MIDI keyboards
Index
The musical creation concept at your fingertips: The MIDI Keyboard
Have you ever tried to start something, but you did not know how to do it? Let’s say we want to write a brand new musical composition. We have the idea, the concept, but we do not know where to start on.
Few years ago I was encouraged to write my own music. I used to ear Mozart's symphonies, and I always ended amazed about the mastery of such composers. One day I decided to buy some musical score sheets and to start writing music as Mozart did three hundred years ago. I took my keyboard and start to lead my ideas onto paper. The truth is that I did not even know what I was doing. Truly, I am not like Mozart. On these days, musicians are more dependent on tools to achieve such a master piece. So imagine how frustrated I was. I virtually spent days writing on those sheets without making anything.
The change showed up when my father bought our first computer. I researched on the internet in search for a tool to help on my musical compositions. After days of searching, I found software capable of play musical scores. This software used the MIDI protocol to store the data in MIDI files. I download the software and start working on my music. Even so, I had to write the music using my keyboard, but with some advantage, I could not listen what I was writing. One day a friend told me about some keyboard capable of play MIDI files. He discovered it on a musical performance led by a famous musician of our hometown. The musician used to play a wide range of music using just its keyboard; he used a floppy disk to load the MIDI data on the keyboard. I really wanted that keyboard. I had to start to save my money in order to buy a MIDI keyboard. When I acquired the MIDI keyboard, my life changed. My compositions took a different turn. Let me tell you why.
The MIDI keyboard behaves as a normal keyboard does. However, it receives or sends the MIDI signals either by a MIDI keyboard cable to the computer as well as using a storage device like a floppy disc. The main advantage of this system is its capability to send data as a sequencer to the computer where a host program may receive this data and transform it into something manageable. For example, a musical score. Another advantage of the MIDI keyboard is its MIDI keyboard controller that allows controlling many features as pitch bender, speed, volume and velocity. This controller usually comes as a pedal or just a switch on the keyboard panel.
Imagine how happy I was, taking into account, I was only 17 years old. Now, I’ve got a new MIDI keyboard with even more features.
Acquiring a MIDI keyboard, how much it costs?
MIDI keyboards are very cheap; you may acquire one of them only for just 110 dollars. Additional items come separately as the MIDI keyboard controller and the MIDI cable. Nevertheless, there are new keyboards that have a USB interface to connect with the computer. The USB cable is cheaper. Moreover, most computers of today have the USB interface.
