ORGAN & KEYBOARD CAVALCADE SEPTEMBER 2016 PAGE 7

Yamaha Xperts On Tour

Following on from the very successful Xperts On Tour programme earlier in the year, Yamaha are now embarking on stage two of the tour, introducing new topics, hints and tips to Yamaha keyboard players and enthusiasts.

On the 14th July, the first Xperts On Tour Stage 2 event took place at the Wroxton House Hotel in Banbury.

Forty keen players were informed and entertained by Yamaha Brand Ambassadors Ian House and Jackie Marsden on a variety of topics covering Yamaha Tyros and S Series keyboards. The topics are designed to help you get the most from your keyboard and to demonstrate how simple and yet versatile these instruments are.

The day finished with a useful Q&A session to answer any questions or topics which weren’t covered in the training followed by an impromptu performance by Ian and Jackie.

The reception from attendees has been incredibly positive with one guest even stating that they had learnt more in one day than they had in 20 years of owning Yamaha keyboards.

The most commonly asked question at the end of the day was,

“when is the next event?”.Well the good news is that full tour details have now been released so Xperts will be travelling to a location near you:

Breve Music (Stage 2) - 31st August Peterborough: 01733 313598Allegro Music (Stage 2) - 1st SeptemberChelmsford: 01245 283527Rimmers Music (Stage 2) - 5th SeptemberBolton: 01204 526623Dawsons Music (Stage 1) - 6th SeptemberChester: 01244 348606Roger’s Music (Stage 2) - 7th SeptemberNottingham: 0115 979 5919Key Player (Stage 2) 13th SeptemberEdinburgh: 0131 556 3005Music Unlimited (Stage 2) 27th SeptemberExeter: 01392 251846Pianoroom (Stage 1) 28th SeptemberPortsmouth: 023 9286 3792Bonners Music (Stage 2) 29th SeptemberEastbourne: 01323 639335Musicland (Stage 1) 30th SeptemberBromley: 020 8698 7300Musicroom (Stage 1) 4th OctoberLincoln: 01522 537141Fair Deal Music (Stage 1) 5th OctoberBirmingham: 0121 643 1685Stage 1 and stage 2 will cover completely different topics so

if you attended the previous tour in February/March which was completely Stage 1, then you will be able to attend a Stage 2 event to learn completely new skills. You can also attend a stage 2 event without having been to stage 1 as there is very little crossover in the topics covered.

Lunch will be provided on the day and you will receive a very useful information pack covering all the details of the topics covered to take away with you.

Spaces are limited so be sure to contact your nearest venue to guarantee a place.

BRIAN SHARP MEMORIAL CONCERT

This special concert, to celebrate the Life of the Legendary Organist Brian Sharp, will be performed by Howard Beaumont and David Ingley, both of whom had the pleasure of performing with Brian on many occasions. Jean Martyn and Byron Jones will also be making guest appearances.

The concert will be held at the Mercure Kidderminster hotel (Bewdley) at 8pm on Monday 26th September. Tickets cost £10 each with all proceeds donated to the Deanesly Centre Trust Fund at New Cross Hospital, Wolverhampton. For further details or to purchase tickets contact George Ingley on Tel: 01384 274500.

STILL TIME TO TREAT YOURSELF to a SUPER SEPTEMBER SEACROFT BREAK

As we went to press there are still a few places left for this September’s festival, some categories are sold-out but we still have a few options to ensure a comfortable stay in the newly refurbished chalets.

Take a look at the full programme in the centre pages of this issue and we are sure you will agree this is one fabulous hobby holiday you shouldn’t miss. Just phone 01780-782093 to bag one of the last places.

