New Keyboard Available

The Church’s General Music Committee has announced that a portable three-octave keyboard is now available through Church distribution centers.

The keyboard, which sells for $35, has full-size keys that produce either organ or piano sound. It operates on four C-size batteries or with an AC/DC adapter (available separately).

“Virtually all of the hymns in the hymnbook can be played on this keyboard,” reports Michael F. Moody, chairman of the General Music Committee. “We anticipate that this new instrument will be especially appreciated in areas where a piano or organ is not easily accessible.”

There is a worldwide Church policy that the piano and organ are the standard instruments to be used during sacrament meetings, Brother Moody noted. However, in some areas those instruments are not available, and members have been unable to learn the skills necessary to play these instruments.

“We looked for an available instrument that would accommodate this simple need, but we couldn’t find one on the market,” Brother Moody explained. The new keyboard was developed especially for the Church by a Taiwan manufacturer.

Although the keyboard was designed primarily as a practice instrument for members’ homes, it can also be used at Church meetings where no piano or organ is available.

The new keyboard is only one available resource. A basic music training course includes a beginning piano book with sixty standard hymns for the budding pianist to practice. Hymn arrangements in the book can also be used to accompany congregational singing, Brother Moody said. An audiotape is also available, on which the accompaniments for these same sixty hymns are played.

In addition to the new portable three-octave keyboard, a larger keyboard currently available through Church distribution centers for meetinghouse purchase will continue to be available.