Just a bit of history: I have had a Yamaha PSR-9000Pro for a couple of years, and on it I started learning the difference between playing a piano, and playing a keyboard. As a classically trained pianist (degreed in music) I naively assumed that the crossover would be quick and easy. I had had a Casio WK1200 for years, but never really did anything with the buttons, and basically played it as I would a piano. So when I bought my 9000Pro, I assumed I would just do the same. But the next few months were an AMAZING journey into making digital music (mostly with help of my new friends at the YPKO fora)! One button, one function, at a time, and gradually I started really enjoying playing as part of an orchestra, or singing as part of a chorus. The arranging of instruments and styles and backings was a whole new adventure to me that opened musical doors I'd never even dreamed of passing through!
Taking the heavy, large, and cumbersome 9000Pro to church every Sunday, up and down stairs at both ends of the trip, in and out of the van...it was a bit much. So when my husband offered to buy me an E413
when he bought one for himself, I jumped at the chance. Sure, it is labelled as a beginner's keyboard, and didn't have nearly the functions of the 9000Pro, but certainly, I figured, it would be a lot lighter for transporting every week, and I would make it work.What I wasn't expecting, though, was an instrument with an incredible amount of functionality and an amazing sound! For the price (around USD$200) it was an incredible buy! Still a learning curve, because there are many differences between it and its older "sibling"...but an amazing instrument just the same. I will have this for many years to come, as I've learned that it isn't "just" a beginning keyboard - not by a long shot! It definitely has a professional sound, and features that make it appropriate for any level of keyboard player to one degree or another!
All of this just to get to what I REALLY wanted to write about: some of the things I've learned about, that aren't necessarily covered in the manual. And, if you have a better way to do things than what I've worked out, please let me know ok?
#1 - One of the biggest things is using the fill function. On the 9000Pro I press the fill button and get a little fancy stuff wherever I need it. On the E413 I press the fill button and it not only plays the fill but also takes me to the other (there are only 2) variation. Sometimes I just want a fill within, say, a verse of a song, but don't really want to go to the other variation until I get to the chorus, as an example. How I solved this: I press the fill button twice in rapid succession. This actually starts the fill for the other variation, but then immediately continues back at the current one. It is smooth, a little inconvenient (especially when I accidentally press it 3 times), but it works. Actually I'm not sure if this is how it is supposed to be handled (it's not in the manual) or if it is a workaround, but either way, it usually works fine.
#2 - There are a very limited number of registrations available on the E413 compared to the 9000Pro. On the latter, I have a registration (or several, even) for each piece that I like to play, and plenty left for future use. On the E413 I would run out of registrations in the first week. So rather than make a reg for each song, I make a reg for each type of song. Usually I start with something from the Music Database that is similar to what I want. Then I make adjustments from there, and save it as a registration. (I'm in the process of making a chart of what each registration is since there's no way to name them that I know of.) There are 2 registration banks; I use the first bank for the songs I play at church, and the 2nd for songs I play for pleasure.
(Yes I do play the E413 for pleasure, as well as the 9000Pro. It depends what I feel like playing at any given time, but often I find myself having a hard time deciding which I want to sit down at when I'm in the mood to play!)
Some examples of church registrations (used for songs out of the hymnal) might have organ and chimes, or organ and brass, or piano and voices, or even piano and guitar. I pencil in the registration number right on the hymnal page for the songs I'm playing the following Sunday; eventually I'll have them all pencilled in I suppose. I typically don't use styles or rhythms for these, although I do often turn on the accompaniment.
For my personal registrations, bank 2, I have some set for rock songs, some for ballads, some in 3/4 time, etc. I may make some minor changes (such as tempo) after I choose one of my own registrations, but they at least give me a starting point.
#3 - This is regarding variations. There are only 2 for each style, and no multipads. I like more variety than that in my music, but haven't found the arpeggios to really be useful to me - maybe I just don't know how to use them. At any rate, I've found some other options for adding variety, and will use a standard verse-chorus-verse-chorus format to describe them.
For the first verse, I might play it using only the dual voice (I would have the harmony also on, even though it wouldn't play with the ACMP off.), with variation A. When I get to the chorus, I would use the main/auto fill button to go to variation B, plus turn the ACMP on which will also "trigger" the harmony function. For the 2nd verse I'd go back to var.A with the ACMP still on, and for the last chorus, I'd go var.B again but would give it a larger sound by playing the entire chords in my RH rather than just the melody with harmonies. Doing this with the harmony on gives a very rich and full sound that can be very grand.
Other ways that I add variety:
- before starting, I press the function button, then the up and down buttons so that it is set on Transpose. This is nice especially for long hymns with 4 or more verses, as it is one simple button push to raise the key a half-step at the beginning of the last - or 2nd to last, or most meaningful - verse.
- If I won't be transposing, but want to change registrations between verses (ie, starting with organ/piano dual voices and switching to organ/bells), I get set up for a single-press registration change by "pre-pressing" the memory and the new reg. number; then I play, and when I'm ready to change, I only have to press the appropriate bank button (1 or 2). Of course this only works once during a song but it is quite effective in church music.
One last thing: I like to have my keyboard split much higher than the default. So all of my registrations are saved with the upper voices set to -1 for the octave. This means that I'm playing an octave higher on the keyboard but it sounds like I'm playing the notes as written, and it leaves much more room for my left hand. Why do I need this? Well, often I play with the ACMP button off, and like to do fancy stuff spanning octaves with my left hand, and this gives me the space I need to do it without running out of keys at the bottom.
Again, if you have other ideas and methods for getting the most out of the E413 I hope that you will share them with me here! I know I've only begun to scratch the surface, and there are many functions that I've not even used yet. I hope to continue to learn as I go, and share what I'm learning for anyone else who may also be working on figuring things out!
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