My Top 10 Keyboard Playing Tips

1 – Don’t let technology interfere with artistry and musicianship

Practice until you don’t have to think about the technical issues. Don’t think about which button to press when; know it (or have it writen down).

2 – Your ears are your greatest asset

Listen to your bandmates and fill the spaces where they aren’t playing. Don’t play melody lines when several instruments plus vocals already have other melodies. Don’t step on people’s toes; complement them. Keyboards can do almost anything; that doesn’t mean you should.

3 – Listen to anything that inspires you

Rock, pop and funk recordings from the 70′s will give you ideas for electric piano and B3 organ sounds. All kinds of music use synth leads or pads or various orchestral instruments, especially for solo parts, and piano is popular across most genres of music. Also pay attention to effects, especially on electric piano sounds – the choice of effects are a key part in the sound.

The more you listen to and absorb, the more you’ll be able to rely on when choosing sounds and choosing what parts to play.

4 – If you’re playing with a pianist, choose your sounds very carefully

Piano sounds are out; you don’t need two pianos. Don’t play melodic parts when the pianist does, and don’t play rhythmic parts when they do. You should be the more versatile player; compliment them, don’t try to do the same thing they are. If you’re not sure what they’ll do, stick to pads and organs and avoid electric piano (Rhodes, Wurlitzer) sounds.

5 – Get used to playing without written notes

Your second biggest asset as a keyboard player is creativity – you can play almost any sound and make it sound good. Don’t just use that creativity when choosing the sounds you’ll play; use it when making up your parts. You probably won’t see sheet music in most bands – if there is any, it’ll probably be written for a piano and might not be suited to the sounds you’ve chosen.

Use different voicings, alter chords, even replace chords with ones that compliment the rest of the band. Take lessons if you need to, but don’t play the same closed triads in the right hand with octaves in the left hand all the time. With a little work, you can be much more creative and play much more interesting parts.

6 – Learn to play different instruments authentically

Don’t use sustain pedal for exposed organ parts (sustaining organ pads, especially if they’re layered, often works well) or realistic string melodies – neither instrument has any sustain. For those and other orchestral instruments, try to get used to moving your hands while holding some keys down to sustain the chord, the way an organ player would, rather than using a sustain pedal to help you move between chords. Listen carefully if you are using sustain on a full orchestral sound; it’s ok to cheat, but some sounds, strings in particular, may cut off in weird-sounding ways if you’re not precise with the sustain pedal.

For any instrument you play on a keyboard, try to find out a bit about what it’s like for the real musician to play the real instrument, and try to think like that in your playing; your parts will sound much more convincing.

7 – Layer sounds together for richer pads or more complex sounds

Layer piano with a pad to add some warmth. Layer piano with strings to add a more melodic element. Layer several pads together to make something more complex – a warm pad plus a pad with some motion and ‘bite’ to it will give you a sound that has some definition but also adds presence to the song. Layer a few orchestral sounds to make it sound like you’ve got an orchestra backing up your band.

8 – Split the keyboard to play two different sounds at once

Until you’re comfortable, keep one sound really simple (eg. a pad playing long, sustained chords in your left hand, piano melodies in your right). Remember that you want to keep things sounding realistic, so trying to play horn melodies in one hand and electric piano licks in the other won’t be convincing if you’re not good enough to give both unique parts the attention they need.

9 – Save a preset for everything. Don’t waste time recreating work you’ve already done

Don’t just make a preset either; also write down everything you need to remind yourself what to play: which sounds you’re using, what type of part you’re going to play on them. Use descriptive words to remind yourself what style and feel you should play with, something like “Percussive Strings” or “Funky Rhodes” or even “Delayed Wurli” give you an idea of how to approach the part. Another good idea is to name your presets with the song part included in the name, e.g. “Hosanna B” – Hosanna is the song title, and B stands for ‘Bridge’.

10 – Put your presets in the order you’ll use them, if possible.

This lets you switch between them by pressing Increment/Next on your keyboard instead of doing something more complicated (eg. “Press the Bank C button, then press 114 to pick preset C-114″ – this takes too long!) It also takes the thought out of switching parts, and when you’re writing notes on charts, you don’t have to worry that you’re using presets 9-15 for the song this time, but when you rearrange the setlist for another performance, you’ll use 18-24.

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