Got my Genos2 Today, & I Love It. Skip what you don't like & use what you do.

[GrannyRocks]

So here's my two cents. I have read so many negatives about this keyboard, I wondered why I bought it. I had G1 years ago and sold it after not using it much because the keybed didn't work for me and I felt frustrated with the styles and hated the pianos -- and I'm a pianist. Well, I got G2 this afternoon and bought an Electro-Voice Evolve 30m line array speaker with 6 inputs, which works for me and my team), and immediately I found the piano MUCH better. Not like my concert grand, of course, but it worked. Yes, it's still hard for me to get any kind of nuanced piano playing because of the action, but then it's not 60 pounds. I am using the Character Grand and the bass is far superior to the old Genos keyboard, in my opinion. And I love the saxes, flutes, clarinets, the jazz instruments and some of the pads and more. This afternoon, after trying to remember how to get it playing at all (haha), I jumped in and started playing without styles, which allows me to play freely and then also editing styles and creating registrations, and I have picked up some tips on this forum and in reviews -- so many things I didn't know about the Genos, such as Assignable Button Two with the fades, and I fell in love. And I haven't even started using the recording features, etc. I feel less intimidated than I did before and more hopeful about being able to play what I want. I like playing the styles without the ACIM button so I can freely play the left and still have drums, using the multipads for chords at times and adding the accompaniment when it feels right, changing all the voices and making it mine.  Anyway, I know I probably sound nuts, and I do understand what people are saying, but honestly I'm glad for the plastic, because this keyboard is already heavy enough for my 79-year-old husband, and I love the sounds. To me, that's the essence of the music.

I am not trying to disagree with anyone. I'm just saying that I am happy. Music is so subjective, but I wanted to say that I'm grateful that we were able to muster the money to pay for it, even though we couldn't afford it. Soon I'll be playing and he'll be singing with me. I just improvise, and Genos is great for that. Yes!

[hans1966]

Hello GrannyRocks, I am very happy to know that you are enjoying your new Baby.

I hope you tell us more about everything that's under the hood of your Genos 2

Greetings

Hans

[GrannyRocks]

Thanks for writing. So happy to get a positive response. I am really not the person to describe what's under the hood, because I'm struggling to figure it out. But what I feel is that we can choose what we love about this keyboard and ignore the rest. I am not interested in dance music or pop music of any era and I don't do cover songs, etc. I am an improvisational artist and create my own genre. You can edit the styles to switch out instruments, or eliminate some, so you don't have to restrict your left hand to chords, and that frees us to improvise. I am hoping to create my own styles. Some people love the Korg pa5x, but I didn't care for the sounds and I came back to Genos. I love jazz instruments and music that puts people into altered states of consciousness, including using some international rhythms and instruments. The rest of the time I play the piano, which has the power, action and tone that I love. But this expands my ability to create what I hope is music that brings people peace, a release of emotion, hope and courage. Good luck to you.

[EileenL]

Yes that is what I like about Yamaha keyboards. You make them your own and do what you want with them. I don't think anybody get around to using all that is on these amazing keyboards but just keep asking for more to be added. I am a keyboard player and love to use good styles and multi pads to achieve what I want along with some of the beautiful voices. I just love to sit and play.

[mikf]

I would love to know what an 'improviser' is. Many of us improvise, but around a standard, so if you don't compose, don't play covers, invent your own genre ..... ??......what do you actually play at gigs???
Mike

[Des O]

I've had my G1 for 3 years and still don't know everything it does! My missus won't let me get the new one just yet.

[Rick D.]

Des O,

Maybe you can trade the misses in for the new Genos 2! 

Rick D.

[GrannyRocks]

Hi Mikf,

I sit down with no plan, no chord sequence, no song in mind, and I just start playing intuitively. My hands and soul compose music in the moment and I have no idea where it comes from. I don't play the same thing twice, I don't really remember what I played, and I never know what's going to come out. Sometimes when I have a live in-person audience, I ask the audience for a theme and I play what comes to me inspired by that theme. For example, recently someone asked me to create something around winter. As I mentioned before, I had to stop playing the piano at 15 because of illness and disability and just couldn't play anymore because I became crippled from trying to play even the easiest of classical music. At 73, my inner guidance, my intuition, told me to buy an acoustic piano and only improvise. At first, I felt paralyzed because I had no idea how to improvise, having been trained classically. But then it just started happening. I just had to have the guts to let it happen. I don't have perfect pitch, and I have no idea what I"m doing, and sometimes it sounds very strange and dissonant, and sometimes not, but it works musically and some people love my music. It touches their soul. When I play at spiritual services in churches, for example, the music is usually more uplifting and soothing. But when I'm playing music to heal the brain or shift people's consciousness, it can be pretty wild. Smile. You can check it out at https://healingartsnetwork.org, if you have any interest. By the way, I have also helped other people to improvise through my intuitively-guided counseling. Are you interested in improvising more yourself?

