The Story Behind Keyboard Capers
To how Keyboard Capers came about...
I would like to introduce myself and tell you how I set up a Keyboard User Group for Wiltshire, England.
As a child I took an interest in the piano that my Father used to play. And I had a Grandfather - Ivanhoe Lancelot Keeping - who could play 21 instruments. He formed a trio with Violet Carson and went on and became one of the founders of the Black and White Minstrels Show. Over the years of growing up, it was my Grandfather who taught me to play, Classical, London songs and Musicals, all by ear. Then my Mother decided that I should go to Piano lessons, where this Teacher started me on Three Blind Mice, and I gave up. As time went on I got married and had two sons, and my eldest son, I put through Piano lessons, and he went on to form a group and played two keyboards, and this group got well known in Swindon, Wiltshire, and ended up playing on the Zebrugge and Rotterdam ferries.
In 1992, I was bought my first Keyboard as an xmas present, so I decided to buy myself a book and taught myself music. I don’t think that was a good idea for me, as I seemed to have lost my ear playing now. Over the years I upgraded the Technic keyboards, and now I have the KN6000, yet though this instrument has more realistic sounds, I would go back and prefer my KN2000.
However, after upgrading on these instruments, I now have the knowledge of what they can all do.
It was the challenge for me to discover and get to the bottom of ALL the things that each of those KNs that I owned could do, because I am driven to know how everything works - the need to conquer and understand the technology: It is the same as with this computer, where I will not be happy until I have the knowledge of setting up our own web site, instead of using MSN.
Because these Keyboards are so expensive, they are nice to sit down and play, and I found that getting into the sequencer, composer, sound edits, etc: you can go on to make your music sound even better. This practical knowledge was invaluable for when I had the opportunity to work in a music shop. This made me realise that there must be a lot of people out there that purchase these keyboards and once they have them out of the shops, they did not seem to have the after service.
I was invited to a Venue at Newbury race course, where I was introduced to the KN6000, and while I was there I met some lovely people, and also this gentleman that was telling me that he played round his local pubs, but did not know anything about the functions of his KN5000. I invited him and his wife to my home, where I showed him some of the things that he could do, and now we spend about an hour a week on the phone, where I tell him what buttons to press.
This made me consider whether a keyboard group was needed locally, so this is where my idea of setting up a group for our area came about. I advertised through my local newspaper, on Radio, and in the Tech-Plus mag here in the UK.
At the time I thought I had a big enough house that I could accommodate these meetings. However, after receiving seven phone calls, all of whom indicated a good level of interest in meeting up with like-minded people, I had to telephone round for a Venue. I came across a Community Centre, which is not far from me, and we were offered fortnightly evenings. It took some time to settle people in, and I drew up a list of what they would like to do. I had many telephone calls after that, where more people wanted to join, and I said that when we have reached 20 members I would form a Committee. We now have in excess of 30 members and a committee of 5 persons who between us run things.
We intend to expand this particular concept of Keyboard groups across the U.K. primarily for the benefit of Keyboard Owners everywhere. And we anticipate affiliating keyboard clubs to "Keyboard Capers" and provide specific benefits for them to do so. However, that is all in the future and in the meantime we hope our guidelines " 10 essential ingredients" are useful and perhaps it will give a feel for the kind of thinking that will go into the whole concept.
You see 'we don't sell people keyboards - we help each other learn to play them.'
Yours musically
| Midge (Keyboardcapers) | (c) 2001 |