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Sorely Lacking of Good Keyboard Courses


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For guitar players of any style, there has always been a plethora of excellent tutorials. From 80's REH to today's JamTrackCentral and TruFire, it's extremely easy to find a great course put out by a great player.

 

To a lesser degree, that abundance of learning materials still holds true for the drummers and bassists.

 

But for the most sophisticated role (I'll get tons of flak for saying that outside of this forum) in the band, the keyboard player doesn't get the same amount of love from publishers. Yes, there are tons of classical and purist jazz stuff out there, but there seems to be a sorely lacking of R&B, Gospel, Funk materials. Why is that?

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As a guitarist who is making the transition to keyboards your statement is so valid.

 

There are plenty of courses but totally disjointed as far as I have found.

 

At least with most of the Keyboard courses that I have looked at they do tend to be by literate players who can communicate and not the dross that start up their guitar course by ..... wassup, man, how ya doin ..... then proceed to mumble their way through what they are trying to explain.

Col

 

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I don't get it: usually music isn't learned from a book, and for the keyboard player to aspire to the centre role in a band, there's hardly use for music books, presuming you know your scales, harmonic theory and some generalities of various music styles and rhythms. I don't think I missed opportunities to talk to organ/keyboard/piano teachers of significant education and think it was also natural for me to learn from fellow keyboardists. So music theory and example music can and should be learned from books, but playing your instrument is something to learn more from practice. Group dynamics, ensemble understanding, licks question and answer, and God knows what all there is to learn for more advanvcd keyboardists shouldn't be put in a book, I think.

 

T.

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I don't get it: usually music isn't learned from a book, and for the keyboard player to aspire to the centre role in a band, there's hardly use for music books, presuming you know your scales, harmonic theory and some generalities of various music styles and rhythms. I don't think I missed opportunities to talk to organ/keyboard/piano teachers of significant education and think it was also natural for me to learn from fellow keyboardists. So music theory and example music can and should be learned from books, but playing your instrument is something to learn more from practice. Group dynamics, ensemble understanding, licks question and answer, and God knows what all there is to learn for more advanvcd keyboardists shouldn't be put in a book, I think.

 

T.

 

That's classical players out the window then

Remember - you can make a record without an organ on it, but it won't be as good

 

www.robpoyton.co.uk

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For guitar players of any style, there has always been a plethora of excellent tutorials. From 80's REH to today's JamTrackCentral and TruFire, it's extremely easy to find a great course put out by a great player.

 

To a lesser degree, that abundance of learning materials still holds true for the drummers and bassists.

 

But for the most sophisticated role (I'll get tons of flak for saying that outside of this forum) in the band, the keyboard player doesn't get the same amount of love from publishers. Yes, there are tons of classical and purist jazz stuff out there, but there seems to be a sorely lacking of R&B, Gospel, Funk materials. Why is that?

 

Agreed there is a lack of keyboard tutorials in this genre. I made a thread a few weeks ago about a few short YT tutorials by Matt Johnson of Jamiroquai, and people expressed appreciation for something as short and limited as that. There seems to be an increase in web-based tutorials lately -- there has been a decent amount of discussion here on courses by Herbie Hancock, Tony Monaco, Lachy Doley, and I think Joey D -- but still far from the volume of materials for other instruments.

 

I'm sure others will offer more thoughtful explanations but I'll throw out two factors. First, I'm pretty sure the demand is lower. Millions of guitar players out there, and pretty much anybody who buys an electric guitar is interested in playing popular music of the last 70 years (Rock, R&B, Blues, Funk, Jazz, etc.). Fewer keyboard players by comparison, and their interests may not be on contemporary music -- some just want to play classical.

 

Second, building on your (positive) stereotype, the keyboard players I know are the most resourceful people amongst the gigging musicians I know. In other words, perhaps the publishers don't handfeed material to keyboard players because they (we?) are the type of people who know how to (and prefer to?) figure it out on our own.

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Great and good player have learned the same way since the beginning and that by listening and playing and repeating that process over and over. Not casual listen by serious listening digging into the time, phrasing, interaction with others in the group. All the answers are in your stack of CD's and with a recording device to record and listen to yourself. You'll learn more from transcribing one chorus of player you admire and being able to it play along with the recording than a book can teach, plus from putting in the work you'll remember what you learned longer.