[Des O]

Des O,

Maybe you can trade the misses in for the new Genos 2! 

Rick D.

I never thought of that!

[GrannyRocks]

Yes that is what I like about Yamaha keyboards. You make them your own and do what you want with them. I don't think anybody get around to using all that is on these amazing keyboards but just keep asking for more to be added. I am a keyboard player and love to use good styles and multi pads to achieve what I want along with some of the beautiful voices. I just love to sit and play.

It makes me feel better knowing that I'm not the only one who doesn't know everything, but I'm pretty early in the process. And I also love playing. It just hurts too much to keep playing, so I have to stop sometime, plus I have to work. Haha.

[GrannyRocks]

I would love to know what an 'improviser' is. Many of us improvise, but around a standard, so if you don't compose, don't play covers, invent your own genre ..... ??......what do you actually play at gigs???
Mike

One more point. If you want to see it live, in action, here's a link to Magical Improvs, the livestream that my husband and I offer every week on our Facebook page. Here's the link. You'll see me improvising a bunch of different songs, and somtimes my husband improvises with me. I'd be happy to answer any questions about it.

[pjd]

Soon I'll be playing and he'll be singing with me. I just improvise, and Genos is great for that. Yes!

Hi Beth --

Please excuse those of us who get lost in the weeds. You go, girl!!!! 

I like your approach to playing -- very free and open. Cool.

-- pj

[GrannyRocks]

Hi Beth --

Please excuse those of us who get lost in the weeds. You go, girl!!!! 

I like your approach to playing -- very free and open. Cool.

-- pj

Thank you. That really deserves a hug. I am in the process of trying to understand the registrations and banks and one touch settings and all, and I'm going just a little crazy. But then I go to the piano and justs play. haha. Again, thanks.

[Oxford1035]

I've had my G1 for 3 years and still don't know everything it does! My missus won't let me get the new one just yet.

Can't you ask if they'll accept her in part ex for the Genos 2? 😂

Russ

PS, Don't tell her l said that!

[JohnS (Ugawoga)]

Maybe he has a couple of Camels in the garden he could trade

[Michael Trigoboff]

Hi Mikf,

I sit down with no plan, no chord sequence, no song in mind, and I just start playing intuitively. My hands and soul compose music in the moment and I have no idea where it comes from. I don't play the same thing twice, I don't really remember what I played, and I never know what's going to come out. Sometimes when I have a live in-person audience, I ask the audience for a theme and I play what comes to me inspired by that theme. For example, recently someone asked me to create something around winter. As I mentioned before, I had to stop playing the piano at 15 because of illness and disability and just couldn't play anymore because I became crippled from trying to play even the easiest of Classical music. At 73, my inner guidance, my intuition, told me to buy an acoustic piano and only improvise. At first, I felt paralyzed because I had no idea how to improvise, having been trained classically. But then it just started happening. I just had to have the guts to let it happen. I don't have perfect pitch, and I have no idea what I"m doing, and sometimes it sounds very strange and dissonant, and sometimes not, but it works musically and some people love my music. It touches their soul. When I play at spiritual services in churches, for example, the music is usually more uplifting and soothing. But when I'm playing music to heal the brain or shift people's consciousness, it can be pretty wild. Smile. You can check it out at https://healingartsnetwork.org, if you have any interest. By the way, I have also helped other people to improvise through my intuitively-guided counseling. Are you interested in improvising more yourself?

Very cool. This is how I sometimes play too. Take the brain/mind out of the circuit and hook the ears up directly to the fingers. Marijuana taught me that trick...

I like your improvisations.

[GrannyRocks]

Very cool. This is how I sometimes play too. Take the brain/mind out of the circuit and hook the ears up directly to the fingers. Marijuana taught me that trick...

I like your improvisations.

Thanks, Mike. I appreciate the appreciation. And that is cool — hook the ears up to the fingers. For me, it's hook the heart up to the fingers. If you would like to send me a link, I'll listen to yours too. Hugs and happy Thanksgiving. I'll be improvising on the Genos today and my husband is going to experiment improvising singing with me. That will be a big part of our celebration.

[Michael Trigoboff]

For me, it's hook the heart up to the fingers.

