Keyboard Music

A happy and friendly group of mixed abilities playing music on digital keyboards.

Scout & Guide HQ
1st, 3rd and 5th Monday of the month
1.30 pm - 4.00 pm
  • Leader:  Anne Belcher:  Tel 01704 809410
  • Digital Music advisor:  Dave Woods

Dave Woods – our Technical Adviser – holds ‘work­shop’ sessions dealing with ‘getting to know what the buttons do’ covering various models: Yamaha, Roland, Kong, etc. Open to all u3a members.

We have a few vacancies at our friendly meetings for players who can play a little or a lot. Unfortunately we cannot take beginners. Why not come along with or without your keyboard to see if you might like to join us.

Last Updated on July 6, 2022

Keyboard Open Day

After having a peek at Dee’s career in the recent magazine we are eager to know more, so she has agreed to bring along some pictorial exhibits of her musical life including a short video.

We are making this an excuse to have a fun day without keyboards just cakes, chat and bubbly. We realise that other U3A members may wish to meet Dee, so you are invited to drop in and raise a glass to Dee Sheard to thank her for the 14 years of dedication to our Keyboard Music group.

Watch a video made for Dee’s 80th birthday in 2011 to celebrate her life with music.

https://youtu.be/PDZaMYDaULA

Last Updated on April 18, 2019

Keyboard Gallery

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A fine performance from Pat and Dee

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Deep concentration during practice

Click on the movie to see the group in action.

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Phil Sanderson celebrating U3A’s 5th anniversary in style

Keyboard

Digital Keyboard Music group celebrating their 10th Anniversary

 

Last Updated on March 27, 2019

Where’s my piano?

We downsized several years ago,
Decided our piano would have to go.
It was a Bechstein, one of the best
But it sounded like a honky tonk from the far Wild West.
The music stool and the music went too.
I sold my musical traumas – I’d had more than a few!
I had less than fond memories of teachers that shout.
My musical evenings were over and out.

But where’s my piano? I wanted it back.
OK. It was old. The white notes had gone black.
There’s nowhere to put photos and candles any more
And those wooden elephants are stuck on the floor.
Ouch! I’ve tripped over them again. There’s a lump on my head.
They’ve got to go somewhere, maybe out in the shed.
Joking apart, there’s a space in my heart.
I’d been too impulsive, trying to make a new start.

So I tripped along to the keyboard store
And had a tour which left me more
Confused by a hundred keyboards all shapes and sizes,
Pianos dressed in smart disguises.
Touch a note, a whole orchestra plays.
Is that what I want? I’m trapped in a daze.
And there’s no room for the elephants on a Yamaha top.
They’ll have to emigrate to the Oxfam shop.

There’s an ad in the paper. It’s just down the road.
A keyboard for sale £40.  I’ll be blowed!”
Still in the box, pristine but I bet
There’s no orchestra. Well what do you get
For £40? I wonder how it sounds.

I went along to U3A
With my second hand keyboard, just feeling my way.
My new toy did fantastic things.
So clever and light! Such pleasure it brings.
But……at the Keyboard Group there were magnificent things.
Tyros 3 and Tyros 4,
They sound like bulls without the gore.
I raise my cape. Into battle!
I’ll show those Tyros 3 and 4.

And now my teacher’s Doreen or Dee.
She wouldn’t dare to shout at me
Because I’m scary now and tough
And playing just like Rachmaninuff!
Well, the keyboard does half the stuff.

Thanks Dee for all your kind advice.
The £1 coin a very small price
For the help we get and encouragement,
But the inspiration brings discontent.
I want to be creative, I want to be bold
But my fingers refuse to do as they’re told.
I fancy playing jazz to relive my youth.
Well, I never went to a jazz club to tell the truth!

We listen hard and practise scales,
Make progress like a bunch of snails.
We’ll never be Chopin or Charlie Kunz
But we still produce some damn good tunes.
And we all feel we’ve made a friend.
I hope our meetings never end.
Pat Morton

Dee is the leader of the Keyboard Group and I wrote this poem for her birthday. The poem tells its own story but I must add how much I enjoy being part of the group. I have made some good friends and learnt such a lot, although there is always so much more to learn. I benefit so much from the various groups I belong to and I am immensely grateful to the U3A for giving me these opportunities. Long may it continue to flourish!

Last Updated on April 15, 2018

Keyboard advice from Dee

The U3A is very much about sharing knowledge among members, and what better example than in the Digital Keyboard Music group.

Last Updated on February 9, 2022