Helping a Keyboard Newbie

[Sambekzx]

The other thread on keys inspired me to ask the following:

I'm working with a youth band, but I do not play the keyboard. Our keyboardist is just starting out and is also a novice in terms of piano playing in general.

She can play chords, but she always plays 1-3-5 and doesn't know how to use inversions to transition between chords. She doesn't know how to rhythmically approach a song, so it's just chord, chord, chord on the downbeats without any syncopation, filling, left-right hand independence or anything. It just doesn't sound like music.

Not knowing the instrument, I can't show her what I want. Nor do I even have a clear concept in my mind of what a keyboardist should be doing. I wish I was good enough on my guitar to play out the piano parts on my guitar, but my skill is too limited.

All I can really do is listen to recordings and try to get the member to replicate that, but it's difficult (especially the louder Hillsongs stuff) to know what's going on.

Can anyone give me suggestions with immediate applicability?

[mikeymo1741]

As a guitar player with a verybasic skill set in keys (which I have to play occasionally), I'll tell you what I used to do. Punt..


Seriously, I started to mainly chord with the right hand (first inversion) and play the bass not with the left thumb. It makes it easier this way to play inversions by just moving the one bass note instead of having to play a whole new shape. It also frees up the left hand to do walkups/walkdowns on the bass side. (I can feel the real keyboard players laughing at me now!)

As to rhythms, I started with kind of alternating the chord and bass note until I got comfortable playing more of a melody. (Bass on the 2/4)

It helps if she has a feel for the music.

[Kilroy]

I'm not really sure what you're hearing in your head either, but if it is a United kind of song, chances are you are hearing a pad, which is a great place for a novice keyboard player to start.

The first thing I would encourage her to do is lose the "3" of the root chord. So if she is in the key of C, playing a C chord, just have her play the 1 and the 5 (C and G)

Getting rid of the 3 allows her to make simple smooth changes to nearly all the chords she needs for a worship song. Here is an example, staying in the key of C:

C chord: G C G (where the C is middle C)
F chord: G C F (this gives a nice F2, great for pads)
Am Chord:G C G (the bass plays the A, this gives Am7; great for pads
G Chord: G D G (again, effectively playing a G5 here and skipping the B)
Em7 G D G (the bass plays the E, giving Em7; great for pads

So that covers the 1, 3, 4, 5, and 6 without her ever having to move more than one note away from her starting position. Hopefully the above makes sense. And it obviously will work in any key.

As for her left hand, you are at an advantage if she is novice. Get her used to not using her left hand so much, especially for pads and B3 type sounds.

K.

Originally Posted by Sambekzx

The other thread on keys inspired me to ask the following:

I'm working with a youth band, but I do not play the keyboard. Our keyboardist is just starting out and is also a novice in terms of piano playing in general.

She can play chords, but she always plays 1-3-5 and doesn't know how to use inversions to transition between chords. She doesn't know how to rhythmically approach a song, so it's just chord, chord, chord on the downbeats without any syncopation, filling, left-right hand independence or anything. It just doesn't sound like music.

Not knowing the instrument, I can't show her what I want. Nor do I even have a clear concept in my mind of what a keyboardist should be doing. I wish I was good enough on my guitar to play out the piano parts on my guitar, but my skill is too limited.

All I can really do is listen to recordings and try to get the member to replicate that, but it's difficult (especially the louder Hillsongs stuff) to know what's going on.

Can anyone give me suggestions with immediate applicability?

[efrisch]

I was going to make some suggestions very similar to Kilroy's...

With modern worship being SO heavy on pad sounds, that's a great place to start. That will give your player a chance to really work out some of the inversions and things while not having to focus so much on the rhythm at first. Hopefully, that will also help her "find her place" in the music a little more.

Don't be surprised if it takes her a little while to stop playing everything in root position. I know when I was getting started, it took me a while to understand that part of the theory of it. Eventually, though, it started coming very naturally.

[russhutto]

Teach SHAPES.

Every chord inversion is the same shape!! 1-3-5 is root, right?

Well, 1st inversion is 1-2-5; 2nd inversion is 1-3-5. (the numbers being the fingers)

In C: R= C-E-G (1-3-5), 1=E-G-C (1-2-5), 2=G-C-E (1-3-5)

One thing I notice newbies tend to do is to play chord inversions (even if the notes are right) with the wrong fingers. They play whatever feels good to them. Which is ok short term, but sets them up for having a tough time with those exact same inversions in different keys.

