Greetings and Salutations from Sw1tch73ch

[sw1tch73ch]

I suggested the "introductions" post after I scrolled through the General Chat topics and didn't find any thing where we would introduce ourselves. So I'm made a topic in General Chat for it. Now there is a whole proper section for it! Yay!

This is a recap and edit of my original post in the General Chat section.

My reason for thinking we should introduce ourselves is that with any social structure the success often depends on community support and friendships built there. So I proposed we introduce ourselves as it relates to using Playground Sessions and our piano education. David's post nails what I think we should cover including our goals for this platform, our background music education and experience, and anything else that seems relevant.

To start, then, I am John Sandlin. My user handle sw1tch73ch is a long standing ID i've used online for literally decades. In the late 1980's and early 1990s, just before and as the Internet was entering the public arena, I was SwitchTech on the Delphi On-Line service. Since there is a company that is called Switchtech and has an internet domain by that name, I changed mine up to differentiate myself from them. Probably like many here I have long been into using computers to work with music. I bought my first MIDI capable keyboard, a tiny Yamaha PSS-480, around 1989 or 1990, along with a MIDI interface; a clone of the then famous Roland MPU-401. That MIDI interface came with Twelve Tones Systems, Inc. Cakewalk. At this point, I was hooked. I still have that tiny keyboard and it still works. It is, however, mostly a toy.

Before all that, though, long, long ago, like 1960's long ago, I took accordion lessons. I wasn't a large person then and so the thing weighed a significant proportion of my own weight. I distinctly remember learning and practicing "Never On A Sunday" and never really getting it right. I gave up on the accordion and tried to learn piano. At least I didn't have to carry a piano on my body. I don't recall taking any official piano lessons, but I had Hal Leonard, or more probably John W. Schaum, student books that I got from somewhere. I suspect an actual piano teacher was involved. I have to confess I did not get very far with those lessons. I think my family moved around that time and I got detached from my music training. Over the years I'd practice on the upright piano my folks had, not necessarily developing any good habits, but practicing reading easy piano arrangements.

As you may have guessed by my family having an upright piano, my family was deep into music. My father played keyboard some, native American flute a little, and guitar. Mostly guitar, actually. He also sang. A lot. My mother played piano. My sister also plays piano and guitar, and sings. My youngest brother is a drummer at heart, but he also plays keyboards and guitar. My other brother played trumpet and I think tried his hand (chin?) at violin. I feel like the musical black sheep of our family.

I've tried a handful of computer based learning systems and found only one program I really liked, but then it stopped working as I upgraded operating systems. It was designed for Windows 95 (look for descriptions of the Piano Discovery System). I discovered it just before I upgraded to Windows XP. I've been watching for something decent ever since then, the early 2000's. I bought many boxes of software in this pursuit. None of those quite struck the chord for me. Now we have Playground Sessions and this looks like a winner.

I have a Yamaha YPG-635, which is the same as a DGX-630 with a different marketing plan. It has a small Intel NUC (a really tiny computer look for Intel® NUC Kit D34010WYK) connected via USB with Playground Sessions installed on it. My goal is to reach a level where I can play my favorite songs for personal pleasure. I want to be able to play songs purely as piano pieces and also sometimes with the built in accompaniment of the digital piano, and sometimes with a "band-in-a-box" style computer accompaniment.

So what about you all? Any goals of going pro playing classical music at Carnegie Hall? Maybe you want to play Happy Birthday and Christmas Carols for your kids and grand kids. Maybe you want to play keyboards with a band. I'm curious about this group of people I'm learning piano with.

[davidsides]

Thanks for the introduction!

It looks like you too grew up in a very musical family. I wonder how common that is... if one person plays an instrument in a family does that typically mean that others do as well?

And the accordion is actually an instrument I'd love to get my hands on!

[sw1tch73ch]

And the accordion is actually an instrument I'd love to get my hands on!

Now that I'm a much larger person, I could probably handle an accordion now. Meanwhile, I have a digital piano right next to my computer that is begging for me to learn to make it sing. The accordion can wait.

[davidsides]

The accordion always reminds me of French music - even when it's not being used to play French songs.