IT’S HARD TO LET GO of a method of playing that has served us well for such a long time . . . When I was playing the KN5000 I loaded as many panel memories as I could, as well as custom memory, so that I wouldn’t have to re-load until I had played for an hour or so. I found myself quickly poking at the keyboard buttons when I felt a need to change voicing or rhythm variation. And, I got pretty good at hitting the intended button before returning to the playing keyboard. But, too often, I would select a voice that was too loud or too soft for the background rhythm, or a rhythm variation that had a part that did not fit well with the voicing I was using, and I would have to scramble for changes to get things back in order.

When I upgraded to the KN7000 I played the same way. It took about 6 months before I began to realize that there were better ways. At first I only allowed the panel memories to select voicing and I still poked at the rhythm variation buttons. Then I realized that I could edit composer parts to match background voicing with right hand voicing and things began to sound much better. I found that I could LET THE PANEL MEMORIES DO THE WORK. And, I finally realized that the SD card was so fast that I could get an entirely new keyboard setup in three or four seconds. That meant that if I wasn’t playing a medley, I could use a different keyboard setup for every song. I could set up panel memories that had right hand voicing and background voices and rhythms that complimented each other. I no longer needed to poke at buttons while I was trying to change chords or whatever. That is what led me to the way I play today, as I described in another thread. Now my hands seldom leave the playing keys and I never have to worry about selecting an inappropriate rhythm or voice.

It doesn’t matter if I am playing by memory (I don’t call that playing by ear) or using a lead sheet. The music sheet doesn’t tell me what voice to use nor when to make a change. You just “feel” that when you are playing.