As I hinted about a month ago, I have been fortunate enough to start an incredible relationship with Casio keyboards. I know what you’re thinking . . . “she’s about to shamelessly promote”, but this connection has blossomed into wonderful opportunities both off and ON stage and I’d love to share it with you.

For an artist, it is always about comfort with the “tools” we use to hone our craft. Playing piano is a particular challenge, either because not all clubs have one (or if they do it’s not in tune :0) or finding a reasonable traveling “keyboard” with good piano action and tone has been impossible. Initially, I was apprehensive of using a “keyboard”. Compared to the acoustic pianos I have played on all my life, I thought that the feel of the keyboard would be totally different – it was daunting. Luckily, I was completely wrong. Thanks to an introduction by my management (dba: direction by appointment) we reached out to Casio telling them of my plight. They responded by allowing me to try and now endorse their new Privia digital pianos.

I’ve got to tell you . . . these new Privia keyboards are amazing!  Each key is weighted and has the feel of a real piano. My fingers grip the keys, there is true substance to this instrument – I was so pleasantly surprised. Not to mention that it weighs less than 25 lbs! Now I can put my keys in a soft gig case and cart it around! I’ve been bringing it to rehearsals, writing sessions, recording sessions and it accompanied me in a move. I went from living in a house that had enough space for my baby grand piano to an apartment with limited space, and neighbors who might not enjoy all of my musical tastes LOL. This keyboard solved so many of my musical challenges.

It is so exciting being a Casio Artist (check out my artist page). This past September I was invited to their Beyond Sound event unveiling the newest cutting edge technology in keyboards. It was a terrific networking event and it was cool to get to see and handle new products before they were even on the market. Later that night I got a real treat when Karmin performed! They have a huge hit on the radio “Brokenhearted”, so catchy and fun it made my night!

More recently I was asked join Casio EMI at Smash Studios New York to introduce their latest Privia releases to the press. Along with fellow Casio Artist Kyle Morrison we demonstrated all of the new features of these new keyboards to a variety of different media outlets; from Greg Schmidt at the New York Times, Seth Porges, freelance writer for magazines from Popular Mechanics to FastCompany; Ali Heriyanto the ChipClick to Mark Licea at CNet.com. It was great being able to play these beautiful instruments for these people and talk about how I am able to benefit from them. I even got a compliment by Ali from ChipChick.com that she loved my song. I was flying that day – getting my hands on these brand new instruments, playing all day, and gushing about this piano that has definitely changed my musical world.

Stay tuned . . . next I’m headed out to the Casio EMI offices to have one of their engineers show me some cool tricks on my new keyboard. I’ll post a video diary to let you in on the secrets! You’ve gotta get your hands on one these!

See you soon,

~V

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