Introduce yourself...

[dancaputi]

Without getting too personal, let everyone know who you are. Give any details you feel comfortable telling but most important, give us a summary of your talents and areas of expertise.

(Yes, wa7bqb, you asked for this!)

I'll start:

From my ID you all know my name. That actually was my Yahoo ID from when this group was on Yahoo (?) and I never took the time to come up with anything more clever.

I'm mid aged family man living in a NY suburb. I work as a computer consultant developing software for PCs. I've been doing that for 20+ years. I have my own business but I've worked mostly full-time for the same client (Reuters) since the beginning. If anyone knows their Dealing-3000 foreign exchange system, that's pretty much my bread and butter for the past 10 years.

My wife wanted a piano for the living room and for the kids’ piano lessons. I talked her into the digital because of my interest in electronics and computers. Musically, I took some lessons as a kid, but I'm the type that wants instant gratification.

As a side hobby, I wrote a couple of midi programs and just recently wrote YAMplayer in collaboration with Midi Magic.

Well enough about me, what about you all?

[ericho]

OK here it go's

My Given name is Eric Houtteman.
A 1970 model
I live in belgium Europe 100 yeards from the seashore in the flemisch speaking part.

I'm a Diving Supervisor specialized in salvage, selfemployed
I work all over the world mostly for 8 weeks at a time to be followed by 4 weeks at home, giving me a lot of time for hobby's

I'm maried to the most beautiful women in the world, Mirjam, who is pregnand for 7 mnd now, so by the end of the year we'll have 2 lovely kids.

Hobby's:
I have an interest and collect antique diving helmets.
We "Mirjam & me" love motorbikes, when the wether is nice and my father has time to babysit were off playing with the bikes.

In 1980 I got hold of a little organ, it had an airpump in it and was like a suitecase.
In 1984 I got a pcm keyboard for my birthday (realistic) and took some pianolessons in the lokal music skool
This teather did not agree me playing on an electronic instument and demanded me to play a reed flute for a year first.
After 3 weeks I quit the piano lessons...I never quit playing.
Had several synths until I ended up with my beloved CVP208
above average player but can't read a note of music.
I make and play music for the fun only and only at home.
In 2005 I became a 'mega member' of the CVPUG ...LOL :-)

Kind regards

Eric

[Scubacpa]

I'm 51 years old and live in Connecticut in the United States. Our small town is about 1/2 way between Boston and New York.

I am a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) [equivilent to a Chartered Accountant accross the pond] and a Cerfified Valuation Anyalyst (CVA) [specialization in business valuations]. I am the managing partner of a CPA firm here in Connecticut.

I am married and have one son who just graduated from college.

My biggest passion is SCUBA diving. I share that with my wife. In fact we met while on a diving trip in Cozumel Mexico and got married a year later. We have been diving at just about every Carribean Island and many places in the South Pacific over the years.

I am an amateur Beatles historian. I have just about every book written about them. I collect Beatles bootlegs and have overy 1,000 of them. I can beat anyone at Beatles trivia.

Music: I took guitar lessons while very young. Put it aside to start a career and a family. Over the years I have dabled with guitar and piano and had a few "toy" type electric keyboards. I did some CD based lessons on a midi keyboard hooked up to a computer. For the last 20 years I've been saying that I would like to take real piano lessons when I retired and had more time. When my Son went to college 4 years ago I realized I had a little more time and needed something to distract me because I missed him so much. So I started taking lessons. I bought a Technics SX-PR51 digital piano and took two years of lessons with a classicaly trained teacher, and then stopped because I was not playing the kind of music I wanted to play (pop, rock etc). So I spent a year just exploring on my own and learning to play some of my favorites. This year I started up again with a teacher who teaches by chord systems, because I want to be able to play from fake books (lead sheets).

My Technics has been a good machine, but a few months ago I realized I wanted something that felt more like a real piano (when I take my lessons it is on an accoustic upright). So I started exploring and found that the Clavinova would be what I was looking for. I did a lot of reasearch and with the invaluable help of lots of people on this forum I picked the CVP-309PE.

[wa7bqb]

Great thread dancaputi! I didn't know that I asked for it, but its been very interesting reading about you all.

