Musical Monday, Part 1 – Jan. 3, 2022

I have a couple of things to talk about re: music. Or, more specifically, my music. And my keyboards.

My dream keyboard would be a Yamaha Tyros5 with 76 keys. But THAT ain’t happening anytime soon, they’re very pricey, even if one can find them used. However, my 2nd choice would be a Yamaha PSR-SX900. Though it only has 61 keys – as does my PSR-S950 – It has other features that I really want. So I am saving up for one.

Saving up, for me, comes a dollar at a time. Every week we go to the bank and take out cash for our needs that week – groceries, gas, propane for Junior, our Friday fish dinner, and any other things we need. As Pete pays for each purchase any dollar bills he gets in change he gives to me. That’s my savings plan for the SX900. Plus anything I have that I may sell – which will include my electric ukulele and amp, a zoom podcasting mic, and a few other things I have laying around. They will all go toward my new keyboard.

The SX900 is a couple of models, and several years, newer than my current S950 which was already nearly 2 years old when I bought it new. Within months the next model came out but there weren’t a whole lot of changes between the two so it didn’t bother me much. Fast forward to 2019 and the SX900 was introduced, and it DID have enough upgrades and changes – including the 3 RH parts I had coveted ever since I gave up my 9000Pro years ago. For the first year I talked myself into “making do” with the S950, which is not exactly a hardship as it was a spectacular keyboard when it came out. Then a year or so later after watching videos about the SX900 I saw what it was capable of and what it would make ME capable of and I knew that I would have to find a way to get one. I’ve been saving up my dollars ever since and now am about 10% of the way there.

Meanwhile I learned of another very similar keyboard which is the Medeli AKX10. The online keyboard communities have been all abuzz for a year or better about this one, though I only heard of it more recently. I researched it and found so many people who claimed it would give Yamaha a run for its money, that it was BETTER than the SX900, and many people who claimed it was inferior in so many ways that it would be a waste of money and of course, most people claimed it was somewhere in-between. But it had almost every single feature I could want, it sounded very good, and it is about 1/3 the price of the SX900’s street price.

So I considered purchasing one of these and using it just until Yamaha came out with their successor to the SX900 – at least a couple more years according to predictions – during which time I could be saving for it and would be able to replace the AKX10 with that. The AKX10 is a huge step up from the S950 after all, and, among almost every other feature I want, it has 3 RH parts. Then I learned that it doesn’t have one of the features that I need: accompaniment based upon the full keyboard. THAT is a deal breaker.

My S950 has that feature but my other Yamaha keyboard – a PSR-EW410 which I use more often like a piano than an arranger, doesn’t. And though there are partial work-arounds, it’s not the same, and is frustrating to me. Frustrating enough to wait until I can save up an extra $1500 for the SX900? Yes. I plan to keep my EW410 either way as it has 76 keys which lets me play the piano arrangements I have played all of my life; it also has some of the fun styles and instruments and such that I enjoy, but not nearly as much as if it had that Full Keyboard accompaniment feature.

So that’s where I stand right now. I will start drawing on my retirement this spring, which would help me to save faster. In addition, I want to get our house in Houghton Lake sold; if I get off my duff and do that I’ll buy the SX900 with part of the proceeds. But little by little, I’m getting there!

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