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I've been studying this unrecognized synthesizer demonstrator for a Korean based company and taking a few notes on his playing style. I am curious to see what you guys can point out about his technique and musicianship. What are some positive observations of his technique? Any flaws? What can you describe he is able to do (e.g sight reading, etc.) And what guesses can you make about his training? I really aspire to be like this guy, so I want to point out the key details in order to perfect them in practicing and development. I've added links below of him playing some classical repertoire on synths and stuff in the spoiler below
Last edited by Mark122; 05/04/20 08:11 PM.
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I only had patience to listen to a few moments of his playing.
On the positive side, he usually hits the correct notes and he has some agility.
On the critical side, his hands are very stiff. He hits the notes in a very mechanical, pounding way. I hear zero musicality. There are no dynamics, no expression, no agogics. Listening is painful.
To be blunt, IMO, he is either a beginner or just plain terrible. I hope you will reassess your goal to play like him.
Best regards,
Deborah
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I totally agree with Deborah.
There does seem to be some technical facility and agility but any of these excerpts need much more than that. Moreover, these excerpts are just that; there is no sense of any structure to what is being played because not enough of any piece is being played to hear if the performer has any sense of structure. But, I hear no musical line or phrasing evident in this playing, no expression, no sense of dynamics; in short, no "musicality" for whatever that might mean in your or my vocabulary.
Surely there are many better examples to aspire to.
Regards,
BruceD - - - - - Estonia 190
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I think the commenters above are being really harsh.
This part especially is just not true "He is either a beginner or just plain terrible". He's evidently not a beginner (unless your definition of someone who is a beginner is being able to play fantasie impromptu, rhythmically correct and up to tempo but missing dynamics, which are probably explained by playing on a cheap keyboard), and he's evidently not plain terrible. However what I would say from looking at only a few of the videos is that in Campanella his right hand looked really tense, in other pieces without massive jumps and stretches he seemed a bit more relaxed.
I agree the dynamics aren't great, but I'd also say these are 10 year old videos on cheap keyboards. Have you got any videos of him playing on high end digital pianos or an acoustic?
Otherwise, where I am in agreement with previous posters, I'd say you should look to emulate someone else's technique and playing rather than his.
Last edited by WTM; 05/05/20 08:26 AM.
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I don't have any current videos, these were all they posted for him
He seems to be more of a technical guy
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It looks like he is demonstrating keyboards on the youtube clip on the internet. He goes through different sounds and effects of the keyboards. It does not sound like he is a pianist or trying to demonstrate technique. It appears he is more skilled with keyboards and there effects. Do you actually understand what he is talking about on the videos and for what reason are posting here? I do not think most of us speak korean so it would help if you explain what he is trying to say in the videos.
Last edited by Moo :); 05/05/20 04:50 PM.
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It looks like he is demonstrating keyboards on the youtube clip on the internet. He goes through different sounds and effects of the keyboards. It does not sound like he is a pianist or trying to demonstrate technique. It appears he is more skilled with keyboards and there effects. Do you actually understand what he is talking about on the videos and for what reason are posting here? I do not think most of us speak korean so it would help if you explain what he is trying to say in the videos. I realize he is demonstrating the synthesizers and the effects of the keyboards, by no means did I mean to say he is trying to demonstrate technique in the videos produced. I'm also not focusing on what he is saying either... After viewing the videos, I came to the decision that I would like to be like this guy in terms of my playing style. I'm in favor of how he was able to approach various sounds using different pieces and repertoire. The links I attached in the video are just excerpts of him playing some classical repertoire in these demos. I was amazed that he was so skilled in the classical pieces he played and other improvisations in comparison to demos in general that I've seen lately. That's what led me to ask about what the forum community thinks about his technique and playing style, so that I can focus on what details to emulate and make sure I improve.
Last edited by Mark122; 05/05/20 05:10 PM.
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Hi Mark Learn how to play in a methodical way and you won’t need to emulate anyone. Go listen to concert pianists playing the same piece and you will hear a common framework but a lot of individuality. There is a thread here re a Chopin waltz, which illustrates this.