PAGE 8 SEPTEMBER 2016 ORGAN & KEYBOARD CAVALCADE

2017 SPRING FESTIVALS FILLING UP FASTWith our new upmarket hotel venue at Blackpool

and the ongoing refurbishment programme at Seacroft, both our spring festivals offer the ultimate mix of classy, comfortable, great value accommodations, tasty food, traditional seaside locations and our wonderful, unmatchable musical programme of events. We still have many, many more artists to confirm, but here is a taster of the fabulous names that have confirmed so far –

Seacroft Spring Spectacular (31st March-7th April) – Brett Wales – Chiho Sunamoto – Ian Griffin - Chris Powell – Jon Smith - Tony Stace – Nicholas Martin - Andrew Nix - Elizabeth Harrison - Peter Hayward - David Harrild – Ian House – Peter Shaw – Chris Jones - Daniel Watt – and many, many more TBC

Blackpool Extravaganza (7th-11th May) - Byron Jones - Tim Flint - Howard Beaumont – John Bowdler – Chiho Sunamoto – Jon Smith - Kevin Morgan – Top International Lowrey artist TBC – Nicholas Martin – David Harrild – Ian House – Tony Stace plus the Team and many more.

Our friends at Musicland have been busy developing their well established TRX range and we are pleased to bring Cavacadians details on their latest additions and upgrades -

NEW TRX MINI PLUS 970 ORGAN SYSTEM – Key Points

The new model has double the one touch registrations of the previous TRX Mini!

This means the TRX Mini Plus will have 320 registrations in total.

There's also a new, very smart, white stand option with matching gas bench, which looks great. This is a limited edition with only a few available.

The satin black finish remains as standard. Price £3799.00

NEW HOME “DELUX” SPEAKER SYSTEM An addition to the TRX speaker range, these

new speakers replace the previous Delux system, they feature 10" higher quality sub speakers and the high quality driver system used in TRX’s luxury 2.1 Dolby set-up! The cabinets will be the same height as the previous version, but they are now deeper, in order to house the 10" sub speaker. Musicland claim this provides “ improved sound quality with added warmth”, from the larger depth of cabinet. The speakers are paired with a compact digital D G amplifier. These will be on display at Seacroft, do have a listen as

NEW ADDITIONS TO THE TRX LINE UP

TRX claim they really bring a new dimension to your own set-up.Price £ TBA – Target: £999.00.

NEW TRX ELITE SOFTWARE FOR YAMAHA PSRS970 KEYBOARD

This software package features the new one touch registrations as installed in the TRX MINI system. Tyros owners demand for TRX software has been so high, they have decided to also create special software for use in the S970 keyboard. The new Elite sofware should be available to order from September. Price £299.00

NEW TRX ELITE FOR CVP 609 & 709 & GPFeaturing most of the registrations as found in

the TRX software for Tyros. A total of over 600 One-touch registrations. TRX claim this turns the CVP models into the most powerful keyboards we have today. Price £299.00

TRX TYROS LARGE MUSIC REST This is now available in either a white or

black finish. Dimensions are - 4" wider, 2" higher than a standard music rest. Your single sheets of music no longer fall or bend over the top of music desk! You can also spread more books across the rest. The TRX team have also fitted four small music stays to the front lip of the stand, to help hold pages open. The rest fits direct into Tyros existing holes or into Yamaha club Perspex extensions. Price £69.95 + p&p.

FESTIVAL NEWS

ORGAN & KEYBOARD CAVALCADE SEPTEMBER 2016 PAGE 9

Korg Support with Luke Edwards Changing the local (or temporary) split point

on the KORG pa4x

You can choose a different point where the keyboard is split into an Upper and a Lower part. This is called the split point.

Change the local (or temporary) split point from the control panel 1 Keep the SPLIT button pressed to open the Split Point dialog.

2 Play the lowest note of the Upper (right hand) part on the keyboard.Change the local (or temporary) split point from the display 1 While in the Main page, touch the Split tab to see the Split pane.

2 Touch the keyboard diagram in the display, then play the lowest note of the Upper (right) part on the keyboard. As an alternative, touch the Split Point parameter to select it, and use the VALUE controls to select

O.K.C. PRODUCT SUPPORT SPECIAL

If you can’t make the week (and we hope you can), Sunday September the 25th will be our open day at the Seacroft holiday village, in Hemsby, Norfolk.

You can enjoy a great day out by the seaside, with a programme packed full with top name artists ready to entertain you, including Byron Jones, Tony Stace, Chiho Sunamoto, Jon Smith, Peter Hayward, Nigel Boy Syer and Dirkjan Ranzijn.

