Music 3

Here is another instalment in my useful but intermittent guide to Music. 

Today I deal with keyboards.

I recently repaired the pedal that goes with a Korg synthesiser keyboard. Hopefully when they plug it in they will be able to play as fast as they wish, because where there is just one pedal it is an accelerator, it makes the music go faster.

If you look at the average piano, there are two pedals because pianos also need a brake to slow the music down. Particularly lively pianos need two brakes and in this case the piano will have three pedals.

This piano, for example, has gone completely mad during the excitement of the Christmas service and fused all the lights. It has taken the combined pressure of the entire choir to corner it and bring it under control.

Now we move to the keys: These are really quite simple. You push the white keys to make the music come out. 

The black keys should never be pushed: They are only there for playing Jazz which should not be attempted as it leads to madness.

Some pianos (like the one above) have knobs you can pull. These are called stops, and you may need to pull several of them to bring the thing to a complete halt. Very large pianos (called Organs) can have hundreds of these knobs, which shows just how difficult they are to control.

In fact, Pianos come in lots of sizes. At Morris Dancing demonstrations you may see a man with a small piano around his neck. This does not concern you and can safely be ignored.