Hey Bill, I'm the guy who had the problem with learning reading sheet music and playing piano at the same time. Just checking in to say your advice really helped as I am getting much more familiar with it as an instrument first. follow up question, when you are absolutely ripping the keyboard solo in la de da, what are those two semi wheels that seem to make it sound as if you are bending the notes on a guitar?
pitch bend, and the other one. most keyboards have those 2 wheels. the pitch bend wheel is spring loaded and usually gives you a whole step either way (or you can set it different if u want) and the other wheel is not spring loaded, and does different things depending on the instrument but on many instruments it's vibrato. i mostly use it for vibrato, on that particular sound i have it for vibrato. but on many sounds i use it for filter cutoff ("wawa"). very useful, especially in getting your digital instrument to sound a bit more like something 'real'