procrastination diagram

When I was younger, back in the upper Cretaceous, I somewhat desultorily took piano lessons, but also had a small stack of synthesizers. I've retained a theoretical interest in making music meanwhile, with occasional flashes of interest, but successfully putting it off as "another expensive hobby."

This began to crumble a little due to housemate-comrade joyp's band Soap Yourself's recording issues, reminded me of my small pile of hardware, most significantly the mixer. But that was nothing compared to newer housemate Yuki's KAOSSILATOR. A Kaossilator is kind of hard to describe adequately, but inadaquately it's a tiny looping synthesizer that you control with a touchpad. It's a blast to fiddle with, and I am told (and believe) that some people make fairly elaborate music with it, although I would prefer a keyboard... and I found myself strongly desiring one.

I expected this desire to fade with time, but it did not. I decided to make myself practice the piano, bought myself a copy of Hanon from Amazon, and promised myself that I was only allowed to throw money at the problem if I could make myself practice regularly (yes, I know that it's in the public domain and can be found on the net. It was worth the price to have a bound copy). Imagine my surprise when when I found myself looking forward to working on the exercises, and enjoying bending my fingers in new and repetitive ways.

So, given all that, it seems I need to figure out what I should be getting, and what the synthesizer/sampler market is like twenty years later. Summary of extended ruminations to follow.