For the record: Piano music was forbidden in my house growing up. The radio was changed whenever a piano came on the classical station. I learned the oboe. "An ill wind that nobody blows good" as WC Fields put it. I traded my oboe for a Roland RS-505 when I was 17. It was not a good synth, but fuckin' A it was a synth. I'd still like a decent piano but I don't want to move with one right now. Every now and then I putz around and pretend I'm going to learn; the fact that I have the chops of a noodler that picked it up at 17 is a deep embarrassment for me. My mother bought a piano as soon as I moved out. Of course.
If I ever get my hands on a synth that can record loops, I'm quitting life and becoming Bon Iver. Not that one doesn't exist, I'm just too broke to even want to find out what it would cost me. My friend has a $600 Gaia and it probably sucks but he drools over it all day long. Last thing before I pass out on my laptop, in case you ever put yourself to task on it: If you ever feel like getting back on (key)board, try studying your circle of fifths and corresponding the paper to the keys, by playing the starting (root) note, the corresponding triad, and then the scale. Not so you can play the scale, but so that you can memorize how to navigate the keyboard just by picking any key. That's all you need to create your own music, and fuck around with your keyboard. Instead of trying to learn a song, I challenge you to study and learn these three things, with time, and the circle of fifths as your guide. 1) What a key (major and minor), a chord (the triad), and a scale (including the tone of any interval– a third, a fifth, etc. between the root and the given note in your scale)– actually mean. 2) How a major and (harmonic) minor scale looks, and how you can write one out (or play it!) just by being given the key, i.e. the root note. This will teach you how to be able to play the piano, i.e. make something up on the spot, by maneuvering around using the notes of your given key's scale. 3) How to handle the influx of groupies all up on your stuff once you tear up some funky-funk on that synth. This also works for strings!