A thread for keyboard players

I've been playing piano since I was 4, achieved UK Oxford Board of Music grade 8 when I was 15, and naturally, when I read for my music degree, Piano was may main instrument, voice second, as I also achieved grade 7 tenor and grade 8 baritone - despite the fact I have a wide vocal range that spans from reasonable contrabass (low C) to contralto (not falsetto!) (high F-G), I am not altogether comfortable enough in my tenor range to sing, say, the Duke's aria from Rigoletto or "Nessun Dorma" - although I could, at a push.

Edited by Certif1ed - April 18 2008 at 06:57

Speaking of guitar players, I have done a lot of work with funk/jazz/RnB guitar players and they are so much more fun to work with than rock guitarists.

Funk guitarists tend to be much better team players and keep their volume even in the mix, and as an accompanist they tend to be a lot like keyboard players, adding nice melodic lines instead of big power chords that bury everybody.

Most really good funk guitarists can also deliver the screaming solo if neccessary, which is usually the only thing rock guitarists are good for.

Also funk/jazz guitarists tend to have a much better knowledge of chords such as 7ths, 9ths and chords with altered tones and extended harmonies. Older progressive rock guitarists such as Fripp, Howe, Akkerman and Manzenera tend to have a strong background in RnB/jazz, not just rock.

Edited by Easy Money - April 17 2008 at 11:23

I have around 2-3 years of experience with keyboards and 1 year with guitars. Lately I'm seldom playing but when I am, I am writing music or every once in a while, recording a cover song. I write music in a classical way with a bit of rock and prog song structures and time signatures (I sometimes do rhythms so bizarre that I can't even figure out the time signatures myself, though one was 23/8). The songs are instrumental.

My main influences are Rick Wakeman, Tomas Bodin, Classical composers like Mozart/Beethoven, and Final Fantasy music composer Nobuo Uematsu.

www.myspace.com/hernysmusica. If it's still in there, "Bel-2" shows most of my styles in less than 3 minutes, "Ardent Mistrust" is a 'Godspeed You Black Emperor-wannabe', and the Growing ups 1/2 prog rock tracks with many twists and turns, especially the 2nd one. Also of note (if i don't take it out) is the sample of the 10min Crime vs Crime and the 2nd video in my profile which is an incredibly silly song math frustration with "catchy in a bad way" choruses



Edited by Zitro - April 08 2008 at 08:19

sean wrote: kibble_alex wrote: sean wrote: Mourndark wrote: kibble_alex wrote: don't get me started on guitarists' attitude... late for practises, overdominating, always want f**king solos, always want to write songs, aparently keyboard players are NOT COOL in a band... it disgusts me Also the inability to read anything that isn't tabbed, and sometimes even then... I do have to remind mine occasionally that keyboards have their place, especially whenthe keys man is the only one who can sing, and I will be allowed out the front when I finish building my keytar! Luckily my band accepts the importance of the keys in the band , but I have had quite a bit of trouble with guitarists in the past. Oh my, haven't we all My first band, firstly, it was called "Triple Corpse Hammerblow" thanks to the guitarist, whose only goal was to be "metal" and so each song was nothing but guitar solos consisting of nothing but speed picking and tapping, and he couldn't even tune his guitar so it all sounded horrible.

Yeah, I've had the same experiences. Keyboard is a much more sophisticated and melodic instrument, which is why it is IMO a necessity in every band!

sean wrote: Mourndark wrote: kibble_alex wrote: don't get me started on guitarists' attitude... late for practises, overdominating, always want f**king solos, always want to write songs, aparently keyboard players are NOT COOL in a band... it disgusts me Also the inability to read anything that isn't tabbed, and sometimes even then... I do have to remind mine occasionally that keyboards have their place, especially whenthe keys man is the only one who can sing, and I will be allowed out the front when I finish building my keytar! Luckily my band accepts the importance of the keys in the band , but I have had quite a bit of trouble with guitarists in the past.

Oh my, haven't we all

kibble_alex wrote: don't get me started on guitarists' attitude... late for practises, overdominating, always want f**king solos, always want to write songs, aparently keyboard players are NOT COOL in a band... it disgusts me

Also the inability to read anything that isn't tabbed, and sometimes even then...

I do have to remind mine occasionally that keyboards have their place, especially whenthe keys man is the only one who can sing, and I will be allowed out the front when I finish building my keytar!

I studied classical piano as a kid, then switched to drums and percussion in high school + college.  Mostly keyboard percussion in college...  Started playing keys again in grad school (organ and analog-ish synths, some prepared piano)-- very non-technical, mostly droning textures, space noises, and percussive comping.  I haven't played keys in a band for a few years, but I still play a bit (mostly ambient modal om-rock kinda stuff).  Gear: Farfisa VIP233, Roland JP-8080, Blacet modular synth, Deagan vibraphone. 
Favorite keyboardists: Richard Wright, Herbie Hancock, Tim Blake, Klaus Schulze, Terry Riley

The Lackey wrote: Hi. I play keys, for about, holy crap, 27 years? Wow I never thought of it before. Started around age 10. I have a roland Rd-250, just noticed last night the "split" button doesn't work anymore...it's slowly falling apart, but it is, holy crap again, about 17 years old. I use the Bosendorfer 290 vst, Gerritan personal orchestra , just got Chris Hein guitars (which is a lot to learn), I also have an Alesis QSR module. Using Cubase for recording. I also have home made electronic drums (which I can barely play) hooked up to a ddrum4. I have some material up to listen to. http://music.download.com/dollarsign which is prog rock stuff, that needs a better drummer for sure. the 'guitars" are a piano pumped through a boss module with distortion. (keyboardists should be able to rock with distortion too!) and some "serious" stuff at: http://music.download.com/thelackey where you can hear a bit more of the Gerritan Personal Orchestra, which is a cool cheap(er) program for good sounds. I also do some satanic heavy metal, but I won't post that link

Wow, I imagine all those years have got you pretty good at the instrument as well. Have you experimented with any other instruments in your time The Lackey?

BaldJean wrote: piano, classical and jazz mostly. we have a real monster at home, a Bechstein D 280. wonderful instrument, but still nor completely payed for . the monster takes up a third of our living room space, and we have a huge living room.here a catalog photo of the monster; if I had a scanner here I would post a pic of our own

Lovely!!! Really nice, and I agree with the worth of space.

About Yamaha, they make really great upright pianos. We have many at the Birmingham Conservatory, and I must say they sound beautiful and have a nice action. As far as grands go though, I can safely say I have never used a Bechstein, but I will be looking out for one.