My music background started out back in the sixties in a music store. I operated an electronics repair facility in that store and was in that business for about 18 years. Then moved on to the gas utility. In the course of repairing things, I learned to play several instruments (band instruments, mainly). This was born out of the need to repair them, of course! I have been collecting sheet music since way back then, and I love to just pick up a book and play through from beginning to end. When arranger keyboards made their debut, I couldn't resist, because, quite frankly, I need all the help I can get!

Scubacpa -- Your diving background is very interesting. As part of my job at the utility, we work on microwave radio equipment. As such, we have to participate in "High Angle Rescue" training each year. Basically, the program requires us to rescue co-workers, and be rescued off the top of a 100 foot tower. The instructor, who works for Gravitec, is a huge scuba enthusiast. So during each of the break times we get filled with all his scuba related stories!

[ClavinovaGuy]

I'm 50 - just barely 2 weeks older than dirt. I have been in the computer software business for 32 years and am a systems architect for a software company. My youngest just went off to college this year, so it's been unusually quiet around the house.

On the music front, I plunked out my first tune on the piano at about the age of 4, took lessons for several years, and have been playing and writing by ear ever since. I can barely read music anymore, but about the only problem that has caused is in communicating with other musicians. I bought my first CVP back in '93, a CVP-83s I saw in a Yamaha store. I was smitten - I have no time for a band, but wanted to be able to add drums and other instruments to my music, and it was the perfect solution. I discovered this group back in late 2001, and it led to my purchase of a CVP-209 in February of '02. I have always found the group to be a tremendous source of information. About the same time, I discovered the magic of internet music collaboration - what a treat to be able to work with talented musicians from all over the globe.

I had quite a layoff from music over the summer, as we were up to our eyebrows in home remodeling. Now that those projects are winding down, I've finally gotten a chance to play a little. I thought I'd start with something familiar (to me) - this is a song I wrote back in '99 called "First Love". I had made a lousy recording of it years ago, and decided to re-do it. I'm waiting for vocals (a friend is going to sing it for me, as there are city ordinances prohibiting me from singing). This is just a rough mix of the instruments - Live! Grand Piano, a couple of string tracks, and some finger-drummin' using the Live! Std. Kit+P:

http://www.bradprestonmusic.com/Music/FL-Scratch2.mp3

Also, a bunch of the folks I cyberjam with decided to put together a CD to raise money for the hurricane relief effort. The CD's have been pressed, and should be available in about a week. One of my tunes is on it, and I play on a few others. Watch this space for further developments:

http://www.reliefcd.com

[tomz17]

Tom Zielinski

I am a second year PhD student in Optics at the University of Rochester. (think physics, lasers, lenses, telescopes, fiber optics... NOT prescribing glasses for people!) I have undergrad degrees in physics and computer science. I ran a computer company for a small while during the .com boom. (if anyone needs any website services, hosting, design, e-commerce, etc. let me know). I currently spend most of my time working on wavefront sensing and control for NASA's James Webb Space Telescope.

I happened upon this website while looking for a good deal on a Clavinova (I found a nice 209 for sale by Fred, and have stuck around the board since). I took piano lessons for about 10 years as a kid, and the clavinova has been a great motivator for getting back into the music world!

-Tom

[dbjorck]

Hi!

My name is Daniel Björck (full name Daniel Magnus Bennét Björck), I prefer to be called Danny in English. The surname is Swedish, as am I, and means birch tree. No, I'm not related to Björk, the Icelandic singer, nor Björn Borg the tennis player, nor Victor Borge. (These are the usual questions I get when I introduce myself abroad. Apart from once in Egypt where they kept calling me Mr Bunny - I guess they mixed up "Björck" and "Danny"="Bunny"). I'm 37, I think, and currently live in Denmark.

I started playing piano when I was about 7, and was immediately hooked. I begged for lessons, but we couldn't afford them, so I taught myself. When I was 13 I could finally get lessons, and also got my first Yamaha - a PS II I believe it was called. Over the 4 following years I got a PS 3, a PS 5s, a Portatone 6100, a DX7, a Tascam Portastudio, a CX5M Music Computer, and finally a CVP 3. I spent a lot of time arranging and recording orchestral pieces.

