifiable, "hummable" (a term you used and I agree), etc. It should have a beginning, a development, and an ending. Maybe I'm old fashioned, but that's what I like. The piece above has beautiful sounds, but they don't seem to go anywhere. There's a beginning of a theme around the 3 minute point that is happy and bouncy and could be developed into something more elaborate. Just a thought...

I see that most of the people here know a lot about equipment and music, and I feel so ignorant... My PX-780 is great, though, and I know that there's a lot more that can be done with it. I've already learned a lot, like modifying the rhythms, not only the tempo but individual sounds within the accompaniments. I'd like to do some layering tracks... You can do it with the PX, so you can enrich the arrangement of the song. That still sounds as "to do list" for the future. The unit has a lot more features than I can comprehend... And I empathize about the arthritis... My shoulders hurt and lately my lower back. Oh, how I hate to be old! 😀

I agree, nice tune!

Thanks! I love the colors in those Mexican-themed cartoons... I've been working on rehabilitating my guitar, now hanging next to my keyboard. I had no idea how many varieties of strings are available now (I say since I left Cuba in 1960). It's overwhelming, like everything else, but I think I have strings that resemble what I remember from days past. I'm not interested in picking up the guitar again (my fingers could never take it), but in "bridging" the music context that I had when I played only the guitar and the music context that I've developed over the last 3 or 4 years when I got my Casio. It's hard to explain and I may be off the reservation on this, but I think the brain works in very curious ways, and it's "good" for me to somehow visualize the "A" chord when I play it on the keyboard and when I used to play it on the guitar (and all its related keys). Anyway, it's probably all BS but that's what I'm doing. I hope it helps me to compose, which is what I enjoy doing.

Parallel experiences, I guess... I went through a similar, but far less ambitious than yours, and I spread myself thin with other things, like painting and trying to learn classical guitar. That plus work wore me out. I picked up the PX780 long before I discovered YouTube and this forum, just to "resurrect" all the songs I wrote so many years ago. I completed that task more than once, and then I found an outlet for sharing what I enjoy so much creating. Have you picked up your hobby again? Whatever motivates anyone to create and fulfill their lives is great with me. I support your advice, and I would urge you to try again; you never know.

True. And with recording features already built into keyboards, there are alternatives for preserving a song...

Very cool.

This song has nothing to do with me, but I heard it on the radio the other day and loved it. It's not my preferred "listening music", but it's very contagious, and it's also very inventive if you listen to it carefully... they mix afrocuban with jazz and even a gypsy rhumba. And the lyrics are also very clever, but that's another story... I hope you enjoy!

WOW! I'm still struggling and learning the capabilities of my PX780, but you're far ahead... I'm learning, though, which is what matters...

Nice! Mood setting and I like the clearing at the end... I'm curious about how other folks approach composing... It seems that the piece is mainly improvisation, though I hear a couple of themes. I'm asking because when I'm writing something, it doesn't happen all at once, but it's rather a process to find themes I like and to develop them. What I mean is that I "improvise" when I'm searching for a theme or a few bars I enjoy, but constructing the entire piece is (for me) a deliberate and hard process. I know that jazz artists improvise a lot, but perhaps I'm not there yet. Also, do you think of the video BEFORE or AFTER you write the piece? I also struggle with that usually AFTER the piece is ready, but in this case I think you're trying to set a mood, so you probably thought of the rain, etc. as you wrote this.

Thanks! There are so many songs that I grew up with, and this is one of my favorites (but I have MANY favorites!). BTW, I've been spending some time viewing and searching for videos explaining theory. I"m getting some stuff, but I can see that a lot of what they talk about is irrelevant to someone like me who doesn't read music, and the number of flats and sharps on a scale is meaningless info. BUT, I did have a couple of years of studying guitar (not classical, just songs), and I DID gain a lot of understanding of keys and how they related to each other. I was just an adolescent, but I believe that all that info is still "wired into" my brain, and I'm trying to bridge the memories from those lessons with the experience I've gained in the last 3 or 4 years just playing by ear. Anyway, I'm just rambling, but I have a feeling that it's worthwhile for me to do that. I've been letting myself be driven by "instinct" (with prudence), a departure from my normal behavior.