 

Music is a language and how did you learn to talk as a child, you listened the sounds, you imitated the sounds, then little by little you learned the sounds were words. Most listening you learn to put words together, you knew how to speak before you ever got to school. Music is the same it's sounds you use to speak with an instrument.

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As a guitarist who is making the transition to keyboards your statement is so valid.

 

There are plenty of courses but totally disjointed as far as I have found.

 

At least with most of the Keyboard courses that I have looked at they do tend to be by literate players who can communicate and not the dross that start up their guitar course by ..... wassup, man, how ya doin ..... then proceed to mumble their way through what they are trying to explain.

 

Yes, "disjointed" is the perfect word to describe the situation.

 

And I have similar observation on keyboard players tending to be the most musically literate among band members.

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I don't get it: usually music isn't learned from a book, and for the keyboard player to aspire to the centre role in a band, there's hardly use for music books, presuming you know your scales, harmonic theory and some generalities of various music styles and rhythms. I don't think I missed opportunities to talk to organ/keyboard/piano teachers of significant education and think it was also natural for me to learn from fellow keyboardists. So music theory and example music can and should be learned from books, but playing your instrument is something to learn more from practice. Group dynamics, ensemble understanding, licks question and answer, and God knows what all there is to learn for more advanvcd keyboardists shouldn't be put in a book, I think.

 

T.

 

I get what you are saying. But in-person learning resources are usually limited for people away from, well, those in-person learning resources.

 

For example, for a city with as much conventional "resources" as HongKong, I've witnessed a dramatic improvement in musicianship and proficiency among young players, because of the proliferation of Youtube tutorials. If a major metropolitan area like Hongkong can benefit so much from Youtube bread crumbs, imagine how sorely lacking learning resources have been for the less developed parts of the world.

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For guitar players of any style, there has always been a plethora of excellent tutorials. From 80's REH to today's JamTrackCentral and TruFire, it's extremely easy to find a great course put out by a great player.

 

To a lesser degree, that abundance of learning materials still holds true for the drummers and bassists.

 

But for the most sophisticated role (I'll get tons of flak for saying that outside of this forum) in the band, the keyboard player doesn't get the same amount of love from publishers. Yes, there are tons of classical and purist jazz stuff out there, but there seems to be a sorely lacking of R&B, Gospel, Funk materials. Why is that?

 

Agreed there is a lack of keyboard tutorials in this genre. I made a thread a few weeks ago about a few short YT tutorials by Matt Johnson of Jamiroquai, and people expressed appreciation for something as short and limited as that. There seems to be an increase in web-based tutorials lately -- there has been a decent amount of discussion here on courses by Herbie Hancock, Tony Monaco, Lachy Doley, and I think Joey D -- but still far from the volume of materials for other instruments.

 

I'm sure others will offer more thoughtful explanations but I'll throw out two factors. First, I'm pretty sure the demand is lower. Millions of guitar players out there, and pretty much anybody who buys an electric guitar is interested in playing popular music of the last 70 years (Rock, R&B, Blues, Funk, Jazz, etc.). Fewer keyboard players by comparison, and their interests may not be on contemporary music -- some just want to play classical.

 

Second, building on your (positive) stereotype, the keyboard players I know are the most resourceful people amongst the gigging musicians I know. In other words, perhaps the publishers don't handfeed material to keyboard players because they (we?) are the type of people who know how to (and prefer to?) figure it out on our own.

 

What a nice coincidence, I came across Matt Johnson's YT channel two days ago and was immediately grateful for the bread crumbs he handed out. But as you said, they are still just bread crumbs, what I (and I'm sure I'm not alone on this) am looking for is a systematic approach, kinda like how Mark Levine did with his books on Jazz.

 

And I totally agree with you on the lack of keyboard courses as a result of disparity of commercial interests between guitar and keyboard learners.

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Great and good player have learned the same way since the beginning and that by listening and playing and repeating that process over and over. Not casual listen by serious listening digging into the time, phrasing, interaction with others in the group. All the answers are in your stack of CD's and with a recording device to record and listen to yourself. You'll learn more from transcribing one chorus of player you admire and being able to it play along with the recording than a book can teach, plus from putting in the work you'll remember what you learned longer.

