Well done Sophia, it sounds like you weighed it all up carefully and decided what was important and what you could compromise on, and now you can look forward to creating lots of multi layered music. This instrument is not what I'd call truly portable, as it is heavier and larger than the mini keyboard, but if you set it up in another room away from your DP then you'll have two different places to play, depending on your mood. It won't be ideal for classical music due to its limited range, but 61 keys will be enough for most other types of music. I look forward to hearing what you produce with your new sound machine!

"Don't let's ask for the moon, we have the stars." (Final line from Now,Voyager, 1942)

    Nightowl It won't be ideal for classical music due to its limited range, but 61 keys will be enough for most other types of music.

    Exactly, plus it doesn't have a pedal (though it could be added) and it doesn't feel like a proper piano according to most reviews. But that's what I have the Clavinova for 🙂 This will be something to feed my inner geek (I need lots of that) and have fun (I want lots of that too, otherwise why even bother with a hobby like this) 😃 I can't wait!

      After some fun and exotic travel pianos with a crack in the keyboard, let's come back to on-topic:
      "Beginners blues/boogie/rock discussion"

      This is my take of lesson 5 of the Easy Blues & Boogie Woogie course.
      It is not flawless. But hey(!) this video goes for more than 7 minutes in a single take. We beginners are not yet at the level to play a whole concert without some oopses and hrmfps, here and there.

      This thread is called "blues/boogie/rock", but for now we are only swimming in the blues pond. An introduction into easy Boogie Woogie stuff for beginners, comes later this course. What is missing? Rock'n Roll!
      I added some at the end (Yes, drone-lick). This was necessary to have some fun after the boring Blues-Hanon.

      btw: Sophia - in Lesson 11 you will learn the walking bass line!!!! have fun!

      Ahh! Yes that sounded familiar immediately!!! I was swinging along with the slow blues section - loved all of it, pretty harmonies, great sounds, loved the walking bass (mine is still a lot simpler than that).

      But then oh my goodness, you weren't kidding with the Hanon part.... well played but YIKES! Endless misery basically... plonk-ee-plink-ee-plonk-ee, very grating to my ears indeed. But then around the 7 minutes mark it had a lovely ending.

      Then of course the real fun started: ROCK & ROLL!!! Yeah!!! Jerry Lee Lewis, move over, WieWaldi is in town! With great hands of fire!

      P.S. there was no risk of me submitting my lesson before you, I'm only at the left hand stage, trying to add the magic triangle... "I don't want to pay this, said the guest" 😅

        Sophia Let's call the lesson 11 bass line, the little brother of my version. This one needs a bit more concentration because it is longer and you have to pay attention to the index finger that is wandering around. But the biggest difficulty is the same on both lines: Coming from F7 down to C7, this is an 11th jump. And sometimes you can't look at your hands, because the right hand jumps, too. (Now you know why I consider mini-keys bad for the muscle memory training).
        IMO, this walking bass adds about 50 to 60 percent of difficulty to yours. The one Christian mentioned as the "full version" is indeed 5 times harder to play.

          @WieWaldi Wow, that was amazing! 👏 "Great hands of fire!" indeed - Sophia nailed it with that phrase.

          You play with fluency and confidence, to the point where small mistakes seem irrelevant because the overall performance is so enjoyable. Take a bow, maestro! 😀

          "Don't let's ask for the moon, we have the stars." (Final line from Now,Voyager, 1942)

          Started with next lesson, "The Quick Five Blues". I think this will be my next recital piece. 4 more weeks to go, just perfect.