There is also a host of exciting new products being unveiled. In alpha order – you will be able to browse the latest range of mighty Bohm Organs, get expert help and advice (plus some mega-deals) on the Korg range including their amazing new flagship Pa4x. Allen’s Music Centre will be displaying the latest range of Lowrey organs including the new EZ Portable and the Lowrey Journey. They will also be the unveiling another all-new model, don’t miss it. Melotones will be on hand with a huge range of very special musical gifts for all occasions. Orla/Ringway have become well known for offering excellent value for money, so we are all looking forward to seeing the all-new Ringway flagship the RS1000e, be one of the first to see, hear and try out this exciting new organ. Musicland have become famous for their TRX systems that turn Yamaha’s superb high range keyboard’s into a compact, but powerful organ. The team

SEACROFT OPEN DAY

continue to develop their range and will be unveileing a host of new models including the TRX Mini Super Elite Edition, new TRX Elite software, new “Home Delux” speakers system and the latest TRX CVP 609/709 Elite package. This September the Yamaha Team have excelled themselves with an amazing support programme throughout the week (which is why it’s always best to stay rather than just pop in for the day!), and you will have chance to try out and compare the very latest range of Yamaha instruments including the mighty Tyros 5.

Tickets are only £15 per person to include all exhibitions and entertainment on the Sunday (sorry there is no entrance on any other day) and they are available to pre-

purchase only (no availability on the day) as the centre’s licensing/insurance agreement means they need to know any non-residents on centre.

the new split point. When you change the split point, the Global parameter is automatically deselected.

Memorize the local split point The local split point can be memorized into a Keyboard Set. There is

a single local split point for all the Keyboard Sets associated to a Style or SongBook Entry.

▪ Write the changes to a Keyboard Set Changing the global split point

The global split point is both the general setting you use when there is no ‘local’ split, and a ‘template’ from which to start setting the various local split points saved into the Keyboard Sets. You can change it and use it as the main split point of the instrument. Some Keyboard Sets might override the global split point with their memorized local split points.

Change the global split point 1 Go to the Global > Mode Preferences > Style page. As an alternative, keep the SHIFT button pressed and press the STYLE

PLAY button to open the Style page.

2 Touch the keyboard diagram in the display, then play the lowest note of the Upper (right hand) part on the keyboard. As an alternative, touch the Split Point parameter to select it, and use the VALUE controls to select the new split point.

3 Press the EXIT button to return to the previous page

PAGE 10 SEPTEMBER 2016 ORGAN & KEYBOARD CAVALCADE

This month we are going to look at a fantastic feature on all Tyros keyboards, current PSR -S series and CVP Clavinova. The FREEZE button!

Freeze is a versatile feature as it does what the name says and allows us to freeze various functions on the keyboard from changing when using Registration Memory or OTS. For those of you who used to play Electone, this is a supercharged D button (disable). The factory default setting sets the Freeze to stop the Style, tempo and Left Hand (LH) voice from changing.

However, did you know you can easily change what the Freeze button actually affects? To change, simply press Direct Access followed by the Freeze button and then a list of options will appear in the screen which can be amended by ticking or un-ticking. For example if you have the Pedal box ticked within this function and then press the Freeze button to activate it, the pedal functions will not change even when selecting a different registration memory button. One thing to be aware of is that the Style box within the Freeze options also controls the LH voice and status(on, off, volume etc)

As I've said above, activating Freeze on the Style part with also freeze the LH voice. So, lets imagine you have a set of registrations that you love but want to be able to use with a different Style and tempo but want to keep all the sounds in every part exactly the same.

QUICK TIP : - Copy any Style onto a USB stick- Rename (e.g. for an experiment call it TEST)

- Press the Memory button and make sure Tempo is unticked (remember to put the tick back in when you want to make a normal bank of registrations)

Yamaha's Top Tips - from Jackie Mardsden

- Make your bank of Registrations

- Save the bank of Registrations

- Take out the USB stick- Finally, select the Style you want to use, select tempo and off you go

This is a really useful function for all sorts of playing but especially so for those of you who play for dancing. Have fun playing with this and looking forward to next months article.

O.K.C. PRODUCT SUPPORT SPECIAL

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