 

Music is a language and how did you learn to talk as a child, you listened the sounds, you imitated the sounds, then little by little you learned the sounds were words. Most listening you learn to put words together, you knew how to speak before you ever got to school. Music is the same it's sounds you use to speak with an instrument.

 

Yes, we can get a lot of mileage out of listening and transcribing. But often times the sophistication of the material is beyond the learners' comprehension. Being able to transcribe a progression down to the notes doesn't necessarily mean I understand why it works or how I can apply it to new materials, not to mention how exactly to finger it "properly".

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Great and good player have learned the same way since the beginning and that by listening and playing and repeating that process over and over. Not casual listen by serious listening digging into the time, phrasing, interaction with others in the group. All the answers are in your stack of CD's and with a recording device to record and listen to yourself. You'll learn more from transcribing one chorus of player you admire and being able to it play along with the recording than a book can teach, plus from putting in the work you'll remember what you learned longer.

 

Music is a language and how did you learn to talk as a child, you listened the sounds, you imitated the sounds, then little by little you learned the sounds were words. Most listening you learn to put words together, you knew how to speak before you ever got to school. Music is the same it's sounds you use to speak with an instrument.

 

Yes, we can get a lot of mileage out of listening and transcribing. But often times the sophistication of the material is beyond the learners' comprehension. Being able to transcribe a progression down to the notes doesn't necessarily mean I understand why it works or how I can apply it to new materials, not to mention how exactly to finger it "properly".

 

That's why learning is a process and sometimes you only learn the part you're ready to learn and further along as you grow you revisit and understand more. Just getting answers doesn't mean your ready to understand either. Fingerings are a interesting topic being I came from guitar and now learning piano. At first it was learn all the classical fingers for scales and broken chords, then you start playing and start working out your own fingering. Then now I'm studying piano from Jazz teacher and you ask about fingerings and 98% of the time they won't answer or flat out tell you to work it out. At first that's frustrating, but I know I've learn so much more from having to workout fingerings on my own. All our hands are different so in the long run we need to learn what our own hands are capable of and any issues we might have and how to find workarounds.

 

Bottom line I'm not totally against books and etc, but too many people are not putting the work in and always trying to buy an answer. When you buy answers the only person really learn is the person who took the time to figure the stuff out and wrote it out. Those paying to learn are learning nearly as much. Sometime having to try, and try, and try again to figure some thing out is the best teacher.

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There are three centuries worth of published keyboard resources. More than guitar. Torres didn"t even invent the modern guitar until 1852.

 

There are no magic beans. I started learning under my first teacher when I was almost 7. Studied under teachers until I was 22. I"m still learning things. I just suck. I"m not sure how you roll all that stuff into an online course or video. After a few years of structured pedagogy then seminar type presentations can be useful.

"It doesn't have to be difficult to be cool" - Mitch Towne

 

"A great musician can bring tears to your eyes!!!

So can a auto Mechanic." - Stokes Hunt

 

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You tube has so many free videos from showing the C major scale to how to play like Jelly Roll and everything in between that it's an embarrassment of riches. There might be a lack of strict classical techniques, I dont know. Now lessons on what to play on a hammond behind a blues band is a little scant. Somethings you got to learn on your own I guess.

FunMachine.

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Great and good player have learned the same way since the beginning and that by listening and playing and repeating that process over and over. Not casual listen by serious listening digging into the time, phrasing, interaction with others in the group. All the answers are in your stack of CD's and with a recording device to record and listen to yourself. You'll learn more from transcribing one chorus of player you admire and being able to it play along with the recording than a book can teach, plus from putting in the work you'll remember what you learned longer.

 

Music is a language and how did you learn to talk as a child, you listened the sounds, you imitated the sounds, then little by little you learned the sounds were words. Most listening you learn to put words together, you knew how to speak before you ever got to school. Music is the same it's sounds you use to speak with an instrument.

 

Yes, we can get a lot of mileage out of listening and transcribing. But often times the sophistication of the material is beyond the learners' comprehension. Being able to transcribe a progression down to the notes doesn't necessarily mean I understand why it works or how I can apply it to new materials, not to mention how exactly to finger it "properly".

