05-15-2025, 12:55 PM
I started a thread on ATS that I didn't save locally so my bad. My mom was a child prodigy pianist when she was young until she broke most of the bones in her left hand as a teenager. When she was in the hospital in the final stage of dementia and while I was organizing her place, I came across an older Casio Tonebank. The last time we were actually able to communicate, she told me she got it so she could play for her neighbors. So, I inherited the Casio along with her cat, Puzzy to join our other 3. She loves to sit with me when I'm attempting to make music.
![[Image: 20250325_111811.jpg]](https://denyignorance.com/uploader/images/20250325_111811.jpg)
I thought maybe the natural talent doesn't skip a generation. I am, however, 69 years old and never tried to play any instrument. After listening to the "my system is best" ads about playing the piano, none of which worked for me, the frustration grew. At my age and disabilities - my hands and brain don't communicate very well any more and after a seizure my arms are different lengths - there is no possible way I can play two handed or use sheet music. Then I realized a couple of things. First, there's nearly a hundred instruments on the thing, it plays chords and drums. So I decided to teach myself to play, made a small recording area with an extra laptop, fiddled with my mixer to make it a synthesizer and started playing. It hasn't been easy but I'm making progress. I've always loved music so now I watch music videos to see the keyboard playing (side note: despite 3 months of trying, I can't seem to make Parson's Eye in the Sky opening riff to work despite copying every note and move he uses.) Lately, I've been using Beethoven as my inspiration for melodies, changing the octaves and notes - mostly for the sequence relationship between the notes. I'm using Audacity for my mixing - the latest generation will us MIDI and now has a lot of Muse plugins so it's working for me.
As far as a DAW goes, I can't get any of the things to work for me locally so I use a few online DAWs, some AI generators and mishmash it all together. I can post some of my music but this is really about my journey and documenting it. If a broken down old man can learn to play, I suppose just about anyone could. The greatest part is when I can nail what I'm going for - almost as good as experiencing my kid succeeding at something I taught him.
I thought maybe the natural talent doesn't skip a generation. I am, however, 69 years old and never tried to play any instrument. After listening to the "my system is best" ads about playing the piano, none of which worked for me, the frustration grew. At my age and disabilities - my hands and brain don't communicate very well any more and after a seizure my arms are different lengths - there is no possible way I can play two handed or use sheet music. Then I realized a couple of things. First, there's nearly a hundred instruments on the thing, it plays chords and drums. So I decided to teach myself to play, made a small recording area with an extra laptop, fiddled with my mixer to make it a synthesizer and started playing. It hasn't been easy but I'm making progress. I've always loved music so now I watch music videos to see the keyboard playing (side note: despite 3 months of trying, I can't seem to make Parson's Eye in the Sky opening riff to work despite copying every note and move he uses.) Lately, I've been using Beethoven as my inspiration for melodies, changing the octaves and notes - mostly for the sequence relationship between the notes. I'm using Audacity for my mixing - the latest generation will us MIDI and now has a lot of Muse plugins so it's working for me.
As far as a DAW goes, I can't get any of the things to work for me locally so I use a few online DAWs, some AI generators and mishmash it all together. I can post some of my music but this is really about my journey and documenting it. If a broken down old man can learn to play, I suppose just about anyone could. The greatest part is when I can nail what I'm going for - almost as good as experiencing my kid succeeding at something I taught him.
