dfibraio
12-21-2008, 10:36 PM
Hi, everybody. Been a fan of Jordan's since 1995, as long as I have been a dT fan. Been a keyboardist since conception, practically. I am 34 years old from NJ. I really could use some help, because I am in a bind. First, some background.
I was born with a visual impairment. I am currently nearly totally blind. I have been playing keys and singing since birth, and am mostly self taught, although I did take a few years of keyboard lessons. I would call myself an intermediate to advanced keyboardist at best. I do not read music, naturally, I am mostly ear trained. I currently own too many keyboards, but the main ones are a motif xs7, a korg m3 with the radias R mounted into it, a roland vk8m for organs and a kurzweil k2661 that I don't know what to do with anymore.
I currently am playing in an upstart band called THD. The band contains members of a former QueensRyche tribute band called Queen of the Rychye, and former members of a Dream Theater tribute called erotomania. We have played some pretty decent gigs, including a few dates at BB Kings, opening for Sonata Arctica, and even playinging a QueensRyche aftershow party. I ended up leaving erotomania due to feeling overwhelmed juggling the qr tribute, dt tribute and a general prog/classic/hard rock cover band, while working my tech support job. truth be told, metropolis after the 7 minute mark was impossible to figure out by ear alone.
So, here I am, we get our first gig. We had bene rehearsing a bunch of Queensryche covers, some van halen, savatage, ozzy, and the odd DT song. Suddenly, the concept of the band seems to be altering by the week. We got our first gig in CT on february 21. We are doing an hour set of DT, and an hour or more of QueensRyche. The DT songs include, pull me under, wait for sleep and burning my soul, which I already know. Then they throw root of all evil, foresaken, home and sacrificed sons at em. Now, I have a good part of root of all evil, and foresaken down. the other two I haven't even touched. I am working at all this, again, with no vision, trying to master a complicated keyboard rig and music that is slightly above my ability. I do not do well with programmingg sounds, except on my old roland jp8080. I have access to the motif xs through editor software that somebody made blind friendly, but the korg is impossible to access beyond its presets, the radias is very deep and I am still trying to come to grips with it. So, here I am, creating setups for all this music, doing the splits and layers in my motif, assigning sounds to run out to my line 6 pod x3 live for my guitar type tones, I have to come up with all of Jordan's sounds, learn his parts and with no music or tabs or anything to refer to except my own ear, and gear I can't make heads or tails of. I have been wishing that I could find a tech whose experience and eye sight could be a huge help to me, but they usually want to get paid and I, sadly am a poor musician. you should see what it takes to just get transportation taken care of.
Folks, I don't consider myself a great keyboardist, but others tell me I am amazing, especially with the visual impairment thing to hurdle. But right now, I am almost near a panic attack. I have never shied away from a challenge, which is why I can probably play angry Young Man by Billy Joel today, but this seems like too much, too fast and with 2 months until the gig, I just wonder if this is a good idea. Of course, the guys in the band don't understand how complex the keyboardist's role is. I am not getting much help in this regard. the two people who are trying to help me, namely my cousin and girlfriend don't know much about the technical ends of the keyboard world, and in the case of my cousin are severely dyslexic, which makes for some interesting comedy at times.
If you are interested in hearing music I have done, you can check out work of mine on www.keyboardguy.com, which is my personal music site. The band's web site is www.thdband.com and their myspace is www.myspace.com/thdtheband.
I am not on here to complain about how tough my life is or anything. I have loved playing keyboards since I could remember, but I really feel intimidated by all of this and could use soe guidance. I mean, I feel like it is a huge mountain to climb, figuring out what gear to use, programming all the custom sounds, creating my splits and putting them in order, learning the parts...trying to master this gear with a visual disability, damn you Korg and your touch screens.
Can anybody give me some advice, some tips, soe sounds, even, if you have them? If anybody knows somebody in teh NY/nJ area that is really great with keyboard stuff and midi who can help me get my head on straigth in this studio and with my band, I'll buy beer, pizza, I don't care, anything really. Or maybe I just need a new band with more realistic goals. If that's the case, ehy, if you can drive me around, I can play, just give me a few months or years to get metropolis down, OK?
