Reviving the Keyboard Section!

[pianomankris]

Classical training 'can' help (if you get the correct teacher) in that it will give you a solid harmonic/theoretical grounding (irrespective of technique; a nicely placed m7add11 chord can be far more effective than a demisemiquaver run at times) , which makes comping far easier.

But jazz lessons can also help with this.

I'd say what makes the guys that have been mentioned good is interesting chord voicings, which, if you understand jazz/classical theory, are pretty simple.

Rick Wakeman is pretty good, but in comparison to classical pianists, technically, he isn't up there (e.g. i know for a fact that he can't play, for example, 'Scarbo'). Then again, he has great ideas and does great things with what he does know.

I could give some comping/chord advice if you want something to start off with - just let me know.

 

[Cheez]

Noinimod, don't give up yet. If we can compile a list of things that people are most interested in, next we can try to see if we can materialize that into video clips or midi files or anything (any suggestions...) to make instruction easier and more practical, rather than just "talk" (as Rork aptly pointed out).

Don't know how an innocent thread like this can turn into such a heated thing. I'm sweating already! Can we get back to the main topic?

 

[tim098]

rork u need to chill a little, and digi, YOU need to apologise for changing rork's name in the quotes to cork. that was really not needed man..

By the way pf. I didnt recognise u until i realised u had changed ur display pic. heh.. was pretty used to seeing a (piano i think) beside the name pf.

Piano is my roots, although i stopped at grade 5. or 6.. now when im bored or feeling amazingly emotional i run to my piano and play the saddest tunes ever.

 

[RoRK]

rork u need to chill a little, ... .

I'm very chilled.

Cheez is very hardworking and sincere with his workings. I thought I could share something to make things better. But someone took the initiative to totally distort what I had written and to make a mockery of the entire thread,

RoRK

 

[Cheez]

OK. Digihub removed all his previous postings. Let's start off again...on the right page this time.

 

[pf]

Hi tim!

Yeah, changed my avatar to connect more with the headbangers of soft. heehee....

Realised that there are a lot of talented people who plays other instruments AND the keyboard. Perhaps its not too happening here and they are posting more in the other sections.

 

[pf]

Right! Chord voicings! Pretty neat to sound different from other people when you play the same song just by using different voicings!

I shall add that to my noobie FAQ.

I'd say what makes the guys that have been mentioned good is interesting chord voicings, which, if you understand jazz/classical theory, are pretty simple.

 

[Cheez]

Here's a suggestion. If video is difficult, the alternative is to have a piano view that is triggered by midi. There are a few freeware out there that I can find:

vanBasco's Karaoke Player Windows
MIDI Display

The second-link is not too good - it appears that the keyboard view is not the entire 88-key keyboard. First one may be better.

The idea is that we can record our playing via midi (one track only please - piano sound or epiano sound). Download the free software. Play the midi file and we can "see" the person playing via the midi-triggered piano view.

What do you think this method as a way of learning?

Are there any similar freeware out there that does this?

 

[DoubleBlade]

I use chord voicings when jamming with a band to sound different from the "every-chord-first-note-must-be-root-note" kind of keyboardist.

Nothing wrong about playing every first note of a chord as a root note but just doing something different.

 

[pianomankris]

Amen to that, 'Doubleblade'.

Voicings can make a huge difference.
Here is an example of one. Play the V chord over the I chord (preferably in middle/high register)- then you will be playing a major 9 chord (sounds best in 2nd inversion). The I is usually voiced as R 5 3 (stretching up to the 3) in the bass.
So, I + V = Imajor9

-Adds some colour to the sound. There are simple rules like this for all chord shapes (m11, 7#9 etc etc)

But - if you use them too often, it can get a little 'thick and mushy' sounding, since you may be using 5/6 notes of the scale for every chord.



In general, don't play notes too close together in the bass register - the lower in pitch you go, the closer together the frequencies between the notes are, so the more dissonance there is. Hence most basslines are octaves, or root/fifth (or the 3rd is placed above the R 5 structure).

Hence with debussy there are note clusters in the high register and they sound fine - C to D 3 octaves above middle C is, in frequency terms, about the same distance as a perfect 5th in the bass. This is why there is no dissonance, even though the notes are beside each other. (an octave is double the frequency, so the further up you go, the further apart the notes become. Vice versa for the bass).

 

[pf]

Eureka! No wonder everybody always go R/5th in the bass most of the time.

In general, don't play notes too close together in the bass register - the lower in pitch you go, the closer together the frequencies between the notes are, so the more dissonance there is. Hence most basslines are octaves, or root/fifth (or the 3rd is placed above the R 5 structure).

 

[pianomankris]

hahaha

It was a Eureka moment for me also

These are the kind of issues i used to make my composition tutor go mad at

 

[zerosoul79]

cool

fwahh u guys think deep deep one leh.. In a gd way i mean.. haven learnt lots reading the posts so far.. keep it coming.. any chance of a soft keyboardists gathering heh?

 

[pianomankris]

'any chance of a soft keyboardists gathering heh? ' - could be difficult - that would involve about an 11-hour flight for me hahaha

Or i could set sail for the next 6 weeks

Wish me luck

hahaha

 

[pf]

I think James will organise the soft gathering with a keyboard theme. But we just have to wait a while.

zerosoul79, if you have questions, please post here as well.

 

[Cheez]

In today's internet age, we should be able to collaborate live despite the distance. I'm not in Singapore either (at least not at the moment). Easy for guitarists to get together - a guitar is relatively portable. Keyboards aren't.

I realise that there are free internet jamming software out there that allows for live jamming. Problem is that most of them streams sound wav which could cause an amount of latency. For us keyboardists, we really only need midi streaming. If somebody can find a software that allows for live midi jamming/collaboration, we can have a session - live.

 

[Cheez]

Will this work?

eJamming AUDiiO | Home

 

[a beautiful world]

Hi there Noinimod, if I'm not wrong, Jordan Rudess is from Peabody, or one of the classical conservatories; could check wiki i suppose...actually if you check out on Youtube there are some of his tutorials posted, they're pretty useful, and easy enough to understand (though following is another thing), but if you really want to be as good as him, you probably need to go through at least some classical training too.

oh and hi Cheez, I think the trick to not overpedalling is to not use the pedal for a while. One of my teachers in the past (although this was for jazz) told me to stop using the pedal entirely for some time; then you'll start paying more attention as to where notes should fall and where you should hold them to achieve what you want to musically. After that, once you're more conscious of this, you can start using the pedal again -- I think you'll suddenly find yourself a lot more sparing with it.

My 2 cents worth.

 

[pf]

What do we do with this?

Will this work?

eJamming AUDiiO | Home

 

[Cheez]

We sign up, log on, and we can arrange a time when a session can be held in real time. I've not tried it. Perhaps a few of us should trial run it first to see if it works and how it actually works. Then see if we can start arranging live sessions.

Anybody tried it?