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.
As a last word of advice, it is important to have more fun than anything. Often times when a keyboardist makes multiple mistakes, he or she can do so without the listeners actually being able to tell a difference. This fact helps keyboardists relax, since they know that striking every key precisely isn’t vital to having a great show for an audience- since most of the time they won’t even be able to tell the difference!
Final Thoughts
All in all, beginning on the keyboard is a tough prospect. But learning a bit here and there over the years will essentially make an expert of anyone, given enough time. Being able to play stunning performances on a keyboard on command is a valuable skill to have, and plenty of musicians make their living based on keyboards alone. Whether a hobby or a way of life, starting on this lifelong relationship with music is quite beneficial to growth and stress release for years to come.