Thanks for liking my piano playing... I'm my worst critic, so I find it lacking, but improving, and that's all that matters: the direction. Yours is probably an interesting story, I bet. Physics is also fascinating to me, specially astrophysics, as we have learned soooooooo much about our universe in such a short time. It's amazing! I'm not a physicist (just regular Electrical Engineer - retired, thank God), but I have enough tech background to follow the discussions at 50,000 feet. I'm just in awe. I also don't care about notations... In Cuba they use the "do re mi" method, so I had to translate, but I don't play thinking about sharps and flats and how many in a scale, etc. I do think in general about "major" "minor", etc., but only generally.

BTW, I'm only getting marginal knowledge from the videos so far, but it's early. They tend to confuse issues (from my perspective) that may be useful for others looking for becoming a pianist or whatever... Have to keep looking. I still want to understand what those "modes" are all about and how they function practically.

I like that, a sense of humor... 😁 So you play by ear as well? Just curious... I know that folks, including myself, don't like to share personal info in cyberspace, but I just find it interesting how different people approach music. The thing about theory is that I just let myself be guided by "sounds", but I know that there's math behind it, that there's a LOT of theory that has evolved over centuries, and I'm totally ignorant of it. It's hard to explain, but when I listen to one of my favorite pianists, Beegie Adair, I can "feel" how she can access these awesome and wonderful chords or sounds that I can only aspire to learn some day. I feel that understanding the music theory opens up your "palette" enormously, much as I found that the rhythm accompaniment opened up windows for me. Like you, I just do what I do because I love what I do. Being able to express my emotions through a melody is what life is about for me. Sergio (real name)

I'm glad you noticed that I'm back to playing plain keyboard... It's a deliberate move on my part and I'll try to explain. And thanks so much for the feedback and comments; they mean a lot to me. I play by ear and my only music training was some guitar lessons for a year or so as an adolescent, but they taught me about chords, etc., which I transposed to the piano later (long story). But I had/have a problem with playing rhythms and always had a conflict with how to use the "left hand". Anyway, probably none of this makes any sense, but the rhythm accompaniments on the Casio PX-780M opened up a whole world for me, and it facilitated composing and arranging songs. And I learned a LOT using those tools, but I now felt a need to sharpen up my plain keyboard techniques, which I recognize are lacking but slowly improving. This particular song is great for expressing emotion, which is something I like, and with each song I learn something. BTW, I'm now watching some YouTube videos to learn something about music theory, the "modes", the roman numeral depiction of scale degrees, how it all fits together, etc..... Oh, I wish I had studied music!!! So, thanks again (what's your name, if it's OK?)!

This song was very popular in Cuba in the 50s and 60s, interpreted by various artists. It was written by a Mexican composer (Yucatan), and the music is glorious. This is my interpretation of a song I love.

It's really a very interesting story, Cuban music... The original people were decimated by the Spaniards, so, starting from scratch, we had all the Spanish immigrants at the time, many from the Canary Islands and from Northern Spain. From them we got a lot of our melodies... Then came the black slaves from Africa, and they brought their rich traditions of percussion, rhythms, etc. The blend of the two, with even Chinese influences, created Cuban music. I really don't know a lot about it, but recently I came across this Wikipedia link that tells you (and me) anything you wanted to know about Cuban music. One thing, though, Cuban music has powerfully traveled through the planet, influencing it all the way. https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%BAsica_de_Cuba Sorry, it's in Spanish, but I'm sure Google can translate. I'm glad you liked the song... I wasn't happy with the first recording, so I slowed the tempo a bit and re-recorded it. Sergio

This is an older song of mine, but I wasn't happy with my interpretation at the time, so I "reinvented" it. I deleted the old version. There's a Spanish side to me (my dad was born in Malaga, Spain), although not as strong as my Cuban soul... I have another song in the "Spanish" mode, but I have to check it out and see if it's worth redoing. I hope you enjoy, feedback is always welcome (I work in a vacuum)! Sergio www.sergiosongs.com

OK. The melody in the second part is a traditional Galician (Spanish) children song that I remember. I made my own variation, but the original melody is so beautiful...

I have a lot of respect for composers, since I like to do it myself. I'm in the "miniscule league", but I believe in giving the composers credit for what they do... In many of those songs (cover?) nobody ever heard of the composer, but they love the tunes... Lecuona (La Comparsa) is arguably the greatest Cuban composer... His melodies are sublime, and he was classically trained and composed several classical pieces as well.

Thanks! It's a gorgeous melody, like much Cuban music of the late 19th and early 20thC. I grew up with those songs because my mother was a piano teacher (never taught me) and music was always playing in my house, specially those old Cuban tunes. I'm glad you enjoy them. Sergio