It's really just about taking the logical/analytical mind out of the circuit, which reminds me of one of my favorite quotes:

"The brain, our most important organ, in the opinion of the brain."
Tom Robbins, Even Cowgirls Get The Blues

Here's something I did. The improvising is in the middle "rocking out" part.

[GrannyRocks]

It's really just about taking the logical/analytical mind out of the circuit, which reminds me of one of my favorite quotes:

"The brain, our most important organ, in the opinion of the brain."
Tom Robbins, Even Cowgirls Get The Blues

Love it. Actually I got the intuitive gift very suddenly in 1980 when I was 35 years old after having been an atheist and a social activist trying to overthrow the capitalist system pretty much all my life, including childhood. And suddenly in one day I am in a different dimension. Haha. Stone, cold sober by the way. And I have been trying to follow that guidance ever since. I am an intuitively-guided counselor, for example, even though I never studied counseling. I just started to see and know things about people and clients came and that became my job and my work. And the inner voice told me not to read books or study spirituality, and books and talks came through me. So I didn't need drugs to play improvisationally, although it wasn't until I was 73 that I got the message to play the piano. I was "told'" to make decisions from the intersection of intuition, observation, experience and common sense. Grin. And it's not always easy, but ultimately I need to tune in and make decisions based on serving the highest good of all, including me. Sorry to be babbling on, but I agree that we should not be dominated by the brain, but let it serve the totality of us and the needs of all. Send me your music if you want to.

[Michael Trigoboff]

I'm modified my post to include a link to a song I did. You must have looked before I made the modification. Go back, and you'll see the link.

[GrannyRocks]

WILL DO

[GrannyRocks]

Very nice! Did you do this on the Genos? Did you start with a style, or did you record it all? Really enjoyed the free improvisational part. I see you're in Portland. I'm in Corvallis.

[Michael Trigoboff]

Glad you liked it.

I did that one on a Montage with help from Cubase. Montage has "performances" which are something like stripped down styles.

[GrannyRocks]

Interesting. That sax was great.

[Michael Trigoboff]

I just watched a video of you playing what looked like an acoustic piano next to a Genos. But the sounds were an organ and a saxophone. Are you somehow getting MIDI out of an acoustic piano?

[GrannyRocks]

I was struggling so much with the Genos keyboard causing me pain, I tried to use a Kawai CA99 as a midi controller, but it was a nightmare, and I had to keep twisting to use the buttons and stretching out my left arm to control the Genos. Then I tried other setups and they all killed me physically, so I gave up and sole the Yamaha.

I do not feel happy with the Jazz Lounge in Space. I really didn't know what I was doing and was struggling with the keyboard, but my husband loves it and insisted on me leaving it there. And some pieces were good. I would actually like to leave some where I felt inspired and do new ones when I get Gina (my Genos) more under my belt. This time I'm determined to make it work and figure out what I'm doing. But I'm getting curious about the Montage. Which one do you have and are the sounds better? I think the new one has the Bosendorfer, too.  But we couldn't gig with a 61lb 88-key board. Not unless my husband loses 40 years in age -- or maybe even more. Grin.

[hans1966]

Hi Beth, I was visiting your site and listening to several of your inspirations and I must say that I loved them, such as: "Canto y Prologo" and "El Misterio" to mention a few.

I congratulate you for that great talent that God has given you.

I send you a big hug!

Hans

[GrannyRocks]

Thank you, Hans. I so appreciate these comments.

These were my very first compositions when I got back into music through using a computer in my mid-fifties. That was before God told me to buy a piano and improvise. So the piano music is quite different, because now I'm just playing and improvising, which is composing on the spot, and it's all been recorded over the past few years. And it can get very wild. Check it out.

Bless you for taking the time to reach out to me in this gracious way. I really mean it. It really touched me. And good luck in your own musical creativity.

Best wishes,
Beth

[hans1966]

Thank you very much Beth, for your well wishes.

Of course, I will continue visiting your site and enjoying your inspirations.

greetings

Hans

[GrannyRocks]

Wonderful. By the way, have you seen our Facebook page, https://facebook.com/GrannyRocksOn? We livestream improvisational music every Thursday at 7 pm Pacific time and the show is called Magical Improvs. We have a number of listeners from South America who tune in during the live show and can chat with us live. It's wonderful. Several of our regulars are in Ecuador. We also broadcast Lighting the Way: Granny Raps & Rocks, where I do commentary on the human condition and play the piano at the same time. That's on Wednesdays at 6:30 pm Pacific time. Lots of people tune in after the livestreams and leave comments. It's fun. Maybe I'll meet you there sometime. Hugs, Beth