Yamaha PSSA50 for left hand practice

[anandmaloo]

Hi all,

I have a Genos and I play by ear with Single finger chords. Right hand is absolutely not a problem and I am ok with single finger chords.

My new year resolution is to play piano, like with both hands and I understand that I have to do a lot of left hand practice.  I wanted to utilize my every free time to do this, may be even 5 minutes break in morning after gym, before going to office or before sleeping etc etc.  Doing that on Genos is not possible. Was just thinking to buy something like Yamaha PSSA50 which is so small, so portable and switches on in a snap.

Now my question is that is it possible to do left hand practice on such a small keyboard ? Is it worthwhile to buy it for my left hand practice. (an honest confession - I think the keyboard is so cute that I do want to buy it)

Regards

Anand

[Normanfernandez]

I would Recommend a PSR E Series.

Even a 2nd Hand Keyboard would do.

You can still practice on the Yamaha PSS-A50, But you need to have hand independence and coordination.

PSS A50 Seems like a MIDI Controller.
The PSR E Series would have Styles like the Genos.

Hope this helps you.
Regards Norman. 

[anandmaloo]

Thanks Norman for taking the time out to reply.

The idea of buying PSS-A50 was its compactness and portability, which will be lost in the slightly bigger E series. And I am really not concerned about the styles as all I need is a good piano voice for practicing my left hand and right hand together.

My concern was that is it too small so that I cannot move my left hand freely (atleast as a newbie left hander) ? And is it big enough that I can play both left hand and right hand simultaneously, albeit as a piano

Regards

Anand

[mikf]

It's not just about what you practice on, or how much you practice, it's about what you practice. And years of commitment. And it's not just about your lh. You say your rh is fine, but that will not be true. Playing proper two handed piano at a decent level is a huge step up from playing an arranger. Especially starting from single finger chords and single note melody. And there is no transpose button, so it's every key.
You need a teacher more than a second keyboard.
Mike

[anandmaloo]

Thanks Mike for your reply.

I never said I wanted to immediately become a "decent" Piano player, and I don't think there is any harm in trying to get atleast some of my left hand moving. I am 50 and have been playing Keyboard for over 40 years. I have good amount of life left (I hope so) to learn something new. However, huge a staircase is, we only take one step at a time.

"Single note melody" "no transpose button" "every key"  - I see a lot of assumptions there !

Regards

Anand

[Graham UK]

Anand. If you played full chords your progress would have been easier...Which you should learn to do anyway.  You will go through times of frustration but just keep practicing.

Myself playing with styles I like a left hand voice usually piano and normally play chord appedgioes with left hand.

[mikf]

Anand
You did say you wanted to learn to 'play piano' and it is not an unreasonable assumption to take it that you didn't mean learn to 'play piano badly'. Decent just means some passable level to brings you satisfaction and I am certainly not assuming that you think you can play at that level in a short time, if you did that would be unrealistic. Piano is a difficult instrument and my point is this is not a short journey, and some experienced guidance will help, if you are serious.
Mike

[anandmaloo]

Thanks Graham and Mike for your responses.

I plan to buy the PSS-A50 today and use it for playing melodies and chords only from my left hand over a period of next 6-8 months. Also as Mike suggested, I already have a tutor now to guide me on the finger placements of the left hand and giving me some exercises. Plus I take a lot from youtube now on this matter.

Hopefully some day I will be able to play a song to my satisfaction without using the auto accompaniment.

But the most difficult part is that - it is just so tempting to start the single finger mode and play melodies. I love playing my Genos. That's surely going to be tough and frustrating.

Regards

Anand

[mikf]

Anand - this makes sense. Learning to finger chords properly will be good for your arranger playing and a starting point for transitioning to piano playing, although that would still be a huge step.

[SciNote]

Here are my thoughts on the subject.  Certainly, if you like the PSS-A50, then buy it as an addition to your set-up.  It can make a great "scratch pad" to experiment with composing melodies or creating sounds on the go when you cannot have your Genos with you.  And, it could make a good addition to your Genos, where you could mount it above your Genos and play both keyboards together.  This would allow you to quickly jump to the PSS-A50 to play a melody with a different tone while playing a song in real time without having to push any buttons on the Genos.

However, I would not recommend it as a keyboard strictly to learn piano technique because it has mini-keys, which means the individual keys of the keyboard are significantly smaller than the standard sized keys on your Genos, a piano, or a synthesizer.  So, if you get used to learning on the PSS-A50, then you'll practically have to re-learn what you've learned when you transfer your technique to your Genos or a piano.  And of course, for actual piano playing, you want something with weighted keys, but as you want something that is very portable to carry around with you, I realize that might be asking a bit much.  However, you might be able to find something that at least has a touch-sensitive keyboard -- meaning that, even though the keys are not weighted in feel, they at least respond with louder/brighter sound when you hit them harder, like a piano would do.

There are a variety of small, lightweight keyboards out there that at least have full sized keys, which would make transferring what you learned to your Genos or a piano much easier.  Unfortunately, most Yamaha keyboards with full-sized keys are going to be at least 5 octaves, and therefore quite large to carry around.  Yamaha used to sell a variety of beginner "home keyboards" with 4 octaves, which would be more portable, and which you can find on the used market, but most of these smaller home keyboards are likely to not have a touch-sensitive keyboard.  Yamaha used to make a synthesizer called the MX-49 that has a 4 octave keyboard that I believe is touch sensitive.  That could be a possibility, but it doesn't have built-in speakers, so you'd have to used headphones on the go, and I don't think it could run on batteries, so you could only use it where there you have an AC plug.