When I was 17 we moved to Hartford, Connecticut, where I started studying to Bachelor of Music, majoring in piano. However, 2 years later we had to move back to Sweden. While I was waiting to get into the local conservatory there in order to finish the studies, I got a part time job. However, with time the part time job grew to more than full time, and I was offered a position as programmer in a major international company. Since I had no official IT training (however lots of experience, including teaching computer science), that was too good an opportunity to waste so I gave up my plans to be a concert pianist and have instead worked with IT eversince, currently in the area of Data Warehousing (reporting).

In the 80's I saw a Yamaha grand piano with a diskette station, and was blown away. I really wanted it, but it was too expensive then. Last year I had a big bonus, and got to thinking about that one, and how I had missed arranging and recording (I had sold all of the electronic equipment). And that's how I found this forum while trying to find that piano, and also how I came to buy a 309GP, so I once again can enjoy both playing piano, and arranging and recording (mainly classical pieces). I also have a 12 year old student.

I have a home page at www.sitecenter.dk/dbjorck with pictures (especially of my lovely apartment which is my second passion; it is protected by the National Museum). And for all of those who want to, or need to know; today I have an itchy zit just above my willy.

Brgds

Danny

[Scubacpa]

Danny

I live just outside of Hartford CT. I see from your CV that you went to the Hart School of Music at Universtiy of Hartford. I also went to University of Harford but for a masters in taxation.

However I do know a number of people that went to Hart. While you were attending was there a professor named Ray (I forget his last name at the moment) who specialized in Jazz piano? He also wrote a great book on chord progessions.

[MikeinNC]

At least so far, it looks like I am the senior citizen in this group....just had my 70th birthday. My wife and I live in a small town in Northeastern North Carolina, close to the metropolitan Norfolk and Virginia Beach area and not very far from the Atlantic Ocean. I have been in the music business for much of my life, but as a trumpet player, teacher and conductor of school bands and orchestras. I have BA and MA degrees in music education and I attended the US Navy School of Music and was a Navy musician in the 1950's. My last job was as Senior Coordinator of the Music Education department in a fairly large school system. Finally, I am retired and we are able to sit in the sun, travel and enjoy hobbies and grandchildren. I have played in groups all of my life, but on trumpet and flugelhorn so I know lots of the old standard tunes. I understand chord structure but am really just learning to invert and be more logical about fingering patterns. I have studied lots of instruments but my keyboard training was pretty limited. For someone like me, the Clavinova is a real gem. If I owned a regular acoustic piano it would just serve as a piece of expensive furniture that I could plunk out a one hand melody on whereas I spend hours at a time being absolutely blown away with what is coming out of the Clavinova, a 207. This forum is a daily ritual for me. I never fail to learn something new.

[Jane]

I'm a little old widow lady (if you consider 5' 11-1/2" little ;) ) who used to teach yoga, is an NRA certified pistol instructor and competitive defensive pistol shooter (IDPA, etc. (http://www.idpa.com/) ), but have made my living in recently years mostly with computers - as a network administration instructor at a local business college (MCSE, CNA, etc.) and as a computer programmer: -> Jane's fine scoring software <- (http://www.beachbunnysoftware.com/idpa/)

I started piano at about age 12 on an old junky upright that my parents paid $35 for. It was formerly a player, but the player mechanics had been ripped out. Never made it out of John Thompson's Book 2. Then was sent to a "pop" music teacher, whose idea of popular music was "Easter Parade" and "Mississippi Mud" (and this just before the Beatles hit the States :rolleyes: )

What ignited me was hearing an outdoor performance of Rhapsody in Blue. I bought the music, and when my teacher said it was way too advanced for me stopped going to him and just worked on my own.

Then I was away from pianos for about 18 years - between school, living in India and Europe for 7 years and in Mexico for another 2... In my 30s my late husband bought me a piano, and I started teaching myself - getting incredibly valuable help from the books by Hofmann, Gieseking, and Lhevinne.

