Does anyone really need 76 keys on their keyboard? Though I have played 76-key boards, I really never felt the necessity to have more than 61 keys. For me, 61 keys makes the board more portable, supplies me with the range of notes that I use 99 percent of the time, and because of the way I play, it's nice to have the little finger of my left handing resting against the edge of the board on the "C" key.

This is not a thread about key feel or touch sensitivity. It's merely a question of whether or not OMB performers really require 76, or 88-key boards. And, do those OMB performers with larger boards actually play the upper and lower extremes of their keyboards routinely, or do they merely play the notes and chords in the middle of the board like piano players.

Inquiring minds would like to know.

Cheers,

Gary

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Travlin' Easy

61 is enough for me, although I don't play very well at all. If anything, I'd want it extended lower. I never play in the high registers, it's a total waste of space for me. I'm not trying to sound like Liberace, just play popular music.

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Bill
Yamaha PSR2000

Good topic Gary,

I find that some songs, I need to use the higher or lower octave, so basically that just means setting the octave to +1 or -1 and saving it to your reg bank... problem solved

thats mainly for synth sounds or the grand piano voice. most other acoustic sounds tend to start loosing quality up in the higher octaves anyway...

ah well, thats my input
nick




[This message has been edited by Nick G (edited 09-17-2006).]

61 doesn't bother me, but I prefer 76. Keeps me from having to use Octave Shift, and lets me have more room for chords on left.
DonM

Good topic:

I prefer 76 because I like to write and my first instrument is a piano. For me, the extra octave makes a huge difference. In this case, more is better.

zuki

I can't understand why 76 key keyboards go down to only E0. If they could go further (C0) I'd have been very happy and wouldn't be looking for 88 keys. They are trying to make me spend extra $$$ for 2 white and 2 black keys.

George

For me, pretty much the same reasons as Don said.

More importantly for me, I could make very good use of 76 keys with an additional split point, with split/voice settings capable of being stored in the registartion memory.

Don and mrED covered my sentiments can only add that I too like the idea of my pinky against the frame when in C but when moving to play a 76 key I have to watch myself closely with extra keys below takes a few minutes to get comfortable on a 76 note board, have to move the bench over about 10 inches. perfer to have the 76 though the 61 is pushing it on splitting the board 3 times, have to admit don't use the splt features very much because of this.....pose

I think it is a good facility that I can have a split point between Upper 1 or Upper 2 and the Upper 3 on my G70.
That is why I like more keys than 61.

I used to play a lot of left hand bass, and having at least 76 notes was necessary to get to that low "E".

When I started playing bass pedals with my B3 it was fine having 61 notes.

The arranger practically eliminates the need for the bass and I find I only need 61 keys to get the job done....it's just sometimes difficult to keep my feet still.

Great topic, Gary

Ian

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