Going smaller than that, to a 3 octave keyboard (which is what the PSS-A50 has) would certainly have some limitations, as it would limit what you could play with two hands just because of the size of the keyboard.  But it would not be impossible, and as long as you are just using it as a supplemental learning instrument to use portably, and not as your sole learning instrument, then you could use a small 3 octave keyboard for practice -- but again, I would recommend something with full sized keys, not mini-keys.  That would be difficult to find -- however, some small synthesizers do exist with 3 octave keyboards, but they will be considerably more expensive than the PSS-A50, they mostly would not have a built in speaker, and most will not run on batteries.

So, it all comes down to compromise.  It depends how much you intend to carry around this keyboard, which would then dictate how small you would want it to be.   And it also depends on how important built-in speakers and the ability to play it on batteries is for you.

Beyond that, the suggestion to learn how to finger actual chords is an excellent suggestion, and is in fact how I started learning how to play keyboards.  My teacher started me with major, minor, diminished, and 7th chords, and then I gradually learned more complex chords from there.

[Lee Batchelor]

Hi Anand,

I agree that anything you can do to become more proficient in music is good for the mind and spirit. Your desire to use a smaller keyboard for practicing almost anywhere is admirable too but I have always found that when I practice, I need to set a specific time and set of goals. Trying to achieve those things on a spontaneous basis by practicing a few minutes here and a few minutes there, may be self-limiting.

The point made about the key size difference between the Genos and PSS-A50 is critical. I was raised as an organ player and wanted to venture across the street to becoming a decent piano player. I went to a pro who immediately taught me fingerings and other basic requirements. It was hard enough to get these basic elements down, much less, throwing a third variable into the equation - different key size. If you play your Genos for a few hours and then play the PSS-A50, you'll likely find it very awkward. You may also sabotage any hopes of developing muscle memory. A friend of mine gave my grandson a small keyboard for Christmas a few years ago. My grandson immediate asked me to play something. I tried but I played like a pig walks on stilts! I could play the notes but I couldn't make music.

I have learned to apply a pretty good piano technique on the Genos. It was tough due to the synth action of the Genos versus a real piano. I would think it would be even more difficult trying to become a proficient player while learning on two different sized key beds. By all means, practice but try to maximize the benefits.

Whichever method you chose, good for you! Keep at it and stay well .

- Lee

[anandmaloo]

Thanks a lot Lee and SciNote for your detailed response. This was exactly the response I was looking for !

I have already bought the PSS-A50 and using it just on my left hand to learn all major and minor scales and chords. I do understand that it is not going to help me a LOT for my piano playing. But I am ok with whatever little it will help me to memorize scales and chords and the theory part of it. It is just 90$ . Cant get cheaper than that. And its arpeggios are surely great fun.

Regards

Anand

[Lee Batchelor]

Thanks a lot Lee and SciNote for your detailed response. This was exactly the response I was looking for !

I have already bought the PSS-A50 and using it just on my left hand to learn all major and minor scales and chords. I do understand that it is not going to help me a LOT for my piano playing. But I am ok with whatever little it will help me to memorize scales and chords and the theory part of it. It is just 90$ . Can't get cheaper than that. And its arpeggios are surely great fun.

Regards

Anand

Good stuff, Anand. I found the big challenge was to learn how to play two different things on the left and right hands. I don't read music that well so I rely on my ear training and watch great players on YouTube to see how they handle the left hand.

The key to developing independent actions on the two hands is to develop left and right brain separation. My teacher told me the easiest way is to play a simple passage of music very slowly and then increase the speed to the required tempo.

Another hint I recently read about was, try practicing for an hour just before you go to bed. There is pretty convincing evidence that doing so, helps your brain retain the information and muscle action better than doing the same exercise during the day.

There was a study done recently in England on infants. Researches showed infants a very basic exercise like putting a mitt in a stuffed toy. Those infants who observed this just before their nap or bedtime, were about 90% more capable of repeating the action automatically the next day than those who were shown the same exercise and kept awake as part of their daily routine.

Interesting. Mother Mature is a mad scientist !

[mikf]

Lee, I would go a step further. You are right that you need to develop that left right awareness, but that is only the basics.  Just playing a chord in the lh might sound great on an arranger, which does all the fills, bass, riffs for you. But it won't normally work too well on a piano. When you play piano, by ear or from a lead sheet, the player has to arrange the song in real time in his head, then spread the notes over both hands so it sounds good, and execute it all in real time.
Because the piano player is producing the whole arrangement he needs not only keyboard ability, but good all round musical talent. Of course you can also learn to play piano well from full piano scores - but learning to sight read and play a full score is no short road, and really hard unless you start young. 
My experience has been that most people trying to adapt to the piano later in life are only successful if they start from a good musical level already and typically been pretty good on another instrument. You came from organ, many good accordion players also make the transition, and I once knew a world class sax player who decided to learn piano, and became quite brilliant in a few years. But if all you ever played was an arranger, or similar auto accompaniment instrument, which you took up late in life, it will be a very difficult - maybe impossible - transition. If someone sounds OK on an arranger, would they really want to put in the many years of sounding much worse just to get close to that same level on a piano.
Mike
     

[Toril S]

Mike has a good point here..

[Lee Batchelor]

Fully agreed, Mike. My formal training is actually in trumpet - both wind ensemble and dance band sounds of the forties - quite a mix . I certainly agree that holding down chords for the arranger to supply all the extra content amounts to about a 5% to 95% split of the left and right hands on the keyboard, which is a far cry from playing about 40% and 60% ratio on straight piano.

No matter how we slice the pie, it's still great that anyone who engages in music at any level tends to live longer and feel better about themselves. My hat's off to all on this forum or anywhere else that speaks to the music in people. Keep plugging away everyone .