WHAT PRICE, KEYBOARDS?
For some strange reason, keyboard players are getting a break. During the 70’s, the decade that the electronic keyboard emerged in rock music, the keyboard players who sought to compete with the guitar players for stage prominence had to pay a dear price for equipment.
WHAT PRICE, KEYBOARDS?
EXTENSION CHORDS
by
Allen Hester
For some strange reason, keyboard players are getting a break. During the 70’s, the decade that the electronic keyboard emerged in rock music, the keyboard players who sought to compete with the guitar players for stage prominence had to pay a dear price for equipment.
Consider for just a minute what it costs a musician to own a Hammond organ, a Yamaha electric grand piano or a Rhodes piano, an Arp Omni and a Clavinet: even at discount prices, we’re talking $10,000 minimum! And that doesn’t even include amplification! In contrast, what a guitar player has to invest in an amp, a couple good guitars, and some effects: maybe $5,000 at the outside (excluding, of course, the outrageous prices of “vintage” instruments!).
However, as the new decade dawns, there are some signs of hope on the keyboard horizon. It looks as though electronic keyboard manufacturers are devoting their research and development to less expensive, yet versatile instruments. Far be it from me to say why this is happening, ^xcept to speculate that those polyphonic-computerassisted-digital-dream-machines just didn’t sell like hotcakes at five grand a pop!