Got rid of the acoustic piano and bought a Yamaha in the mid-80s. This was the kind that syntesized the notes rather than using digital sampling. It sounded funky, but I could play with headphones at night.

Got a Clavinova in the early 90s (don't remember the model)... then the present CVP-207 about 3 years ago.
The Liszt on my webpage (http://webpages.charter.net/jane98/music.htm) was recorded with the CVP-207. The other recordings were with the previous Yamaha.

Jane

[wa7bqb]

Jane,

Your husband was a very fortunate man. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to your recordings ... especially "The Dance Of The Blessed Spirits," with the knowledge of the deeper meaning it has for you.

-Dale-

[Ian J. Evans]

Well, I may just be top of the class, or close, with regard to age...! I turned 75 last July. I'm probably close to the bottom when it comes to playing the piano.

I played accordian in my teens and early 20's; however, work, marriage and raising a family didn't leave time for the accordian. Frankly, I never seemed to get past a certain plateau as a soloist, I was not too accomplished. But, I did enjoy playing in an accordian band that did quite well.

Much later, my first wife died on Halloween in 1986, I was in a shopping mall that Xmas and wandered into a Yamaha music store. I guess I was feeling sorry for myself so I purchased a 'Mickey Mouse' non-midi keyboard with the thought that my past endeavours would make it easy for me to teach myself. After 3 months I gave up. A year later a met a young man who was playing in the restaurant where I was dining, we talked and he offered to give me some lessons. After a year of playing on his Bechstein 9 ft grand in his studio, I could no longer stand the aforementioned keyboard. I purchased a Yamaha CLP-300. that was in 1988.

I gave my youngest son the CLP in 2003 after purchasing my present CVP-209. Even after such a long time I am still struggling to play ( my lessons were very hit and miss during the period), but thoroughly enjoying the challenge. I am learning jazz voicings and it is fun.

Two years ago I joined a newly formed concert band in the percussion section, now I am in two concert bands and also play drum set in a swing band. I am in my second childhood and having a ball.

BTW, I remarried a lovely lady 12 years ago and she gives me lots of encouragement.

Ian Evans

[jcannaday3]

I think i fall somewhere in the middle of the age continuum being the same age as scubacpa. Been playing piano since age five and got a B.A. in music. Life long resident of Indiana with a few short stints, one in Wash. DC, and another in Cincinnatti, Ohio. Presently work at a Mental Health Hospital as a Psychiatric Social Worker (MSW).

My partner bought me my first CVP, and I've now had the 107, 207, 208 and now 307. You might say I"m a pretty loyal Clavinova fan.

I started making some "home grown" Christmas CD's for family and then got some requests to make specialty CD's for various organizations. Over the last few years that's grown pretty nicely. So far I think I've sold about 17,000 or 18,000 of them, all pretty much straight from the Clavinova.

I was working on one of the larger projects on my 207 and was having a heckuva time with polyphony drop outs. It was making me really concerned about getting a good recording, and the salesperson from my local dealership contacted Yamaha and they immediately directed him to replace my 207 with a 208 at no charge; another reason I'm such a loyal Yamaha fan. The customer service has been utterly incredible.

I've put a web site "www.johncannaday.com" which has some samples of what I do. Really have appreciate the resources on this web site. I wish I were more of a geek, but since that's not likely, it's sure nice to be around those of you with such great skill and intelligence of all things electronic.

[Jane]

Originally posted by wa7bqb
Jane,

Your husband was a very fortunate man. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to your recordings ... especially "The Dance Of The Blessed Spirits," with the knowledge of the deeper meaning it has for you.

-Dale- Thank you, Dale :)

Jane

[elliottpd]

My name is Pete Elliott, 50 yrs old, from Grand Rapids, Michigan. I have been a casual piano player all my life. Took piano lessons on the family spinet for 6 years as a child from a sweet retired lady that drove out to our family farm in the country every week. My parents gave me the old piano when I moved out (playing didn't take with my 2 older brothers), and I dragged it from home to home. In 1989 I sold the old piano for $100, as it was no longer possible to keep in tune, and I was moving again. Bought a 66-key Ensoniq synthesizer, which frustrated me to no end - due to the shorter keyboard. After 14 years of drifting away from playing, I bought a CVP305 last year. It has renewed my excitement in music and I have been playing regularly again! The realism of the piano sound never ceases to amaze me.
Pete

[goodoboy]

Hi!

