Art, me boy. Great post. I remember our talking about the pedal. In fact I promised you I would give the old pedal a second chance for a spot in my life. I did and sent it into retirement once again. Commenting on your remarks Quote: “I use both after touch and pedal, of course, and feel I have total volume control. After touch does not let you fade out an ending, or give volume changes throughout the song”. But Art, you know there are always to ways to skin a cat. I don’t use the pedal and I just push that little button just above the fill in buttons called fade in and fade out. They can be set to do the job in one up to umpteen measures much smother than can be done with the foot. Did you ever sneeze while fading out with the foot? Thunder, pure thunder that will fade the people back to reality in a hurry. That little button, nice and smooth and professional and fully under control. Under our fingers are four variation buttons. Number one, subdued band up to number four, a band swinging their little harts out. Not enough for you? Use the first four pads to supplement the four variations. Four times four equal sixteen shades of variation and volume. If one gets really greedy use the sound arranger which will multiply the whole mess again. Don’t forget those two little fill buttons. They give a nice smooth transition to the whole process. Just like the pro’s do. I see you feel after touch and pedal gives you complete volume control. Everybody has their favorite way of doing things and that’s great. Just remember, there are more than one way to do things. Even so, one could be better and easier than the other. I see you did not mention touch sensitivity of the keyboard in the context with controlling the volume of your playing. This feature of our boards has nothing to do with after touch or the foot controller for volume. This feature can be set to give very little volume change (0) to a very great range of volume change (10) via the touch of our fingers on every black and white key on the whole board. Top to bottom. This method of volume control in conjunction with the before mentioned control of the accompaniments or band will separate the men from the boys, so to speak. Of course this is the focus of this thread. From what I hear I have come to the conclusion a lot of keyboard players don’t understand fully the difference between keyboard touch control, after touch, expression or swell pedal control and the like. Some may have never even known of their existence. Please, it is not my intention to criticize any one’s method of approaching this end but to suggest alternatives that might heighten their knowledge of their instruments and might contribute to more enjoyment of them. Art, I guess people know how we do things and how we differ in our approach to the same end. Beautiful music! As old blue eyes Frankie would sing, My Way, let’s hear from others about their way and what they think of our way. This is interesting and can only help our musical enjoyment. So fellows let’s put to words your ways and the buttons you push to get to where you want to go. Ruthie already told me what she thinks about my ways and I know the buttons she pushes to get me to where she wants to go.

Grandpa Doug