...a Very Good Year!

Jan 16, 2015

Hi Everyone,

I haven't blogged for a while but today I've been paying some thought to the last year and thought I would share a few thoughts. One of our new Members (who joined this week) comes from the same town as me and has a Technics Pro 90 in the garage! Which got me on the track of thinking how small a world it is, how technologically advanced we have become and also how such a widely diverse community such as ours has Members with so many things in common, despite our incredible geographic spread!

...such a Great Year

Here's some music for you to listen to whilst you read the blog :)

It Was a Very Good Year

80s and 90s

When we’re talking about the 80s and 90s we are usually referring either to the music from those eras or to a Rhythm Group on our keyboards. Today, however, I’m referring to a highly significant minority of our Members!

Our Technics keyboard website Members and visitors come from all walks of life and from all over the world. They also span all age groups and in this section my blog today I want to pay tribute to some of our older members.

One such Member, from Canada, is a venerable 97 years old, still playing and enjoying his keyboard. We can all hope to be so lucky someday.

We heard from a young lady of 93 this week who has been teaching up to 50 pupils per week until recently and is a former Technics Music Academy tutor. Still playing despite the challenges that come to us during old age. Absolutely astonishing!

I believe that music is a great healer and over the last year and whilst I'm primarily talking about an emotional and spiritual uplift that we can all gain from music, or the pure happiness we can feel when we practise a piece and get it (almost) correct, I've heard from many members who have gone through illnesses such as strokes who tell me that they have benefited in a physical way from resuming their keyboard playing. So, maybe music can and does heal us in more ways than we normally assume, ones that we haven’t necessarily considered.

When it comes to our octogenarian and nonagenarian Members, sometimes I’m contacted by their children for some help on their behalf, and let me tell you that those children are extremely proud of their musical parents, and sometimes I’m contacted directly by the Member who is rightly proud of their knowledge of the Internet!

I am always extremely delighted to hear from our older Members in particular, all of whom have vast life-experience and as such they have wonderful stories and knowledge to share that some of us younger guys can hardly imagine, they have a lot to teach us!

20s and 30s

Again, not a style of music! We have members ranging from the age of 16 and many of our younger visitors are discovering the brilliant sounds and features of Technics keyboard for the first time because they are affordable!

Many of the keyboards cost thousands of pounds when they were new but can now be purchased at a reasonable cost. When you compare them to alternative new models at the same cost you can get hold of an incredible Technics instrument for the same cost as a very basic (but new) learners keyboard. Some people would argue that basic learner keyboard are really not the most inspirational instruments for learners either!

So, we have many new younger members who are new to the Technics range. In Indonesia in particular the membership is generally in their 20s and 30s and they are creating some incredible modern sounds, bang up to date!

Most of you are between 30 and 80 of course and I can’t tell you how delighted I am that our Membership is about to top the 1000 mark with over 80,000 visits since the sites launched, less than a year ago! It is fantastic to see such a brilliant community building from a trickle to this level so quickly and increasing daily. Inspirational!

Thanks to the wonders of the Internet and in particular the Analytics tools that Google provides I know that at any point of the day or night there are usually about ten or twelve people actively reading the site at any point in time and I can literally see that increasing on a daily basis. Amazing.

Technics Keyboard Repairs

By and large Technics instruments are highly reliable. That is a well-known fact and it is obvious because there is still a huge second hand market in the keyboards a long time after Technics discontinued manufacturing them.

Of course, from time to time things are going to go wrong and repairs are going to be necessary.

We are starting to hear from a few talented Engineers who enjoy working on Technics instruments and I’ll be really pleased to hear from more. It would be great to have one ro two Engineers in each country so that Members can feel secure that they can get their keyboards fixed if needed.

Technics Repair Engineers who are interested in this sort of work should get in touch using the contact form.

Technics Keyboard Manuals

Manuals are one of the raison d’etre of our websites. Many sites used to have lots of information about Technics keyboards, if you wanted to find something out you could quite easily find a suitable site for your instrument and they would probably have a copy of the manual too.

Over the years many of these sites have disappeared along with their resources. So it seemed important to build an accessible site on the Internet where people could get hold of the manuals (and this has proven to be the case for many people as the feedback shows).

Super-Member John Dawson told me of a brilliant tip a few days ago. When you’re reading your Technics keyboard manual there are often references to other pages, so, we end up flicking back and forth to find the information we want.

Instead, John has two copies of the manual! What an excellent and straightforward idea. When you are referred to another page you can simply refer to your second manual so that you don’t lose your original place. What an eminently sensible way to go about things, I wish I had thought of it before!

Extending that to thinking about computer use made me realise that I can do virtually the same thing on the computer by opening the manual twice and switching between the two. Funny how a simple idea can be such a revelation sometimes.

The Best Tip I Can Give You

When I got my keyboard (second hand off Ebay) I made about a 200 mile round trip to pick it up. I tried it out for an hour before taking it as the seller didn’t mind and said he enjoyed listening it it, he wasn't a keyboard player.

My keyboard is a KN7000 and other than a couple of demos online I had never heard one before the day I bought it. However, having owned so many different Technics keyboards before I had complete faith that I would like it.

I didn't just like it, it blew me away! The 100 miles home were some of the longest of my life. KN7000 wrapped in a blanket on the back seat and I couldn't wait to play it more.

In fact, when I got home I did just what I always do with any new device. Yes, I played it for a couple of hours to start. Then, I learned from the manual how to set some MIDI files playing on it and I settled down with a cup of coffee to listen to it whilst I read the manual!

My children think I’m nuts but I always read the instructions of anything new from cover to cover and the KN7000 manual was no exception. Now, this didn’t make me an expert and naturally I couldn't remember everything but by reading the whole manual it made me aware of what the instrument can do, even if I then had to go back and learn more.

In many ways of course, the manual is just the starting point. As I don’t get a lot of time with my keyboard I tend to play it rather than explore features when the chance arises. So, some of the functions were a mystery to me for several years until something or other would prompt me to investigate a feature further.

To do that, the manual is always the first starting point but quite often I need a bit more information. The Techplus Magazine and the Internet are my next ports of call. Many years (issues) of the Techplus Magazine are available from Strawberry Music and the articles in them are a treasure trove for all Technics keyboards.

Edit September 2015 - These are now also available in our Technics Keyboards Bookshop

Primarily though, as I say, the best tip I can give you is to read the manual from cover to cover. It will inspire you to try out new features and it will give you the background information on all the things your keyboard can do. Possibly things you didn't even realise!

Best wishes,
Mike

Mike (Admin)

I started playing Technics instruments in my early teens and I've owned several models of their organs and keyboards. As a former professional organist and keyboard player I have played most of the models that I haven't owned, so I'm pretty familiar with most Technics organs and keyboards.