Why weighted keys?

[happyrat1]

Technically, according to all the literature on the interweb, the Piano IS a percussion instrument. Pointe Finale!!!

Secondly, I'm wondering what a theremin is? I presume it, along with all the other modern instruments is electronic, however that's nowhere nearly as descriptive as calling it a "magical wavy arms" instrument

Gary

 

[CowboyNQ]

I presume it, along with all the other modern instruments is electronic, however that's nowhere nearly as descriptive as calling it a "magical wavy arms" instrument

HAHA I agree with you on both points here!

I was describing it the other day to someone as "the thing that makes the cool ooo-eeee-ooo noise in 'Good Vibrations'."

 

[Azeem Saghar]

well I have searched about various keyboards in last week (digital piano, workstations and synthesizer )and I have come to conclusion that even though I would not buy $20k grand piano in future, I definitely would like to play famous classical music (have listened some symphonies of mozart and bach so far), and for that I will need graded hammer weighted keys, velocity keys. So I planning to save some money for at least next six months and buy Yamaha P 45 digital piano (may be Yamaha P 115 if I would have more money ). I will play this instrument for at least 2 years than buy a good workstation.

 

[Eric Barker]

MY thought on this is IF your going to make the Piano your "Primary" instrument.. weighted keys... BUT, if you only have one board, I'd go non (or semi). You cannot do a decent B3 with a weighted keyboard (OK.. I'm sure some can, but I sure can't). Horns & strings are another problem (for me anyway).

Gonna disagree here. I’ve really never had much problem doing organ or synth on a weighted. Sure, maybe I could eek out 2% better on an unweighted, but not much. Conversely, playing Piano on unweighted takes much more of a hit, like 10-20%. I find myself on a piano-based patch a good 70% of the time playing with bands (B3 another 20%, and 10% for synths), so I always aim for piano first. Give me a Rhodes and an 888888888, and I can get through the night if I have to.

IMO, there really is no such thing as a dedicated synth player. All the greats were pianists and organists first and foremost, and then picked up synths on the side. Even in the proggiest of the proggy, no one wants to hear synths constantly, it always comes back to ivory and tonewheels. The one exception being synth bass player, but at that point you’re actually a bass player who happens to do your thing on keys (I’ve seen some super funky guys too).

 

[b3keys]

I always tell my sax player that originally the Saxophone was designed as a percussion instrument.. and it still sounds better when you hit it with a hammer.....

 

[tim.72]

I'd love to hear from someone who prefers unweighted.

I prefer unweighted. I currently own a weighted keyboard but find that playing it is not as much fun as playing the semi-weighted and unweighted that I use in church because of the strain on my hands. This might be because when I was first learning piano all I had was an unweighted keyboard to practice on and I only used weighted during lessons. I had no problems playing on weighted keys, however. I would consider myself a keyboardist (if that term even exists) rather than a pianist if I had to identify with an instrument. If I were to invest in a more expensive synth/workstation/arranger, I would probably buy a semi or unweighted version and keep my current keyboard to use as a controller for it in case I really wanted to play weighted.

When it comes to dynamics, I noticed a difference coming from the deep, semi-weighted keybed of the Tyros series to a noticeably shallower, unweighted keybed of the PSR keyboards. I believe this was mostly because the Tyros keyboard is deeper and hence provides a greater range rather than providing more resistance. That might be an illusion, however.

One more thing I noticed is that the less experienced wannabe-musicians (like myself) actually tend to prefer unweighted keyboards, though this is probably an over-generalisation. To start with, when I first played Tyros, I didn't like the keybed at all. As I gained experience, I began to like it a lot. I also noticed that some teens that I know who can hardly play dislike the Tyros action and prefer the PSR. I might come to like weighted keys. Who knows.

I don't know if I am the right person to answer this, as I do not consider myself a musician and I am not trained. Hope I provided some insight though.