Advice For The Beginning Keyboardist

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The keyboard is a wonderful instrument to behold, but learning to play it is another story completely. The piano, a close cousin to the keyboard, has long been revered as a culturally defining instrument. In essence, so too has the keyboard become a modernly successful version of the piano that much enjoyment comes out of playing.

The first thing to remember in playing a keyboard is to have fun- after all, you’re learning because you want to- not because you have to. It is recommended to try and find songs that you may like and try to find music sheets detailing how to play them. Such music can commonly be found over the Internet, in music stores, and from fellow keyboard players who share same tastes.

A good tip is to play by ear. It is rather hard at first, and this can drive most beginners away, but the benefits from learning how to do so are amazing. Those who learn to play by ear will be able to write their own tablature on the fly, as well as listen to other scores and figure out how to play them with minimal effort. This will take much effort, but the benefits are well worth it.

Two more aspects of the expert keyboard player to keep in mind is timing ability and rhythm. Timing is best bettered by obtaining a metronome and sheet music of one’s favorite song. Try playing the music exactly in time with the song, and listen to the tick of the metronome at the same time. Eventually, one’s body will create a very precise timing measure that will enable the keyboardist to play without the metronome at all!

Next, it’s good to try and use both hands where applicable. Even when one hand can be used to play multiple notes close together, it’s good to use two hands to simplify the action and to help learn placement at a quicker pace. This way, less attention will be put onto trying to find keys with a certain hand, and more attention can be put on reading sheet music that most keyboardists require for learning.

In the end, the average keyboard player who is just learning how to play needs to realize that learning how to play the keyboard is supposed to be fun. As such, trying to keep the subject fun means pacing out the frustration in learning, and focusing on the finer points of playing the keyboard. If further difficulty arises, never be afraid to ask for professional help- although it may be rather costly to pay for such help.

In Conclusion

Keyboardists will all agree that once they get past the learning curve, the hobby of playing the keyboard is very rewarding indeed. The trick is to keep practicing, resting, taking ample breaks, and getting back to work at becoming a better keyboard player. The best part is, once you learn the keyboard, you can play the piano just as easy!