In a bit over a month, I've been asked to do a workshop and masterclass for the Symphony orchestra's trainee students. So, it will be on my specialisation of Early Music... and I'm really looking forward to working with ten of the younger generation and helping them come into contact with the ideas (and in particular, my ideas!) of Early Music and how it differs from pretty much everything that they have done in Classical Music so far! Actually, when the symphony orchestra was looking for people who would want to assist with the students... I immediately put up my hand, and I was actually a bit surprised that they accepted. I'm only with the Symphony when it doesn't clash with my "proper" music work... and this year, that means I don't really play that often.

But more to the point, I'm surprised because my views on music interpretation is somewhat different to the regular symphony orchestra. But they have been pretty accommodating with me, and I think that the leadership is open to different ideas... at least in the hope that more ideas and influences make for better rounded musicians! I do think the same thing, and that Early Music and "modern" Classical Music can inform each other instead always staring at each other across trench lines... often fighting straw men arguments within their own silos.

Anyway, the unusual line-up (unusual for a Baroque ensemble...) of student instruments means that I have to arrange a few parts to make it work. Oddly enough, with Early Music people... you are just expected to read a multitude of clefs and transpositions... but that sort of skill got lost somewhere in the intervening couple of centuries... and now, modern classical musicians are only able to read one (or two at most..) clefs and can't cope with transposition or improvisation in real time. We lost so much in becoming "a higher art form"... a wrong turn that I hope to play my own part in reversing.

So, transcribing the parts to different transpositions and clefs means that I finally get to toy around with this really cool M-Audio Keystation Mini! I asked around some electronic music nerd friends of mine earlier in the year... I wanted to replace the large and heavy Clavinova digital keyboard that I was using as a midi input device with something small and portable. Well, my wife also wanted to get rid of the large digital piano so that we wouldn't be chewing up even MORE room with instruments.

... and the recommendation was this Keystation mini! It is a cute little device with 2 and a half octaves of full sized weighted keys that connects to a computer via USB (albeit a pretty old fashioned form of USB... the venerable and rarely seen USB mini-A plug thankfully leading to a regular full USB end). It is pretty small and the case for it resembles a slightly longer version of the Steam Deck case that I lug around. It has octave transposition keys to be able to extend its range to a full piano range.

I found it was actually more accurate than the full sized digital piano... I can't really tell if it was the keys responding quicker, or if the USB interface was sampling faster than the old MIDI inputs. Either way, I found that I could "play" much quicker on this little keyboard than I could with the full sized keyboard. I remember that for that large one, I had to wait a little bit between keypresses to make sure that everything registered. For this little guy, I could just fly around and pretty much everything would register!

So, I have to say, this has been quite a pleasant evening of transcription and experimenting with the little keyboard. I love it... and I love that we have gotten rid of the large space-hogging digital piano! Definitely a great trade in... and the little keyboard wasn't that expensive either! As an added bonus, it is easy to take with me whilst travelling, which means that I can get some transcribing work done whilst away! A definite recommendation if you are looking for cheap, portable, and reliable Midi input device!

Anyway... I hope that the students will enjoy the workshop/masterclass! I have come across most of them already through the university or other places, so I think that they will already know what to expect from me!

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