PSRS500 » Sounds

The Great Debate – Acoustic v Digital Pianos

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 06:45:49 +0000

You will see upright acoustic pianos every where, perhaps at your favorite restaurant, or at a school hall. You used to see them at your church, but perhaps not so much these days, as the use of digital pianos becomes more prevalent.
You like the class and sound of an acoustic piano so much that you want one for yourself, and perhaps have not considered going the digital route.
Perhaps you want to give your child a musical education, and have settled on the piano as the instrument of choice, as it is by far the most popular of instruments and there are plenty of teachers around.
So once you have decided that the piano will be your instrument you will have to make a decision on what to buy.
Probably the first thing you would do is go to a piano dealer and see what is on offer. You will see lots of wonderful pianos, which are almost like furniture, and you will love them until you see the price and the amount of space it takes up.
So although you may desperately want one, an acoustic piano may not be affordable and you wouldn’t have the room for it, especially if you live in an apartment.
If you are buying one for your child to learn to play, you have to remember that piano lessons are hard work, and your child may want to give up after a couple of months. I know my own children lasted for a year, but that was it.
If this is the case, and you don’t play yourself, you now have an expensive piece of idle furniture taking up a vast amount of space in your living room.
A viable alternative has to be the digital piano. A lot of them these days look very much like a traditional upright acoustic piano, and the sound is very similar.
An acoustic piano is a mechanical instrument where the depression of the keys causes muffled hammers to strike against strings, which produces the familiar sounds, while digital pianos produce sound electronically.
The sounds produced come from previously recorded sounds of a real piano, and certainly with the top of the line digital pianos, like the Yamaha, the sounds are going to be of an extremely high quality, and practically indistinguishable to the untrained ear.
There is another argument against digital pianos, which is that the feel of the keys is different from that on an acoustic piano, and this used to be true. With an acoustic piano you can actually feel the hammers striking against real strings, and can adjust the weight you put on the keys according to the sound you wish to make.
The left hand keys on a keyboard are harder to play, especially for a right handed person, and the strength of the key depression is lighter on the treble keys.
However, because this was a sticking point in the arguments about the merits of digital v acoustic, piano manufacturers such as Yamaha have addressed this problem and the modern models can almost replicate the touch and feel of the traditional acoustic piano.
The keys may be described as being semi-weighted, weighted, hammer, and graded hammer. The graded hammer is recognised as being the best, while the semi-weighted and weighted actions are the ones normally used for the entry level models.

The Benefits of the Digital Piano

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 05:17:09 +0000

A digital piano is a modernized version of the electronic piano that was manufactured and sold from the 1950’s through the 1980’s. Electronic pianos were based upon synthesized sound as opposed to the mechanical sounds carried by the electric pianos which were sold for awhile in the 1960’s and 70’s.
When the digital piano appeared on the scene in the 1980’s, they began to take the place of the acoustic piano because they were less expensive than acoustic pianos. Comparing a digital piano and an acoustic piano of the same size, the digital piano generally costs much less. Today, the cost savings also continue to add up because the digital piano has no strings; this, in turn, means that it does not have to be tuned. Since the cost of tuning an acoustic piano can run between $75.00 to 175.00 each time the piano is tuned, usually at least once a year, obtaining a digital piano as opposed to an acoustic piano may also be desirable because of the savings in its continued upkeep.
The digital pianos were and are also a bit smaller than their acoustic counterparts making them easy to put into tight places. The feel of the key on the modern digital pianos compares favorably with the acoustic piano, as well. For a pianist, the touch of the keyboard is very important in how that musician plays the instrument. The digital pianos available now are able to simulate the weight of the keys on the acoustic keyboard making them an attractive alternative to the serious musician.
There are other features which make digital pianos very attractive to keyboardists as well. The ability to transpose is available at the touch of a button. For those who sing solos or who sing with other groups, that ability is a very attractive feature, especially when a lot of music is written for sopranos and the person who wants to sing a solo may be an alto or a bass.
Many of the newest digital pianos have the ability to link to a computer or they have a place for a disk on which the keyboardist can record the music for later use. With the advent of digital music players such as Ipods, Zunes, mp3’s, and other equipment, this can be seen as very advantageous for the person who wants to record his or her own playing so that it can be used later at a different venue.
The most important feature is the timbre of the instrument. Timbre has to do with the quality of sound that comes from an instrument. New digital pianos do not have the “tinny” sound that came with early electric and electronic pianos. The timbre of the instruments synthesized into the piano gives a beautiful tone that can even sometimes be deepened or lightened according to the whims of the keyboardist. This is very easily done at the touch of a control wheel or slider on the digital piano.
While most concert halls still used highly crafted acoustic grand pianos, the advent of the digital piano is a great help to people who desire to have pianos in their homes so that their children can learn to play the piano. Since learning to play the piano on an old upright piano of indiscriminate age, having a digital piano has been a delight. It provides for creativity and enjoyment in my home for the listener and the keyboardist. Having access to a piano in the home is one of the greatest joys of my life. I wish that joy for children and adults everywhere.

Prioritizing Helps in Meeting Deadlines

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 03:52:51 +0000

It is not once or twice in the course of our work that we have to meet deadlines. They crop up every now and then. That is ok enough it is only that when we approach the deadline everything goes haywire and there is a mess everywhere. The things we do daily are thrown completely off gear and meeting the deadline becomes a big head ache.

In this article we will learn how to prioritize the things will help us to get through our time problem.

Is there any way out of this? Of course there is. For one thing, if we are well organized and an urgent requirement, like the submission of a project or something like that crops up, there is nothing to sweat about. All we have to do is to compile the material that we already have with us. Easy enough it sounds.

But in real life we are not just called upon to submit reports of already completed projects. We usually get projects and fewer days than required to complete those projects. Then what do we do? The only way out seems to be having to work extra hours. That is not altogether harmful. It never hurts to work a few extra hours once in a while.

But another alternative is to prioritize. See whether you can arrange your work in such away that you get to do the more important tasks first. If there is some daily work that does not call for too much urgency, keep it aside. Concentrate on the more important tasks.

Similarly, while you are working there may be a thousand and one distractions at your work place or office.

You will have to decide which is more important, attending to those distractions or focusing on your work. If you can afford to turn off your cell phone, go ahead and do it. Similarly, you could even keep your land phone off the hook if that wont create a ruckus in your office that is.

Anther thing you could do is put up a do not disturb sign inn your workstation to ward off those disturbances.

You might also have to remind yourself to stay put at your workstation and not linger around either mentally or physically.

It is not necessary that you do all the jobs yourself. If you have a secretary or subordinates, it is about time that you started trusting them with not so very important jobs. The word over here is delegate.

Delegation can be a mangers best time saver.

The three advantages of delegating are:
1. Delegating gives us more time to concentrate on more important issues.
2. Delegating is a very good method f giving practical training in the real situation to our staff.
3. It is a good method of fostering decision making among subordinates.

But at the same time all tasks cannot be delegated. There are certain criteria to be taken into consideration before delegating a task.

The criteria for deciding whether a task can be delegated are.
1. If the task is repetitive, by all means delegate.
2. If the decision can be reversed quickly and easily, it is safe to delegate. For example if is rearranging the furniture in your office or deciding on the Christmas celebrations at the office, then it is quite safe to delegate.
3. Check and see if the impact is not too much on others in case the decision is wrong
4. Check and see if there is too much money or physical resources involved in the decision.
5. Check if delegating is within the companies existing policies.

In this way, if you prioritize you can decide which jobs should be done first, who should do it and what should be done when. Before you know it, meeting deadlines will stop being such a headache.