Step over to Pianoworld.com You will see you are not alone in holding opinion dearly among classical players. Classical players are like Ophthalmologists, They don't deal with life and death situations but still hold themselves in higher regard then a General Surgeon.

I know its just me. but music, sound, recordings, songs, trends, Revered "guitar "heros" that can only play Drop D riffs on the top three strings,Rap music, Looped music, Award shows in the arts......no roots in the scholarly arena. Feel it, play it, sell it...

When someone comes into the store and asks me which guitar is the best. I don't run to taylor or Martin. I tell them to play a few including the Samicks and Yamahas and TELL ME!! Same with the Pianos and keyboards. I cannot possibly know what is best for someone else. thats why the debates/pissing contests are emotional and circular. No one hears with my ears. My ears hate multi million selling Hip Hop songs. What do I know? LOL

I went to that Piano shootout site and listened to many of those pianos. I found the Softsynth pianos were noticeably rich, But they did not use loops and sampled every note multiple times.But maybe I read that and assumed they were better....... The major digital keyboard pianos seemed far more hairsplitting in differences, My first thought was one could make the Korg sound like a Yamaha sound like a Roland using some Para EQ and/or compression.

I'm sure I'm just, thankfully unsophisticated aurally, so as not to become creatively paralyzed by seeking the Holy Grail with every voice. I know those who are and they do great work but much of it is not as appreciated as expected considering the time and effort they put into it.

Its like the classical pianist who has trained for 30 years and put all the time in and pain of endless hours playing Hanon exercises, learning great and very technically difficult classical works.....watching a self taught pianist make a living with great success and accolades playing things he was taught to be theoretically or technically wrong. The frustration has to be immense.

We all know the guy who can read down a chart the first time perfectly, but cannot play anything unwritten or improvise. I worked with people like that. I also worked with those who only read "Nashville charts" who could play off the cuff with great technical prowess and fervor. The best players are the rare ones that can do both equally well. I only had the pleasure to work with one of them. Mark Owens in Branson. But I also worked with and am a good friend of Judy Dozier (keyboardist for Billy Idol-Rebel Yell) a long time friend of my classically trained wife) who had far greater success with far less formal training whom I met when she worked for Legends in Myrtle Beach awhile after the glory days.




[This message has been edited by Kingfrog (edited 01-07-2009).]