Hey you! The Keyboard player!
Printed From: Progarchives.com
Category: Other music related lounges
Forum Name: Music and Musicians Exchange
Forum Description: Talk with and get feedback from other musicians on the site
URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=17125
Printed Date: November 27 2024 at 03:48
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Topic: Hey you! The Keyboard player!
Posted By: hey_timj
Subject: Hey you! The Keyboard player!
Date Posted: January 07 2006 at 23:03
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I just started playing/getting into keyboards. All I have now is a Rhodes
Piano. I know absolutely no one who plays keyboard so I naturally thought of the prog people on this website. Are there any great ass pieces of advice you could lend me? I'm beginning the long, arduous road to buying a Minimoog Voyager. Tell me what you think of all this. -timj |
Replies:
Posted By: BigHairyMonster
Date Posted: January 08 2006 at 08:25
Congratulations and welcome to the wonderful world of keyboards!
Exactly what the world needs, more keyboardists and fewer guitarists.
 You said that you just started keyboards, but you didn't say whether you just started with music as a whole...so I don't know how familiar you are with music theory, if at all. As Rick Wakeman once said, "you are only as good as your vocabulary" so what you should do is learn the basics of theory as a start. You could always play "by ear", but wouldn't it be better to know what you are doing? A quick and dirty way to get up to speed would be to do one (or a combination) of the following: 1. Find a piano teacher and take lessons. 2. Pick up one of those Piano For Dummies, Music Theory For Dummies or similar book and devour it. 3. Get a beginner keyboard that has a few basic functions, but includes a teaching or lesson function. Several of the inexpensive (less than $400.00) keyboards by Yamaha and Casio have features such as teaching mode, light up "follow the key" modes, etc., which can help you learn. Once you have an instrument and a guide (be it a teacher, book, or automated), it is time to practice! Can you spend 30-60 minutes a day with your instrument? Practice...practice...practice! Get to where you understand your scales, modes, and chords (and inversions) Once you are familiar with music theory and can read music, I would suggest finding a copy of a book which (iirc) is called Hannon Exercises For The Virtuoso Pianist or similar title. These are a series of scale/fingering exercises to develop dexterity in both hands. Lastly, while a Voyager is way cool, are you sure this is what you want? I have only played one once, but I believe that the Voyager is monophonic like the original MiniMoog. This means that only one note sounds at a time, hence no chords. Plus, a Voyager runs around $2600 to $3000. For that kind of money you could get a very nice Korg, Roland, Kurzweil, or Nord synth which are polyphonic and expandable. If you are set in the idea of getting an analog sounding lead synth like the Moog, check out the Korg MS-2000B. At $750, it is a lot cheaper than the Moog. It is not as fat sounding, but very close. Plus it has 4-note capability, delay (does the Voyager have a delay?), and a way cool vocoder! Have fun and remember: PRACTICE! ------------- Big Hairy Monster's debut CD "View" coming soon! www.bighairymonster.com |
Posted By: BePinkTheater
Date Posted: January 08 2006 at 12:01
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Deffintly understand music first. And the keyboard will help you with that. Everytime you play a scale, or read through chord changes, ect. Think to yourself," why? why does this sound good/bad. Why is this sequence of notes so appealing. Is it the natural 6? possibly..." but learn to understand the intervalic difference in the mode systems. Pratice improving in all modes. Learn from experience what makes cool chord changes."OK I love the change in this song where it goes from the Cmajor to the Eflat major. Why?" you have to learn these things through practice. Learn why a negative b3rd movement is so powerful. Stuff liek that. ------------- I can strangle a canary in a tin can and it would be really original, but that wouldn't save it from sounding like utter sh*t. -Stone Beard |
Posted By: hey_timj
Date Posted: January 08 2006 at 12:45
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Guys-
Thanks a ton for the info. I guess I forgot to mention I've already played electric bass guitar for five years so I'm pretty fluent in music theory. Not exactly like a pianist would be, with the classical elements, but my ear is pretty good by now and I can pick out songs easily. At least, more easily than I could when I started playing bass. I'm really trying to avoid learning how to read music, though. That may be a drawback. I never learned how to read for bass guitar, but I'm pretty good at that, so I'm confident it can be done on keyboards as well. The main reason I want a Voyager is development of sound electrically. I have been reading up on the CV outputs and LFO destinations and all the beauty of analog sound creation. I guess the real reason why I wanted to get into keyboards was because it's the only instrument where the player decides exactly what it sounds like. I did just take a look at the Korg MS2000B. It does look pretty dope. I just know one day that I will want to have a Voyager. Two years ago, when I had no intention of ever playing keyboards, I saw the Voyager and said, "Damn. I wish I played keyboards!" Here I am. My Rhodes is bad ass but I believe synths represent the pinnacle of human achievement. PS An inversion is just when you switch around the triad notes right? Like 1-3-5 goes to 3-5-1 and then 5-1-3? Correct? |
Posted By: Rosescar
Date Posted: January 08 2006 at 13:24
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That's correct yes. If you don't want to learn to read notes, the very least you should be able to is reconstruct a chord from just the letter notation. |