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I was amazed that he was so skilled in the classical pieces he played and other improvisations in comparison to demos in general that I've seen lately. That's what led me to ask about what the forum community thinks about his technique and playing style, so that I can focus on what details to emulate and make sure I improve. That person is kind of ok technically, but he is not particularly at ease playing these pieces and he does look quite tense. Why would you want to emulate his playing ? You will find plenty of videos of people playing with more technique and expression. If you want to take examples, might as well take someone that is playing really well.
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I was amazed that he was so skilled in the classical pieces he played and other improvisations in comparison to demos in general that I've seen lately. That's what led me to ask about what the forum community thinks about his technique and playing style, so that I can focus on what details to emulate and make sure I improve. That person is kind of ok technically, but he is not particularly at ease playing these pieces and he does look quite tense. Why would you want to emulate his playing ? You will find plenty of videos of people playing with more technique and expression. If you want to take examples, might as well take someone that is playing really well.
Best regards,
Deborah
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Alright I see, he is ok technical wise, but he is missing dynamics/expression, and seems a little tense. Thank you guys for the feedback, it was much appreciated!
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It would be interesting to hear him on a decent instrument.
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No singing quality on how he plays. It can be learned though if somebody shows him what to do. He has the agility.
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I was amazed that he was so skilled in the classical pieces he played and other improvisations in comparison to demos in general that I've seen lately. That's what led me to ask about what the forum community thinks about his technique and playing style, so that I can focus on what details to emulate and make sure I improve. That person is kind of ok technically, but he is not particularly at ease playing these pieces and he does look quite tense. Why would you want to emulate his playing ? You will find plenty of videos of people playing with more technique and expression. If you want to take examples, might as well take someone that is playing really well. Sidokar, I believe the OP does not know how to assess the quality of the pianist. That is why he asked us to assess. It is the same if you listen to a certain instrument that you are not familiar, it will not easy to assess the quality of the player.
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Sidokar,
I believe the OP does not know how to assess the quality of the pianist. That is why he asked us to assess. It is the same if you listen to a certain instrument that you are not familiar, it will not easy to assess the quality of the player. My question was not a question. I think the OP got the point and summed up his conclusion.
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I think the commenters above are being really harsh. I agree. This guy is obviously a consummate professional at what he does, viz. produce polished demonstrations of the features and capabilities of digital keyboards. But say what you will, he's also a remarkable keyboard player IMO, with advanced technical (in the narrow sense) skills. He's not what I would call a beginner according to any commonly accepted definition of that term. I think he's best when playing the non-classical stuff; I really liked the snippets of Scott Joplin, for example. I do agree that some of it is especially awful, e.g. the way he mangles the middle section of the Fantasie-Impromptu. And I suspect he wouldn't be able to perform complete renditions of the works he plays excerpts from--can he really get through all of La Campanella with that level of accuracy and at that tempo? However, having worked in keyboard retail sales, I can attest to how difficult it is to pull music out of the air and play it even tolerably well when demonstrating a particular instrument on the fly. But this guy can do that and do it exceptionally. Somewhere, somehow, he learned to play very difficult music, or at least bits of music, without wrong notes. So yes, he's had training and it has resulted in excellent technical facility. He is obviously not trying to "interpret" the music--at least I sure hope he's not!--because that is not his purpose. For that reason I don't think it makes sense to try to judge his "musicianship" based on the clips, except perhaps to say that he's actually rather good at eliminating expression from his playing to achieve his objectives. As I look back at other comments, I realize I've kind of repeated a lot of what's been said, just with a different emphasis. I would certainly echo those comments that suggest this is not piano playing one should aspire to as a model for classical music performance. However, you'd at least have a foundation for becoming a fairly accomplished pianist if you could simply play notes as well as this fellow. You would need to build on that foundation cumulatively to acquire genuine musicianship and artistry and to find your own expressive "voice". On the other hand, if you want to become a keyboard sales professional, this is definitely someone to emulate!
SRF
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