My name is Paul White, I live in Hesperia California. I'm a young 61. A construction contractor. Took up the piano at 24.
The reason I started so late; I was told by my (well meaning) father I not to attempt to learn piano as left handed people were handicapped because most piano playing is in done using the the right hand. He played piano, I was given a guitar.

I know that advice sounds stupid but I poor advice it runs in my family?
My grand mother told my father when he was a boy, writer's were born not made.
He went on to win the Putitzer Prize for a newspaper artical
he wrote in 1924. Was a professional newspaper man his whole life. Wrote for magazines as well.

One of my first teachers, a professer of music by the name of Harry Liszt, a distant realtive of the late master. Turns out he's left handed. He laughed and laughed after I told him I wanted to learn piano but knew I'd never really be good at it as I was left handed.
I purchased a CVP 309 PE a few weeks ago. The piano is amazing. All the features, all the possibilities.
Lots to learn.

At present I'm really not interested in the recording and over dubbing features.
To be honest, I just enjoy playing, and playing the darn thing.
I'm partical to jazz, stride piano and boogie woogie so the piano sounds and the rhythms are enough for me. What a machine! What a piano! Over the years I've owned a C3 and C7 grand. The CVP 309 sounds just as good, if not better than both.
Have a great day,
Paul

[dbjorck]

Hi!

LOL - whenever I play Liszt I'm disappointed at how bad my left hand is! Being left handed is probably good for e.g. Liszt, Chopin, and Brahms. Talking about Boogie Woogie, as an exercise for learning some Bach pieces, I have my student playing Boogie.

Brgds

Danny

[sbilik]

My name is Scott Bilik (http://bilikfamily.com/about.html). I'm a 38 year old computer/electrical engineer, husband for 16 years to Michelle, and father of five beautiful children (http://bilikfamily.com/Pictures/2005/Aug/29/22.html) lving out in Milford, New Hampshire (http://bilikfamily.com/Pictures/2005/Oct/21/12.html). I bought our CVP-206 (http://bilikfamily.com/Pictures/2005/Apr/3/16.html) two years ago (http://bilikfamily.com/archives/2003/10/13/yamaha_clavinova_cvp_206.html). It's been a blast and the kids enjoy it too.

I got the Clavinova because I had several years of piano growing up but gave it up around high school. My parents never tuned the piano and I always felt like I never got to select the songs I'd like to learn. The Clav doesn't need tuning ;-) and allows me to mix my computer skills with my piano background. My oldest daughter (http://bilikfamily.com/Pictures/2005/May/15/8.html) plays now and I dabble with it a couple of times a week. My main piano work these days is doing recordings of her lesson songs with it to help her ear train and let her use the Guide function. She's coming along quickly in her lessons and I'm learning a lot about midi.

Lately I've been putting the songs I record online so that the extended family can hear the numbers my daughter is working on and get a feel for her progress. You can listen to some of them here (http://bilikfamily.com/Music/2005/?C=M;O=D).

[Carlo]

This is a nice thread to be consulted and updated from time to time.
I'm sorry I overlooked it when I entered the User Group in September 2005.

My name is Carlo Del Gracco (the surname is composed by the last two words, so in the United States I probably had better spell it as DelGracco, like DiCaprio or DeNiro...), born in Rome in 1955.
I got a degree in Physics in 1983, with major in High Energy Physics, and had the honour of being a student of Prof. Giorgio Salvini (founder of the National Laboratories in Frascati and, later on, Minister of Scientific Research) and of being declared physicist by Prof. Edoardo Amaldi (deceased in 1989), one of the "guys of Via Panisperna" of Enrico Fermi.
I'm fairly proud of my scientific education, regardless on the fact that life called me to take on different challenges.
In 1984, I was awarded a grant by ENIDATA, the software company of ENI (Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi, the major oil company in Italy) and, after a nine-month master course in computing, I became a computer scientist and was engaged as such: in short, I started a new professional career.
Then I travelled throughout Europe for five years as a knowledge engineer in research projects on artificial intelligence funded by the European Union. While working with other researchers, I learnt the languages of the visited countries (mainly English and French, although I liked a lot German and Dutch, too; my tries with Danish, Swedish and Modern Greek were too short to produce meaningful results).
After that, I was hired (probably, unavoidably...) by a large multi-national company, wherein I worked for several years in Aerospace and Telecommunication projects and acquired a deep experience in complex systems and business processes.
Two years ago, on the verge of my 50's, I founded, with some colleagues of mine, a small consulting firm.

