I don't know what song Martin is playing. It's also interesting that when he plays a melody that we know, Youtube doesn't treat it with Copywrite. Yamaha's demonstrators are very clever in choosing notes and harmonies so they always fool Youtube's song recognition algorithm.

Hi Ted,

Martin is playing the Irish classic “Danny Boy” at the 13 min mark.


https://youtu.be/EvmTkMPt8tc?t=776


Here is Celtic Woman’s version of this classic.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DquA6KyHTos


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0ZNXxPP10I


David

Thank you, that's what it is. For some reason I was getting confused with "Georgia on my Mind" or "My Old Kentucky Home." The way Martin plays it rubato with the string ensemble is just beautiful! I guess he's using a style but it doesn't sound "arrangerish" at all!

Danny Boy is the name of the song, however the tune it is played to is Londonderry Air.

Bill

Martin has a special fondness towards Irish music. During his NAMM demo of the Tyros2, he asked the audience, “How about some Irish Flute?.” The crowd clapped in approval. I couldn’t believe my ears how authentic it sounded. Martin made it look so effortless. This was the demo that made me decide on the spot that I needed to get a Tyros2.

There were so many other exhibits in the Yamaha Room. I kept coming back to playing the Tyros2 models on display. It won my heart.

I had the Korg i30. The Tyros2 with its Super Articulation Voices was a significant leap in Arranger Technology. This was the moment Martin’s baby took a decisive lead over the competition. This changed Arranger history.

As Diki has pointed out, the Tyros line eventually matured into the Genos line with 76 keys and a Touch Screen.

The Touch Screen first appeared on the Yamaha Clavinova CVP-609 in 2012. This 8.5” LCD Touch Screen made navigation so much faster. It removed the button clutter. The CVP-609 carried the Tyros 4 Voice Library. This marked a new era in the Clavinova world. All subsequent improvements in the 700, 800 and 900 series have been incremental.

I still have the Tyros2 and CVP-609 along with the Genos and Genos2.

I wonder what Martin has in mind for the successor to the Genos2.

If the Genos had come out 20 years ago, its features would have definitely given me a hard decision between it and the G70. But at the time, Yamaha had no 76, and that's an absolute prerequisite for me. The Tyros had some excellent lead sounds, but IMHO was still part of the generation that sounded more CD-like than live band-like, and that's what I was after.

But no 76, no sale.

Today's Genos2, with live sounding drums and round robins, with a great chord sequencer, if I were still primarily using styles (I'm mostly audio tracks and SMF's these days) I'd probably go for it. ❤️🎹

I completely agree with Diki’s viewpoint that 76 keys is a must for arranger keyboard players. In fact, Martin jokingly demonstrates the limitation of having 61 keys on the Tyros 2 by having to play ghost keys above the range to complete his arpeggio run at this exact moment:


https://youtu.be/A2bylLTR_ZM?t=909


I cannot think of going back to a 61 key arranger. The Genos set the standard. Yes, the Genos Styles and voices sound very polished. It sounds a like a well mastered studio recording. I find the Ketron EVM module the ideal companion to add the feeling of a live band.

The Genos2 FSX key action is ideal for playing all voices expect the piano. This limitation can be addressed by adding a Roland RD-2000 stage piano. Roland made a significant improvement over their PHA-4 action. To emphasize this distinction, they intentionally named it PHA-50 rather that PHA-5. This was not an incremental improvement. This brought a significant jump in playability tailored for a trained piano player.

I find the Roland PHA-50 action superior to the Natural Wood (NW) key action with Linear Graded Hammers on the CVP-609 and the Natural Wood Graded Hammer (NW-GH3) key action on the Yamaha CP-88.

Roland hit a home run with the PHA-50 action on the RD-2000 and FP-90.

The RD-2000 acts as an excellent Master Controller that would satisfy any pianist needing 88-keys. Having the RD-2000 on the lower tier with the Genos2 on the upper tier and a 12.9 inch iPad Pro wirelessly controlling the Ketron EVM module makes an unbeatable setup.

I think weight became a non-factor with modern 76's. It's true that older 61's with speakers got up to about the limit that older players wanted to haul around. I can see some of the objections there kind of evaporating once these new 76ks without speakers appeared.

My BK9, with an action that's as good as anything these days (but God, I miss that buttery G70 action!) weighs 20 lbs. That's astonishing compared to my 54lbs G70!

The other side of the coin is how few arranger players COULD play piano in the first place. The first wave mostly came from organs or accordions. But as piano sounds got better, I think there's a much greater interest in playing the piano nowadays. And while nothing really gives you as much control as a good 88, at least with a 76 you could play most of the NOTES! Actually, Beethoven's entire repertoire can fit a 76, the big 88's came later.

The thing about playing piano on an arranger is, unless you are just playing standalone piano, how the chord recognition reacts to pianistic playing is of paramount importance. And sorry to say, but I find the common '3 notes down before a new chord' is VERY difficult to get clean tracking if you're doing grace notes, passing chords, long runs and sustained arpeggios etc..

To the point where you have to basically abandon conventional piano playing, and base what you play on what is least likely to freak out the chord recognition..! I highly encourage everyone who CAN play piano to see if you can try a BK series arranger simply to explore their Pianist2 system, which ups the count to FIVE notes actually played (not sounding, but actually depressed) while the sustain is depressed.

Utterly game changing! It's long overdue this system gets adopted by Yamaha and Korg. I mean, what's the POINT of a killer piano sound and enough keys to play it with, if we're still stuck with chord recognition modes designed for arranger players playing chords in the left hand and a lead sound in the right?

Try Pianist2 once, you'll never want to go back to 30 year old '3 notes down' systems