A long time ago when I was 17 yrs old, I had just finished 6 months of piano lessons (which was all I could afford, at .25 each week). My piano teacher said I had enough lessons and it was time to use what I learned.

We had two small dance bands in that town competing with each other. My piano teacher played in one of them and he got me the job as piano player in the other one.

Soon after that he arranged for me to play a 15 minute spot on a Dayton, Ohio radio station.

While in the studio, I noticed a modified grand piano which had some sort of electronic provision to also sound like a simple organ. That really blew my mind knowing that the staff piano player could use this special intrument to play "2" instruments at the same time. He told me that the cost for this instrument was about $12,000 to $15,000.

I told my Piano Teacher that I thought it would be simply miraculous if someday in the future we could have an instrument that could play just about any instrument we could think of from just one instrument itself.

My Teacher said, "That would really be a collossal miracle indeed, but we need to keep our mind on reality. Such a dream would never be" he said.

Well, every time I sit down at the KN7000, I definitely see my dream come true. Of course, it's also true for that matter, for any other of the current day fabulous keyboards.

I definitely believe that anything that can be perceived -- can be achieved.

Regards,

Larry Gosmeyer

when you think about it, technological progress has never been this fast before... lucky us!

Larry, I love stories and I love yours. It is great to hear words that are positive and lead to greater heights. I love good music and I love yours. It is great to hear music that inspires me to strive to achieve greater heights. Frank Benz was the guy that first encouraged me to join this forum and become active. You were the first guy to send me some of your arrangements. I guess I’m one of the luckiest guys on this forum to have had such a great start with the help of two super people. And Alec, you are so right... Lucky us. Technological progress has never been this fast before’. All well and good but, and I’ll say it again, BUT, but where would we be if it were not for guys like you who are willing to help us paddle through this sea of wonderment. Both you and Larry are kings of your’ domain. Unselfish in the administration of your realm. Sorry, but I just ran out of words.

Grandpa Doug

[ Frank Bez was the guy that first encourage ect.

by the way how is Frank Bez doing at the moment?

rgds.
Willem

Willem, I don't know.

Grandpa Doug

Thanks Larry G. That was a great story....so all I need are 6 months of piano lessons to play as good as you ?
I believe some were born with talent and those 6 months of lessons brought Larry's talent to the forefront.

Heres my short story of the past :

I remember the old days of hauling a big old Hammond up 2 flights of steps, and feeling glad that this task was over, only to realize, we still had the Leslie, and the Foot Pedals to struggle with.

After all this we only hoped that after the setup was finally complete that none of the Hammond's tubes were blown, that the Leslie cable was not damaged and the foot pedals were somehow not part of the drywall.

Note #1 You could always tell the organ player who gigged, by the gashes in the wood body

Back then moving your playing equipment was only possible if
A. You had a vehicle large enough to transport your 3 ton "keyboard"
B. You could find a volunteer or 2 that you suckered in to help.
Note #2 The trumpet or sax player never answered his phone on moving day.

Of course all of this had to be done the night before, because after a double hernia and all the swearing at this inanimate object, who the heck would want to play, without healing a little for at least one night ?

One of the benefits of today's keyboard technology, we no longer have to phone the trumpet or sax player. (He was always too busy cleaning his spit or some other lame excuse) Besides, with the sounds of the 7000...who needs um ?


SeeYa
Larry Hawk

[This message has been edited by lahawk (edited 05-16-2003).]

Hi Larry,
My name is Adam Glinka
I would like to get to Your Website to hear your music
I cant get connected
Can you please send me youe correct E-mail addres?
Thank you
Greetings
Adam

Hi Larry;

What a great story.
It just goes to prove that sometimes dreams do come true and you are so right. We have a full orchestra,small combo,big band and whatever group we want to put together right at out finger tips.

It is all about music and you have created some of the finest arrangements on the internet.
Many thanks for sharing.

I would just to let our other forum members know that Frank Bez is feeling much better. I just received an email from him and he getting stronger every day.

Alex
We should be hearing from him soon.

Yes, modern technology is fabulous but with one major challenge: "State of the Art" stuff seems only to last for about a day or two before the next level of development is on the shelf. It's still great though.

Larry

Ah! Larry, You stir up some memories - we too had a 'Heavy Hammond' complete with Leslie cabinet and often had to lug it up stairs. One of the more unusual venues was a castle banqueting hall and that could only be reached up a Spiral Staircase Boy was that Fun!! I still get the occasional twinge in my back, as a reminder of these 'Happy' days.

------------------
Willum

Very Interesting.
It seems that many of us got into the keyboard business for similar reasons.
Years ago, I bought a Hammond spinet and completely converted it to solid state (no tubes!). The hardest part in duplicating the original sound was converting the tremolo phase shifter, but got that worked out so that the instrument sounded identical to the tube version.
Then I cut it apart, rebuilt it into three pieces. Keyboard with all of the solid state circuits, the pedal board, and the original tonewheel mechanism (along with a wide ribbon cable to inter connect the keyboard and tone generator). I did all of this so that it could be transported in my old Volkswagon Beetle. It still weighed a ton but did fit into the beetle.
Later I graduated to a nice Technics spinet that only weighed 115 lbs. This was great but went to the keyboard after my wife Georgiana threw her back out helping me lug the spinet around for a gig.
I hated the keyboard (KN2000) at first, but got hooked on it after I started to learn how to use it.
So here we are -- with a nice KN7000 and a wife without a backache. The best of two worlds, wouldn't you say?
Walt