During all that, music has always been for me an invariant "anchor-point".
Even if I started to study piano only at 18, I had always wanted to, but never dared to ask my parents, because there was no room for an upright piano in the living-room (same experience, anyone?). So, when there was a furniture reorganization at home, I finally laid my bet: now or never more!
My father was happy to satisfy my wish and hence I began to take regular private lessons from an old lady, who was really a very good teacher for me. I used to practise on a rented upright (a Hoffmann & Kuehne piano, good for starting, but fairly modest on an absolute scale).
I took lessons regularly for five years, then I had to stop to conclude my Physics studies (first encounter with priority problems in my life!), but, in December 1985, with the money saved in my first job, I gave away, after ten
years, the old Hoffmann & Kuehne and got a magnificent Schimmel, still upright, but equipped with Renner mechanics and endowed with a much finer and richer sound.
Then I continued to study alone, but with the systematic method I had learnt from my teacher, and, although my leisure time was always too little, I made slow, but constant progress.
In parallel, I would have a deep passion for classical music, both operatic and instrumental, nurtured by a fairly large collection of records (vinyl ones and CD's), along with a regular attendance to opera performances and concert
events.
In 2005 I discovered the digital piano and fell in love with the Yamaha CVP.
Therefore I celebrated my 50 years by buying first a CVP-305 that I use only in summertime in my alpine house, and, a few months later, a CVP-307 for the rest of the year in the Roman house. The latter, of course, has replaced, after a twenty years' honourable service, the glorious Schimmel of my youth.
Then I discovered the User Group, thanks to which I have learnt really a lot during my first year of CVP usage, and to which I hope to be able to give some contribution based on my (modest) musical abilities.

A warm greeting to everybody!

[Carlitin]

Hay all of you. My name is Carlos de Bernard, I am 64 years old.I am a Dr. Phatology and start to play piano at 5 o 6 year old. but stop when I was study Medicine. From the begining I have a traditional piano but came old, so I try with electronic pianos .......not good at all. so... Yamaha start to make good hardwares and got the CVP 95. much better. I chage for new models until the CVP 309 PE. Perfect!!!!. I like to play all type of music from Clasical to Jazz, this is one of my hobbys and the other one is the photography. I live in Panama, CentralAmerica ( remember Panama Canal?). Is good to stay with you all the days and see how inportant is the music when try to show your self. CONTINUE!!!! THE LIFE IS BEAUTIFULL !!!! :D

[bob909]

I think this introduce yourself thread is an excellent idea! My name is Bob Lento, and yes my last name means "slow" in Italian, but I'm anything but slow -- if anything I go 60 mph all the time! I'm 42 years old and live in the pacific northwest -- Washington state. I'm quitting my dysfunctional job booking travel for government agencies and in a leap of faith I'm opening a piano studio and will be teaching piano full time. I hope to have 40 students eventually, but right now before I quit my job I'm starting slow. I decided to buy a cvp 307 as it is a perfect instrument for teaching piano and I'm amazed to see what it will do to make playing more excting for the students.

I also use the cvp 307 to sequence accompaniment tracks for my men's ensemble called "His Song". We are a contemporary christian men's ensemble that sings all over town at various functions and events. I am also a part time worship leader at a small country church of about 100 people and have been using the clavinova to make tracks for that also. I download the finished tracks to my ipod and then plug it into the system at church. It works really great but is kind of funny. The clavinova would be the perfect keyboard for our church and I'm trying to get one approved for purchase there. I've really enjoyed this site and everyone has been friendly and helpful.

Thanks and God Bless,

Bob L.