by Willard Crawford
(Llano, California)
Five years ago, I purchased a new Yamaha Clavinova model 307. It was one of the best investments I've ever made, and I'm 74 years old. A Clavinova is an electronic piano that is much more than a piano. It not only has many different types of piano voices that can be called up instantly, it has tons of accompanying back up bands that can also be called up instantly. I call it a "piano keyboard on steroids."
There are several different models, and they aren't particularly inexpensive, but often you can find good used ones on Ebay. I started taking piano lessons in 1946 when I was nine years old, and continued taking them for three years. After three years, my mother finally tired of yelling at me to practice my piano lessons, so I stopped. Big mistake. In later years, I bought an old piano and played for my own enjoyment, but never took more lessons, or tried to improve my piano skills.
I became interested in the Clavinova during a demonstration at a local county fair,and a few weeks later, my lovely wife of 51 years talked me into buying one. Suddenly, playing the piano, and maybe more importantly, learning how to improve my piano playing ability, became much more interesting, and a lot of fun. In my early years of taking lessons, I never advanced to playing the chords. The Clavinova makes it easy to learn to play chords, because there is a section on the screen that displays what the chord is that you are playing, and even a "chord tutor" that helps you learn the various chords.
The Clavinova contains way to many attributes for me to discuss here, so if you would like an excellent sounding piano with the ability to improve your playing, teach you new piano skills, and provide you with beautiful sounding back-up bands, check out the Yamaha Clavinova. Willard Crawford. kart32@aol.com (P.S. I answer all email with questions, and "no, I don't work for Yamaha.)"