I was born with a visual impairment. I am currently nearly totally blind. I have been playing keys and singing since birth, and am mostly self taught, although I did take a few years of keyboard lessons. I would call myself an intermediate to advanced keyboardist at best. I do not read music, naturally, I am mostly ear trained. I currently own too many keyboards, but the main ones are a motif xs7, a korg m3 with the radias R mounted into it, a roland vk8m for organs and a kurzweil k2661 that I don't know what to do with anymore.
I currently am playing in an upstart band called THD. The band contains members of a former QueensRyche tribute band called Queen of the Rychye, and former members of a Dream Theater tribute called erotomania. We have played some pretty decent gigs, including a few dates at BB Kings, opening for Sonata Arctica, and even playinging a QueensRyche aftershow party. I ended up leaving erotomania due to feeling overwhelmed juggling the qr tribute, dt tribute and a general prog/classic/hard rock cover band, while working my tech support job. truth be told, metropolis after the 7 minute mark was impossible to figure out by ear alone.
So, here I am, we get our first gig. We had bene rehearsing a bunch of Queensryche covers, some van halen, savatage, ozzy, and the odd DT song. Suddenly, the concept of the band seems to be altering by the week. We got our first gig in CT on february 21. We are doing an hour set of DT, and an hour or more of QueensRyche. The DT songs include, pull me under, wait for sleep and burning my soul, which I already know. Then they throw root of all evil, foresaken, home and sacrificed sons at em. Now, I have a good part of root of all evil, and foresaken down. the other two I haven't even touched. I am working at all this, again, with no vision, trying to master a complicated keyboard rig and music that is slightly above my ability. I do not do well with programmingg sounds, except on my old roland jp8080. I have access to the motif xs through editor software that somebody made blind friendly, but the korg is impossible to access beyond its presets, the radias is very deep and I am still trying to come to grips with it. So, here I am, creating setups for all this music, doing the splits and layers in my motif, assigning sounds to run out to my line 6 pod x3 live for my guitar type tones, I have to come up with all of Jordan's sounds, learn his parts and with no music or tabs or anything to refer to except my own ear, and gear I can't make heads or tails of. I have been wishing that I could find a tech whose experience and eye sight could be a huge help to me, but they usually want to get paid and I, sadly am a poor musician. you should see what it takes to just get transportation taken care of.
Folks, I don't consider myself a great keyboardist, but others tell me I am amazing, especially with the visual impairment thing to hurdle. But right now, I am almost near a panic attack. I have never shied away from a challenge, which is why I can probably play angry Young Man by Billy Joel today, but this seems like too much, too fast and with 2 months until the gig, I just wonder if this is a good idea. Of course, the guys in the band don't understand how complex the keyboardist's role is. I am not getting much help in this regard. the two people who are trying to help me, namely my cousin and girlfriend don't know much about the technical ends of the keyboard world, and in the case of my cousin are severely dyslexic, which makes for some interesting comedy at times.
If you are interested in hearing music I have done, you can check out work of mine on www.keyboardguy.com, which is my personal music site. The band's web site is www.thdband.com and their myspace is www.myspace.com/thdtheband.
I am not on here to complain about how tough my life is or anything. I have loved playing keyboards since I could remember, but I really feel intimidated by all of this and could use soe guidance. I mean, I feel like it is a huge mountain to climb, figuring out what gear to use, programming all the custom sounds, creating my splits and putting them in order, learning the parts...trying to master this gear with a visual disability, damn you Korg and your touch screens.
Can anybody give me some advice, some tips, soe sounds, even, if you have them? If anybody knows somebody in teh NY/nJ area that is really great with keyboard stuff and midi who can help me get my head on straigth in this studio and with my band, I'll buy beer, pizza, I don't care, anything really. Or maybe I just need a new band with more realistic goals. If that's the case, ehy, if you can drive me around, I can play, just give me a few months or years to get metropolis down, OK?