From simon@alphabeck.co.uk Mon Sep 09 10:39:12 2013
Subject:Re: Hammond SK1 or Nord CD2?

I never actually built a keyboard, but I did build an electric guitar and a bass. The guitar was a horrible plywood thing shaped like a cross between a Flying V and a shovel, with a square neck, but the bass was a copy of a Gibson EB-0, very playable, and became my main axe for the next three years. At the same time I was teaching myself to play keyboards, and when I was eighteen I bought a Hohner Pianet T, a Small Stone phaser and a Roland Cube 60 bass amp. Only one sound, but it was better than the school's Selmer-Armon CIEP (Cheap Italian Electronic Piano). When I moved to London the following year (1981) I added a very early Casio keyboard (CT-202) and a chorus pedal for organ, string and brass sounds, and that was my rig until the mid-1980s.

Simon

----- Original Message -----
From: Gary Brumm
To: CloneWheel@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Monday, September 09, 2013 6:10 PM
Subject: RE: Re: [CWSG] Hammond SK1 or Nord CD2?



Wow Simon, you just described exactly the conditions under which I became a rock keyboardist. There were none in my school and so at 14 or 15 I built a VOX Jaguar from a Heathkit. I listened to a lot of music and copied it, watched Woodstock a bunch of times and was instantly in demand as a keyboard player. It was easy with no competition. I never did take formal lessons. I did take music theory in school which helped. Later on I picked up the guitar (they seemed to get more attention from the girls than keyboard playersJ). I was fortunate to have played with a lot of good players over the years and learned a lot from them as well as the other keyboardist I got to know. I was usually nowhere as good as the people I played with but I found that the better the band, the better I played as a result. I don’t really play much these days but had literally decades of fun and some great memories of those years.

Cheers,

Gary

From: CloneWheel@yahoogroups.com [mailto:CloneWheel@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Simon Beck
Sent: Monday, September 09, 2013 8:08 AM
To: CloneWheel@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: Re: [CWSG] Hammond SK1 or Nord CD2?





Do what I did when I was 14 or 15 - press down keys until it sounds like the record!

I'm being a little bit glib, but it's what we did 35 or so years ago if we didn't have music lessons. Copy what you hear, and talk to other, more experienced players. At my school there were a lot of guitarists, a couple of bass players and drummers and no keyboard players apart from classical piano students. I was the first rock keyboardist at my school in about 5 years!

Good luck!

Simon "Butterfingers" Beck

London, UK

No, like I said, I know how to work the organ: turn on / off, certain registrations (drawbars), and how to work the Leslie. I do not know how to play the thing!

-Ryan