Using a keyboard

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I got music in my blood, my father (who has aspergers too), used to be in a rock band, and even had the same singing teacher as Steven Tyler (and both went at around the same time too!)

But, while he likes guitars, I like keyboards. My keyboard is a Yamaha DX7, and I love the nice sounds it produces, it's soothing to my ears.

But, no matter how hard I try, I can't do over 2 notes at a time. My mind only allows me to play monophonic (1 note at a time)...

Any ideas on how to play better? I've tried reading, watching teaching videos, but I just can't processes more than one note.

Hmm -- I don't know if this feature is available on your keyboard, but I've seen how some keyboards can "record" keypresses and then play it back whilst one adds the "next monophonic layer" to the tune.

Take piano lessons.... seems you need work on fingering.

How about teaching yourself with a book and CD?

Do you mean you can't play chords or that you can't play seperate melodies using both hands at the same time?

I think the problem is with the coordination of your hands rather than an inability for your brain to musically handle more than note at the same time.

My advice:
Practice! Play! (As in being playful)
You won't get it right the first time, or the 10th. But what you need to do is find a way that works for you, not a way to read notes. (=A way that works for other people) Instead of focusing on reading a sheet, try just experimenting and see what happens. Just press random keys and see the result. Even if it doesn't appear to do anything at first, sooner or later you'll discover something.

Ok, that's kind of easy to remedy but it takes a long time. Here's what you do:

Start playing a dsimple little melody on your right hand, like Mary Had a Little Lamb or something. Now, play it over and over and while you do that continually tap one key (doesnt really matter which one - we're going for technique not sound) with the index finger each time you hit a note with your right hand. Just play the same bass note each time you hit a treble note. Basically your right hand is a metronome. Do that until you can easily play the melody and the one bass note several times in a row. Now, play the same thing but with 2 bass notes. Hit one key in the left side with your index finger and then hit the one next to it with your middle finger on the next note. Alternate back and forth between the two as you play. Keep doing this over and over again until you can play the melody on your right hand with 5 alternating bass notes on the left hand. It won't sound right at all, but it will train your fingers to work at the same time.

Now for the hard part. Start the process over again, but using different speeds on the hands. Play constant eigth notes on the left hand and the regular melody on the right. Instead of hitting the bass key each time you hit a treble key, hit the bass note twice per beat regardless or what the right hand is doing. Keep doing that until you can play a bunch of different speeds and use all 5 fingers of the left hand. This is a lot harder than it sounds and will take a long time to master, but it will allow you to develop a good co-ordination with both hands. After doing that and effectively "freeing" your hands, try to obtain some relatively easy pieces of music that use both hands so you can develop your skills and actually start making music.

Keep at it and you'll be pretty good in no time. Piano is really not that hard to play once you program your hands and brain to work in that sort of way. Classical guitar is a lot harder since you have 3 processes going on a the same time (bassline and melody on the left hand and fingerpicking pattern on the right), so if I can learn to do 3 things at once then surely you can learn to do 2.

ok, thanks, i'll give that a shot..