I am a 64 year old HGV driver only recently back into playing keyboards. I worked for 20 years at British Telecom where I developed RSI from their cost-cutting computer keyboards. I was on loan from my own office to one some 40 miles away, and was saving up the mileage allowance to buy a Korg M1 to use at church when my arms went bad. I contented myself with looking after the pa desk at church, and was at a pa conference some 23 years later and got talking with a keyboardist who said that playing in a worship band setting was now quite simple, just doing Pad sound block chords to fill out the sound.

After finding that the weighted keys on my wife’s piano still knackered my hands, I bought a Yamaha MX61, which is effectively a ROM player. I love it, and have found some programming software which opens the keyboard right up. It also came with Cubase Ai which makes it way better than the old M1, but for a fraction of the cost! I quickly found that simple block chords was not enough - I like to use sounds like an artist would use a pallet of colours, and have invested in a number of VSTs, but with the MX61 architecture I found switching between sounds was cumbersome.

I am very thankful for meeting Derek on the Yamaha Musicians forum, and he introduced me to Cantabile, and think that it is incredible. It has also emphasised how much music tech has come on since my enforced lay-off, and I have loads and loads to learn, and am loving every minute of it.