Learn the shapes first and your fingers will "remember" the shapes in any key. Of course, you have to play the right notes too.

In the key of G:
R=G-B-D (1-3-5), 1=B-D-G (1-2-5), 2=D-G-B (1-3-5)

In the key of D:
R=D-F#-A (1-3-5), 1=F#-A-D (1-2-5), 2=A-D-F# (1-3-5)

In the key of E:
R=E-G#-B (1-3-5), 1=G#-B-E (1-2-5), 2=B-E-G# (1-3-5)

And so on. A good exercise is to pick a key and just do the inversions all the way up the keyboard. Get the shapes under your finger.

Another TIP is to coach them to play the right hand as "smoothly" as possible. How do you get a "smooth" keyboard sound. DON'T jump around on your chords. Learn the inversions and then pick a pattern that is not choppy. Find the nearest inversion for the next chord coming up and move as few fingers as possible.

For example:

In the key of G:

Say we're starting on G (1st inversion) = B-D-G (1-2-5) and the next chord is C.

We'll want to find the nearest inversion of C and try and move to it smoothly. I'd move to C in Root position C-E-G (1-3-5) moving the B to the C (1 to 1) and the D to the E (2 to 3). To simplify that even more and to make it even more smooth. Keep the D in both chords (B moves to C and D stays the same. Only the thumb moves. So in essence you move from a G (1st inversion) to a C2 (Root and omitting the third).

Good luck!

[betnich]

On faster songs, you can play your strum patterns for the keyboardist and have her try to copy that. It won't turn out the same, but maybe simplified.

If she is playing a 'pad' sound, simpler is better. If you have a Bass player, less LH.

It takes a while for a keyboard player to grow into their role. Remember how it was when you could only do a few simple chords on the guitar? If they can do chords in all keys, they are covering the basics.

IMO the important thing is: are they teachable and open to spiritual and musical improvement?

[louca]

Wow, some great advice here so far. To address the rhythm side of things, this is going to sound crazy but ... have them learn to play to bongos. I am dead serious. After all, the piano is a percussion instrument and so are many of the sounds that can be played on a keyboard. Playing bongos teaches rhythm of the hands. Although there is not much left-hand playing, especially with a bass player, learning to get the right rhythm and timing is good for the right hand. And that makes for nice piano parts, as well as B-3 chops. Often times I will "ghost" play with my left hand to better coordinate my right hand.

A lot has been mentioned about inversions and how important they are. But remember, the sound of an inverted chord is different sounding than the root position. It really gets into the area of "voicing", which they also need to learn. That's why playing chords only in the root position sounds so bad. I believe voicing or even choosing the correct inversion is very important for playing pads, too. Inversions are great to use with the right hand when doing B-3 playing since a lot of times there is a "sweet spot" on the B-3 keyboard for a given song.

Pads are nice and fluffy and a great way to practice things like the inversions mentioned. They should also learn to use suspensions (like 2nds or 4ths for transition) since they give pads a beautiful sound.

Overall, what I would recommend is to get a good instructor that will teach theory and improvisation along with the basics.

Lou

[Sambekzx]

Points of clarification requested, what are "pad" and "b-3"?

[mikeymo1741]

Pad is that stringy/organy/ethereal/harmonic synth sound you hear on a lot of 80s music, in the background. It's kind of a harmonic filler that blends well with a lot of worship music.

B-3 refers to a Hammond - organ sound.

[merry]

Great suggestions here.

On most keyboards, pad sounds are in their own category for voice selections. Many pad sounds have "pad" in the name, but certainly not all.

B-3 is a specific organ as mikeymo mentioned, a Hammond B-3. Because it's a specific organ, you probably won't find that name on the keyboard voice selections, but some names on my keyboard that a rock or jazz organ sound are called, "Killer B", "Dirty B", "Super Jazz Organ", "Rock Organ". Every keyboard will have different selections, but I mentioned these so you might have an idea of what to look for.

The Worship Music Academy :: Learn Practice Play Christian Songs :: DVD & Online Worship Instruction site has some videos that are designed for novice players that could be helpful. They were too simplified for a long-time piano player who was wanting to learn new tricks, but they are designed for beginners so you might try those.