What would you tell a keyboardist?

Coldhardsteel

Gold Member
Hello, ladies and gentlemen.

Tonight, my keyboardist and I have been hanging out, and right now he's looking over my shoulder. So, be on your best behavior everyone!

Just a simple question, what would you tell a keyboardist you're working with in a band you committed to? If you want to expand on the range of instrumentalists, then feel free to do so.
 
Doesn't the answer depend on what you guys are talking about? If you're just hanging out, are you talking about music? Or if either of you prefer cold peas as opposed to soft cooked, mushy ones? The weather? Your question is vague. Girls? That's always a big hit when hanging out....

In terms of the music, I would just tell him not to hit any bad notes and don't mess with the time. If he does that, then he gets to keep the gig. For now. ;)
 
I'm unclear as to what you're referring to too.
 
Hello, ladies and gentlemen.

Tonight, ....., what would you tell a keyboardist you're working with in a band you committed to? If you want to expand on the range of instrumentalists......

I play both drums and keyboards, tell him they are both PERCUSSION instruments, SO..

You should learn to play each others instruments and gain a better feel for your own as a result.
 
I'd say, "I have a sequencer, what the heck do I need you for?? "






:p

(hey, keyboardists have been replacing us for years with drum machines, turn about is fair play!)
 
I'd say, "I have a sequencer, what the heck do I need you for?? "






:p

(hey, keyboardists have been replacing us for years with drum machines, turn about is fair play!)


Hahahaha! Then you have to come up with a way to monitor what's going on. Sometimes it's easier just to have a human doing it. But I understand what you mean!
 
I feel a story coming upon me... years ago I knew a couple of good guitar players who got together to form a big band. They had lead, rhythm, bass and a drummer, then they invited a keyboard player along to jam at a charity gig.
Since they were all good players they didn't rehearse, they just turned up and began by playing the usual standards. It sounded absolutely dreadful. Unbelievably bad, they were playing in different keys, off-tune ... a mess. The lead guy walked off stage, they all fell out with one another (scuffles in the car park out the back) and the band broke up.

What it turned out had happened is that they didn't tune to the keyboard and so they were completely thrown by the fact that nothing sounded right.
Just saying you know....
 
I'm not sure if todays electronic keyboards are still considered percussion since there are no parts hitting one another. I don't see many bands with actual pianos mic'ed anymore. Ask him where he thinks music is going in the next 100 years with the advent of electronic keys and synthesizers.
 
I would ask him why he is playing in a band?
He could make more money playing solo.

I would also tell him to avoid large chunks of tomatoes in his sauce!
 
I would tell him that he or she doesn't HAVE to play all the time through every song, that those little spots and squiggly things in music scores are called rests, and they exist for a reason.

It must be jolly good fun to play and play and play with no regard as to who you're stepping on.
 
I have played with my keyboard player for 30 years this year. I mainly tell her to fill the gap of a rhythm guitar when necessary to give a more full sound on certain songs. I read once that Donald Fagen described his own piano playing like he "was playing a guitar". What I really appreciate about her is that she keeps the guitar players in tune and on key and makes sure of it.
 
I'm not sure if todays electronic keyboards are still considered percussion ...

From Dictionary >> Percussion; The striking together of two bodies, especially when noise is produced.

My hands still bang on the black and whites, piano or synth.

My first 3 CD's approached the keyboard as a percussion instrument from the mind of a drummer.
 
Hmm...most of the complaints about musicians on this forums have been about guitar players and other drummers...

You should learn to play each others instruments and gain a better feel for your own as a result.

Maybe even learning pitched percussion; marimba, vibes, xylo.

My first 3 CD's approached the keyboard as a percussion instrument from the mind of a drummer.

...Chick Corea was a drummer before he was a pianist and Art Blakey was a piano player before taking up the drums, so it might be interesting to wonder how such a thing has an effect on style and creativity.
 
Eh, were you both drunk? In what context?

I suppose in an open ended discussion I'd tell the pianist not to be late and know the material. Were that an issue. And that the piano is a percussion instrument. That Stars wars is a successful movie franchise and that it is good to brush one's teeth.

IHTH????
 
Oh and I'd also tell him/her to check out Art Tatum, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Monk, Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans and many more.
 
Okay, yeah, that was a loaded question.

My keyboardist and I get along really well, and I suppose it's mostly my respect for his ability to tame the raging moron that is our guitar player.

He's been playing since middle school, I believe, and he's the oldest member, so he has a lot of music experience with his instrument. He also plays clarinet, and has a lot of appreciation for other styles of music, so we click a lot.

So, I suppose I should feel blessed for having a keys player that's not a total douche.
 
From Dictionary >> Percussion; The striking together of two bodies, especially when noise is produced.

My hands still bang on the black and whites, piano or synth.

My first 3 CD's approached the keyboard as a percussion instrument from the mind of a drummer.

But those keys don't bang on anything. They just open circuits and electronic noise is made. Pianos have keys when depressed move hammers that strike strings. You fingers hitting or banging on the keys doesn't make any noise. This the reason keyboards of the electronic variety worth their salt have what are known as weighted keys to make them feel like true percussion instruments such as pianos. We will have to agree to disagree but electronic keyboards, Rhodes, church organs are not percussion instruments.
A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement, shaken, rubbed, scraped, or by any other action which sets the object into vibration. The term usually applies to an object used in a rhythmic context or with musical intent.

The word "percussion" has evolved from Latin terms: "percussio" (which translates as "to beat, strike" in the musical sense, rather than the violent action), and "percussus" (which is a noun meaning "a beating"). As a noun in contemporary English it is described in Wiktionary as "the collision of two bodies to produce a sound". The usage of the term is not unique to music but has application in medicine and weaponry, as in percussion cap, but all known and common uses of the word, "percussion", appear to share a similar lineage beginning with the original Latin: "percussus". In a musical context then, the term "percussion instruments" may have been coined originally to describe a family of instruments including drums, rattles, metal plates, or wooden blocks which musicians would beat or strike (as in a collision) to produce sound.

Check here:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percussion_instrument

Your fingers banging on the keyboard is no more percussive than a trumpet players fingers hitting the valves on a trumpet, even if it makes a sound.
 
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"What would you tell a keyboardist?"

same thing i told my sister when she wanted me to get my kid a piano instead of a drum set
"drummers get chicks!!!!........ keyboardists get dudes......"

edit: that should go on my signature....
 
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