keyboard: always the supporting role?

[pikachu86]

Almost every band i see is either with vocalist or sometimes lead guitar playing the melody (and stealing the limelight?) while the keyboardist is relegated to playing the accompanyment, save for a few brief moments with solos. Till date i've never seen a band with keyboardist playing the main melody. (ok i only the Tornadoes' "telstar" on organ, but that was wayyy back in the 60s and i wasn't even born yet >"<)

But for myself I often play RH melody and LH accompanyment, and my LH is no longer as agile as last time. Furthermore now i'm spoilt by my digital piano's auto-accompanyment where i press one note and it plays the chord for me, with different varieties of genres to choose too so my RH is pretty much "free" to play melody.

Any comments?

 

[KeDraiv]

well, imo, i think that it's the norm for keyboard to play supporting role. it's easier getting chords out on the keyboard than on the guitar and also it's easier to do jump on the keyboards than on the guitars, so most bands uses their keyboardist for supporting role.

But, although keyboard is used as supporting role, their role, imo, is clearly a big one. one example would be nightwish, although there isn't a keyboard solo in their latest album, the keyboard is used to push the music forward, so yeah i think they're qutie impt.

however, keyboards, from what i know, are not always the supporting instrument. Just take a look at Dream Theater's keyboardist Jordan Rudess, he played a 4 min plus keyboard solo in the first movement of Octavarium, and then another solo in the 3rd movement. So i don't really think that keyboards are always the supporting role. Stratovarius is another band that uses keyboard solo.

imo, i think that using keyboards to play the main melody would be ineffective use of band members. As i mentioned earlier, the guitar has more constraints when it comes to chords and appergios, so using the keyboards to play melody and guitar to play accompaiment would be not very practical imo. although i've heard songs that uses keyboard for melodic purposes, such as starlight by muse, i think they're lyk a 1 off thing lah.

haha, hope what i said has smthg to do wif your post, LOL

 

[pf]

Playing in a band and playing with accompaniment at home is different. Cannot be compared.

The band mates adjust their playing as the go along. The keyboard can be the lead in the beginning and in the middle can be a guitar solo or vice versa. There can even parts with just drum and bass. Depends on how the band wants the arrangement to be. However, some songs are written in a manner that its guitar-driven. Arrangement sounds better if guitar is in the lead. Other songs are keyboard-driven, hence keyboard takes the lead. There are even songs which the bassist takes the lead.

In the accompaniment of keyboards, its just a loop, of course the keyboardist is the main role all the time. How to compare? And then again, one choose the desired patches to play on the keyboard. Don't see the link on your comment on the LH also...cause I play with both hands when I play with accompaniment on the keyboard.

 

[kdash]

as mentioned, the keyboard is not always in the supporting role, sometimes it does come to the forefront, or becomes the "driving force" of the song. it depends on the genre of music, and the arrangement of the song too. even in the same genre, different bands can have different instruments being the "main instrument", be it keys or guitar.

there's also such a thing as 1st keyboardist and 2nd keyboardist, in the case where there is more than 1 keyboardist in the band. the 1st keyboardist may be playing mostly the melody line and fill-ins, while the 2nd keyboardist may be playing more of chords and accompaniment. the keyboardists may switch roles for different songs, or even in the middle of a song.

 

[Jazzfish]

This may be a sweeping statement, but in a lot of 'good pro' bands the keyboardist is the musical director.

he is very involved in the musical arrangements, he is quite often the most studied amongst the rest.

if the keyboard is in the background that's just dependent on the genre of music. if u listen to keyboard albums obviously the guitarist only comes in to play a solo then disappears into doing soundscapes or rhythm.

but if ur a guitarcentric funk/rock/blues band then possibly he will do comping chord accompaniments etc.

 

[pikachu86]

thanks all for the replies; i have a better understanding now =)

 

[Cheez]

Another hopefully not a general sweeping statement - whether a keyboardist plays a minor or major role in a band depends on the skills of the keyboardist. This works for all musicians in a band. The arrangment of music and how the music is being played by a band depends a lot on the makeup and skills of the individual musicians. If you have a highly-skilled keyboardist in a band, it's very unlikely that 90% of the songs will have the keyboardist playing sustain pads. If a particular musician is skilled (be it keyboardist or guitarist or whatever), it's to the band's advantage to use that skill to bring the entire band's standard of music up.

 

[pf]

Yes. I agree with Cheez and Jazzfish.

If the keyboardist in the band is the music director/composer and is very good at the keyboard, the composition/arrangement would, most of the time incline, towards keyboards being the lead. They will know how to enhance the music in the band better with keyboards.

I think this is also the case in classical/orchastra music. (Maybe Cheez can confirm this to be true or not). I read somewhere that certain classical/orchastra composer who does composing on the piano will compose music which is more playable on the piano. As the knowledge of the composer is limited on the other instruments, the composition might be more difficult to be played on those instruments as compared to on the piano.

 

[Cheez]

A composer who's worth his or her salt will write and arrange parts for other instruments that's playable. He/she must understand in detail the different instruments which parts are being written.

 

[subversion]

Till date i've never seen a band with keyboardist playing the main melody. (ok i only the Tornadoes' "telstar" on organ, but that was wayyy back in the 60s and i wasn't even born yet >"<)

Any comments?

you should listen to NIACIN...

 

[pf]

And also Jon Cleary and the Absolute Monster Gentlemen!

They rock the house down.

http://www.joncleary.com/av/index.htm

 

[[vogue]angel]

wow, Niacin. I really love them. power of Hammond B3
how bout marvin gaye and Van "Piano Man" Walls? heard of them?

 

[RudimentalDrummer]

Sub, yes I have a DVD (someone gave it to me) - Is Niacin the name of the KeyBoardists (there in the pics you posted 3 person - Dennis Chamber the Drummer, then there is a very good Bassists using Yamaha Bass and that KeyBoardists) - They were playing in Japan and it's Fusion - wow.www all 3 are Killer Musicians.

 

[lester_music]

it depends on how the band want it to be...

here are some bands....keys are the main...Keiko Matsui....Jerry Lee Lewis...Elton John...Billy Joel...

so it all depends really...