          Turns out, Christian isn't very happy with my Rock'n Roll attempt 😂😂😂

          Pfft! What does he know! What was good enough for Mr Lewis, is good enough for WieWaldi! I still liked it 🤩

          8 days later

          Ooh! I am wrapping up lesson 11 (one more lick to get up to speed, probably a few more days). I was thinking yay, I'm catching up with WieWaldi... I will be a Bloody Lovely Total Beginner™ soon. Not so... the sheet music stops at lesson 11 but there are still more tutorials! That Christian is always full of surprises 👺

          Yea. The next sheet music is from lesson 12 to16, then you are awarded. Looks like you stay lovely for some more time! 🥰
          I always wonder how you manage to do both, the Alfred stuff for serious pianists AND toying around with Blues.💙

          Lol! I guess my mamma was like your mamma: first, you must eat the spinach and brussels sprouts before you can enjoy the ice cream and cookies. Now that I'm old and can decide for myself, I'm finally seeing the sense in that. So first 15 minutes of mandatory Alfred 🥱😬😵 and then I am allowed to do the blues lesson 💃🤸‍♀️🧚‍♀️

          Haha - sounds like Alfred is a lot of fun, currently. A nice Ragtime piece! Okay, Ragtime is hard to learn, but fun to play. And it teaches an important lesson about syncopations. Me is only Blues. And forum. Fifty fifty. Both fun stuff 😉

          True! I'm slowly finding out that I'm probably not going to be into playing classical music all that much. I still love it, but I'm having much more fun with the lighthearted stuff like ragtime and blues and jazz. But I still want to finish all three Alfred books because I think it's important to learn the basics... reading, pedaling, dynamics etc. And the forum is indeed fun - it's nice to do these blues lessons together even if we only moan about boring lessons it feels a little less horrible already 😃

          One of the upcoming Alfred pieces is the full version of Fur Elise. But it's been played to death already, because literally everybody wants to learn and perform it at some point. I just yawn already when I even think about it... but when you learn blues, you can improvise endlessly and come up with your own style. If you play Fur Elise in a jazzy version, every critic will dance all over you. Although... I'd go for this version 😃

            Gosh!!! What an Elise! Truly, this is the best version, I ever heard.
            If I would rate music styles, I would say (from Easy to Hard):

            Pop (chords only, as acompaniment)
            Blues
            Boogie Woogie
            Rock 'n Roll
            Pop (chords + melody)
            Minimal/contemporary classic (Einaudi, FFrench, ...)
            Ragtime
            Jazz
            Classical
            Classical in Ragtime and Jazz

            Seems you love the challenge 🤪

              WieWaldi Seems you love the challenge 🤪

              Ha! I'm about 876,599 hours away from being able to play like that 😃 But he HAS given me idea of making that lesson more interesting, when I get to it 😂

              I'm surprised you're placing blues under rock & roll, I always thought blues was a little more challenging (one more chord). No?

                  Sophia I'm surprised you're placing blues under rock & roll, I always thought blues was a little more challenging (one more chord). No?

                  Sophia I'm about 876,599 hours away from being able to play like that

                  876,599 hours / 24 = 36,5149 days = Nov, 14th. One day left to get a recording and submit at next recital. Just don't sleep!

                      Haha, I wish! I thought 876,599 hours got us to October 7, 2124. One hundred years minus one hour, because that one hour I give myself as a present 😃 (comma and point are reversed in English language, for some crazy reason. Like $10,396.39 as opposed to €10.396,39)

                        Sophia (comma and point are reversed in English language, for some crazy reason. Like $10,396.39 as opposed to €10.396,39)

                        You have no idea how I hate this comma/point thing. My work PC is English with a German keyboard, my private PC is all German with English version of libre office because I hate German words for Visual Basic and therefore I made a script to switch the numpad-point on my keyboard to whatever I want.

                        Sophia One hundred years minus one hour

                        Yea - makes sense now: (365.25 * 100 * 24) - 1 💡
                        I thought you hit the keyboard with random digits until it looks unbelievable big 🤣, then I wanted to screw up with the comma confusion to make it realistic again.... Come on - 876 hours practice time to get here!!! You can do it!💪

                        btw: In eMails I always write big numbers in this format: 876'599.99. I don't care that this is no standard, but nobody in no country screws this up and nobody ever complained. Same with dates, today is "2024-Oct-07". No standard, but impossible to misread.

                            Sophia Yikes, that video should come with a health warning! 😲 I turned it off halfway to stop my ears bleeding. I know the piece has been played to death over the years but there was no need to murder it! <Makes mental note not to stray onto this blues thread again.>

                            "Don't let's ask for the moon, we have the stars." (Final line from Now,Voyager, 1942)