PLAY KEYS LIKE A PRO
By far the most popular method of inputting note data into your DAW is – you guessed it – the MIDI keyboard. Although technology can overcome many of the hurdles faced by non-keyboard players when composing music on computers (think step sequencing, inputting notes by hand in the piano roll, using MIDI chord pads, etc.) things do speed up enormously if you can play a bit. Back in 255, our Play Keyboards Like A Pro cover feature approached the art of playing keyboards from a practical angle, combining a selection of exercises to strengthen your finger muscles and develop independence with practical advice on how to begin tackling typical parts in a variety of styles.
This follow-up packs in even more exercises and practice tips, structured from absolute beginner-level upwards, and is designed to provide you with the tools to develop enough finger strength and dexterity to be able to play some actual music, rather than just scales.
There’s no getting away from it – the three key words when learning any instrument are practise, practise and practise. Keyboards are no different – your fingers will only co-operate with what your brain is telling them to do if you practise regularly.
Something to bear in mind is what to actually practise on. If you practise on a piano, either digital or acoustic, with a proper, fully-weighted keyboard, it’s a bit like doing a workout with heavier weights – you’re likely to find it a bit tiring and difficult at first, but you’ll probably see results more quickly than if you practise on a regular, lightweight synth-action keyboard. Either way, the key is to start out with something comfortable so that you don’t suffer finger fatigue and get put off right at the start by how hard the keys are to actually play.
Work the exercises you’ll find over the next few pages into a regular daily practice routine and you’ll be amazed at how much your technique will improve. By the end of things you should be able to work towards playing a piano improvisation involving the use of broken chords, arpeggios, inversions and a left hand part playing octaves and fifths in the bass.
Step by step
1. How to navigate the keyboard
1 The layout of black and white keys has been standard on most piano and keyboard instruments for centuries, but how do you find your way around it? With 88 keys, a full-size piano keyboard might look intimidating, but it’s really just the same group of 12 notes – or octave – repeated seven times, with a few extra thrown in at the top.
2 If we examine the keyboard, we can see that the black notes are arranged in alternating two and three-note clusters. If you zoom in on a section of the keyboard and find any cluster of two black notes, the white note immediately to its left will be a C. On an 88-note keyboard, there will be eight C-notes in total, with C8 at the very top.
3 This works anywhere on the keyboard to be able to find any C-note. The note known as middle C will, naturally, be the one in the very centre of the keyboard. If we do the same thing, but this time homing in on a cluster of three black notes instead of two, the white note immediately to the left will be the note F.
4 Counting two white notes down the keyboard from a C gets us to the note A. From there, it’s just a question of filling in the gaps to get the names of the other white notes in between. Once we get to G, we start again at A (there’s no H, except in the German system, which replaces the ‘B’ we use in the UK/US with ‘H’). We get A, B, C, D, E, F, G.
