okay, I am back and this is the SD9 !!

Hi,

Have not participated here for quite a while due to several circumstances one of them being I had nothing of interest to say or offer !!
I occasionally participated in the Facebook keyboard group but I have no Facebook account myself so had to (ab)use my wife's !!
I am no fan of Facebook myself notwithstanding the fact that the keyboard group has been doing very welll under auspicion of Don and Donny. The problem with it is that you get snowballed under by some new member with lots of ( often very good) recordings and then the next one comes along and you have a hard time finding the previous entries. The whole idea of a discussion thread becomes somewhat vague and not easily managable, at least imho.
Okay back to the music. In spite of quite a number of health issues I did manage a number of new recordings generally using my Ketron SD9, as well as my piano and ac. guitar. Also I managed to convince my wife after trying for 18 long years to join me and sing a couple of songs. Mind you she is no Beyonce or anyting close, but I admire her for daring to try.
Below links to my 2021 recordings. Enjoy and feel free to comment and/or criticize.

regards
John

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zizo7NiuBAc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OywP6dHb4jE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuBlX1dRM_w
https://youtu.be/ahqxEk9AKto
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOeOXSJ2Qlo

Hey John,

That was a lot of fun. All entries very nice, with interesting accompanying video. It is sure nice to hear from one of the old gang. Stay well my friend.

Bernie

Hi John, I’m glad you’re back to posting. Your music, as always, is good. The presentation was the best you have done. Did you record your guitar live on your songs?

Welcome back, John C.

John , great selection of music and lovely renditions as well. I like how you can mix things up with guitar and piano too. Also it’s fantastic that you and your wife do music together too! Glad to see you back!

John, Glad to see you back and sharing your music once again. Love your renditions, keep it up.

Preview

Bernie,
Thanks, good to read your feedback !

Joh C,
only used the guitar on the Neil Young song, which incidentally was filmed by my missus, there has to be a first for everything !!! All other songs were only SD9, with the exception of the instrumental piano recording of course....

Paul,
Always a pleasure to read your comments. Greatly appreciated!

Larry,
thank you as well for your kind words !

regards
John

Hello John! I tried to write this message yesterday before going to bed, but typing texts in a browser is risky because it’s easy to hit a wrong button and lose everything you typed, which happened to me yesterday.

I noticed you gave the same link twice (2 and 4), could you mean to share some other video instead?

I must say I especially liked “Out on the Weekend”; beautiful places in other videos are certainly nice, but, I guess, in the end we as human beings tend to be more involved when there are other human beings, so it was nice to see you performing the song. I liked the arrangement of the song as well. Surely, it’s not really about an arranger keyboard, but what can I say, guitars still rule.

I agree with you that it’s hard to keep a track of what is going on within the Facebook’s community; it’s good that the group attracts some new crowd, but without proper talks it can become just like watching videos on YouTube.

Thank you for posting your music; you perform a lot of different songs but there’s your own way of doing it and it has this positive energy of yours.

And Annemieke surely knows how to sing as well; I wonder how your voices would sound together.

My best wishes to you!

very nice man and i love your vocal

thanks Dud.

Thanks to you too Sergey for your extended review and for starters you are correct, I doubled one of the links,my mistake and thank you for pointing it out to me. Number four, also a song recorded with the Ketron SD9 and sung by Annemieke should be this one:
https://youtu.be/ahqxEk9AKto
It was nice for a change to add some local colour with the Neil Young (guitar) song. It was also a first for the both of us with my missus filming that one with her mobile phone !!!!!
Although occasionally I try and improvise on the piano I have a predilection for re-arranging wellknown popsongs and adding a bit more than just a touch of me.... But then of course Arranger keyboards were meant to do so.....or were they ??
I must admit that while I enjoyed recording the SD9 songs I lean more and more to songs that I record with piano though I am not really a piano player, as a matter of fact I only started with some self-study four or five years ago.... shortly I will publish on my youtube page a famous popsong in a version that has even taken me by surprise !!!
I noticed you have been very busy musicwise as well and can only compliment you for your endeavours, your originality and creativity with both keyboard and piano !!!

regards
John

This one is nicely done as well!

Having a faithful companion can be really helpful!

As for me, I’m not actually making a lot of videos these days, currently I’m trying some new directions, although it’s possible that I’m just going the circle I usually do, trying all the genres and methods just to prove to myself that the one that I already have is meant for me. Meanwhile, I find that an arranger keyboard can be really handy regardless of what I’m trying to do, although I can’t really match to what some people do with VSTs, nevertheless PSR-SX900 has something to offer when it comes to orchestral music or even something like what’s called rap of hip-hop; obviously, SD9 is quite flexible too, but they are hard-to-get, especially in Russia.

Kabinopus and John, both of you have depth in your music and your conversations that is rare. It is more than just keyboards and music.
I enjoy your posts, John C.

John C.

I am touched by your remark John...Thank you for this observation.

Sergey,
Mind you it took a while ( 18 years !!!) to convince my wife to even give it a try. Anyway the ban has been broken and from time to time, if a suitable song comes along, I can persuade her now to give it a go.
I have been toying with the idea of writing a story on the rise and fall ( immiment ?) of the arranger keyboard here on SZ, and maybe one day I will. Suffice it to say for now that we are basically all spoiled rotten with the choices that we have and at the same time I wonder about the future of arranger keyboards. Fact remains that it can be used in a great variety of ways, both for home use or for professional use. I do use VST from time to time but it is pretty time consuming and ,at times, rather complex. So for me, I prefer the piano and guitar, and additionally the use of my Ketron SD9 and Korg PA50. Didn't I say "spoiled rotten " ??

regards
John