Kanthos Posted June 18, 2012 Share Posted June 18, 2012 I'm not really a remixer (well, not yet), but I do a lot of live keyboard playing in rock/pop bands at a few churches in my town. I'm also running the keyboard session for a church music training day in October for all the churches in my town. To go along with the sessions, I've started a blog with all kinds of tips for keyboard players. There's only a few posts at the moment, but I'm adding at least one a week and have a big list of things I want to cover. Some of it's very beginner-oriented, topics like "Which keyboard should I buy" and "What should I prepare for an audition or rehearsal", but I'm also going to cover topics like how to gig with multiple keyboards, plus give an overview of the different sounds keyboard players use, stuff like B3 drawbar settings, effects choices for electric piano sounds, and so on. Even if you don't play keys in a band, you'll find some of the topics useful for remixing. Check it out if you're interested; topic suggestions are welcome! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meteo Xavier Posted June 18, 2012 Share Posted June 18, 2012 I spent $2,000 on lessons and I still can't play keyboard live... Can compose decently on the piano though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kanthos Posted June 18, 2012 Author Share Posted June 18, 2012 Piano lessons only help you play piano live, which isn't at all the same thing I'm not going to try and teach basic piano skills through a blog, and that's not really my interest anyway. But, if you've got decent piano chops but wouldn't know what to do sitting down with a band without sheet music, you'll hopefully find the blog useful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnappleMan Posted June 20, 2012 Share Posted June 20, 2012 Very cool idea. As a keyboardist I support this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikeaudio Posted June 20, 2012 Share Posted June 20, 2012 Very useful information, and actually information thats not talked about too much. You have my support as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noTuX Posted June 20, 2012 Share Posted June 20, 2012 I'm definitely interested in this. Thanks alot! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kanthos Posted June 20, 2012 Author Share Posted June 20, 2012 Excellent, I'm glad people are interested. Check it out, subscribe to updates, and if there's anything you want to hear about, give me feedback Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcana Posted June 29, 2012 Share Posted June 29, 2012 Excellent, I'm glad people are interested. Check it out, subscribe to updates, and if there's anything you want to hear about, give me feedback On one of your posts (about fingered chords) you write this: I’m not going to give a systematic course in how to play from a chord chart (look on youtube for more informal ones, or pay for lessons if you need a hands-on approach) Do you have any good YouTube videos you'd recommend? I think I'm a little bit below your target audience with respect to ability but I'd be curious to know if you have a particular video in mind here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kanthos Posted June 29, 2012 Author Share Posted June 29, 2012 I can't recommend anything off the top of my head. I seemed to remember the youtube user Experts Village having some good tips, but I just took a quick look and couldn't find what I remembered browsing through (that one user has over 100,000 videos uploaded, and 8,600 playlists). I was busy the last week, so I haven't recorded a few audio clips for that post yet, but I'm going to do that, and for a few others, this week, and I'm generally going to post audio examples of what I'm talking about, so that'll be a start. I learned by getting thrown into a band situation and having to figure it out myself, so I've never really spent much time looking at beginner videos. I'd suggest browsing youtube (or even doing a more exhaustive search through Experts Village) and finding a series that seems to work for you; if you find something worthwhile, I'd be happy to post it and credit you for finding it. And though I have no intention of doing a formal course, reading anything that I post that has sound examples will help you out too. It'll take a few more posts for it to fall into place, but I wouldn't be surprised if you could get a decent start just from reading my stuff, based on what's in my head, though looking elsewhere will help too, especially since you can find stuff that's already out there faster than I can create new content. I assume you have some level of piano skill and some knowledge of theory (enough that you could at least understand when I was talking about chords in that post, and what notes make them up); that's really all I'm assuming anyone reading my posts will have. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcana Posted June 30, 2012 Share Posted June 30, 2012 And though I have no intention of doing a formal course, reading anything that I post that has sound examples will help you out too. It'll take a few more posts for it to fall into place, but I wouldn't be surprised if you could get a decent start just from reading my stuff, based on what's in my head, though looking elsewhere will help too, especially since you can find stuff that's already out there faster than I can create new content.I assume you have some level of piano skill and some knowledge of theory (enough that you could at least understand when I was talking about chords in that post, and what notes make them up); that's really all I'm assuming anyone reading my posts will have. I think one difference is that I don't have a band situation to go into (and no logical segue into one) so I won't have the same "pressure" that you might have I'll take a browse through that archive you mentioned though. Yes, I do happen to have some theory knowledge but my piano skills have deteriorated. A lot of the muscle memory from piano didn't translate very well to the keyboard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kanthos Posted July 1, 2012 Author Share Posted July 1, 2012 I think one difference is that I don't have a band situation to go into (and no logical segue into one) so I won't have the same "pressure" that you might have I'll take a browse through that archive you mentioned though. Yes, I do happen to have some theory knowledge but my piano skills have deteriorated. A lot of the muscle memory from piano didn't translate very well to the keyboard. A lot of playing keyboards is more about style than technical ability. I actually have tendonitis, that I got when I was 16, and playing fast parts for too long aggravates it, but I get by as a keyboard player because much of what I do is playing pads, simple sustained synth chords that provide presence or ambiance underneath what everyone else is doing. You could try playing along with recordings on youtube as a way of getting used to playing in a band without really playing in a band. That and listening to what keyboard parts are being played on songs you like, trying to figure out what the original player did. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rozovian Posted July 1, 2012 Share Posted July 1, 2012 Props for this, I've been meaning to learn to play keyboards well enough to be a decent wild card in any church band I end up in. Gonna be reading this. I asked a year or so about a guide for keyboard sounds, specifically e-piano but the most common synth sounds wouldn't hurt either. Dunno to what extent you know the specifics of the Rhodes and the DX7s, but it's an idea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kanthos Posted July 1, 2012 Author Share Posted July 1, 2012 Props for this, I've been meaning to learn to play keyboards well enough to be a decent wild card in any church band I end up in. Gonna be reading this.I asked a year or so about a guide for keyboard sounds, specifically e-piano but the most common synth sounds wouldn't hurt either. Dunno to what extent you know the specifics of the Rhodes and the DX7s, but it's an idea. I've got a bunch of draft posts covering exactly that kind of thing: a discussion of a type of sound and how it can be used. Until I get around to more detail, the DX-7 is an FM synth (not sure about NI's FM8, but the predecessor, the FM7, could load DX-7 sysex patches). FM synthesis is great for creating the cheesy-pop-ballad electric piano sound; any modern workstation keyboard will have both standard Rhodes and Wurlitzer EP sounds and DX-7 sounds. The DX-7 EP sound is more suited for quieter parts, maybe with some chorus and reverb. The Rhodes (also the Wurlizer A-100 or A-200, the more common EP for rock), on the other hand, is really versatile because players started running them through effects pedals, the way guitar effects would be used. Some Rhodes models had built-in speakers with an autopan effect; autopan plus chorus and maybe reverb makes a good ballad Rhodes sound. As for playing technique, a lot of what works for piano works for EPs, though they're not as bright in the high range as a piano is, so I don't do as many higher melodic runs. I typically lay down a groove in the midrange or play longer chords a bit higher up the keyboard, not going much higher than C5. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnappleMan Posted July 2, 2012 Share Posted July 2, 2012 The best way to improve your keyboard playing is to simply do everything you can on keyboards as you work on a song. This means transcribing the song, arranging and performing the parts all on keys. You'll be sloppy and klunky at first, but it's not as dynamically dependent as an acoustic instrument so it'll sound good when you finally do get the take. Not only does that build your chops but even the most robotic live performance adds character to a song. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.