 

That's why learning is a process and sometimes you only learn the part you're ready to learn and further along as you grow you revisit and understand more. Just getting answers doesn't mean your ready to understand either. Fingerings are a interesting topic being I came from guitar and now learning piano. At first it was learn all the classical fingers for scales and broken chords, then you start playing and start working out your own fingering. Then now I'm studying piano from Jazz teacher and you ask about fingerings and 98% of the time they won't answer or flat out tell you to work it out. At first that's frustrating, but I know I've learn so much more from having to workout fingerings on my own. All our hands are different so in the long run we need to learn what our own hands are capable of and any issues we might have and how to find workarounds.

 

Bottom line I'm not totally against books and etc, but too many people are not putting the work in and always trying to buy an answer. When you buy answers the only person really learn is the person who took the time to figure the stuff out and wrote it out. Those paying to learn are learning nearly as much. Sometime having to try, and try, and try again to figure some thing out is the best teacher.

 

I totally understand what you're saying. Practice usually leads theory and system in the development of music styles. But we've had Funk/R&B/Gospel for decades now that it would make sense for someone to have systemized and curated the theories and techniques on these genres, just like what academia did with Jazz. Just based on the feedback from folks of this forum on Youtube bread crumbs, we know there's also a commercial interest in systemized/curated contents beyond "tricks/licks".

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There are three centuries worth of published keyboard resources. More than guitar. Torres didn"t even invent the modern guitar until 1852.

 

There are no magic beans. I started learning under my first teacher when I was almost 7. Studied under teachers until I was 22. I"m still learning things. I just suck. I"m not sure how you roll all that stuff into an online course or video. After a few years of structured pedagogy then seminar type presentations can be useful.

 

The lack of "structured pedagogy then seminar" is exactly my struggle with keyboard learning materials.

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You tube has so many free videos from showing the C major scale to how to play like Jelly Roll and everything in between that it's an embarrassment of riches. There might be a lack of strict classical techniques, I dont know. Now lessons on what to play on a hammond behind a blues band is a little scant. Somethings you got to learn on your own I guess.

 

Yup, that scantness is exactly what I've been struggling with for years.

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There are three centuries worth of published keyboard resources. More than guitar.

I tend to think this is the problem. As the OP said,

Yes, there are tons of classical and purist jazz stuff out there, but there seems to be a sorely lacking of R&B, Gospel, Funk materials. Why is that?

I've seen it here, I've seen it countless places, people who say, "you have to learn to play piano this way" referring to the classic/classical pedagogy. I'm not saying that's wrong for people who want to do that, but for someone who just wants to play some pop tunes it's a real turn off. The reason lots of people play guitar is that you can show someone a handful of chords (literally!) and then they can bang out a bunch of tunes with some simple chord charts. Yes, mastering the instrument is another matter altogether, but for most people, they can have fun and play. You rarely, if ever, see that when it comes to playing keys. "Here's E, A, and B, now you can play a million blues tunes." I often see some video title talking about making you a better keyboard player and instead of showing you some things a keyboard player might play in a tune to sound interesting, it's finger exercises. C'mon man!

 

To the OP, you might want to look at stuff Mark Harrison has produced, like his Blues Piano book, The Pop Piano Book, and others he's published with Hal Leonard Books.

"I'm so crazy, I don't know this is impossible! Hoo hoo!" - Daffy Duck

 

"The good news is that once you start piano you never have to worry about getting laid again. More time to practice!" - MOI

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Great and good player have learned the same way since the beginning and that by listening and playing and repeating that process over and over. Not casual listen by serious listening digging into the time, phrasing, interaction with others in the group. All the answers are in your stack of CD's and with a recording device to record and listen to yourself. You'll learn more from transcribing one chorus of player you admire and being able to it play along with the recording than a book can teach, plus from putting in the work you'll remember what you learned longer.

 

Music is a language and how did you learn to talk as a child, you listened the sounds, you imitated the sounds, then little by little you learned the sounds were words. Most listening you learn to put words together, you knew how to speak before you ever got to school. Music is the same it's sounds you use to speak with an instrument.

 

Yes, we can get a lot of mileage out of listening and transcribing. But often times the sophistication of the material is beyond the learners' comprehension. Being able to transcribe a progression down to the notes doesn't necessarily mean I understand why it works or how I can apply it to new materials, not to mention how exactly to finger it "properly".

 

That's why learning is a process and sometimes you only learn the part you're ready to learn and further along as you grow you revisit and understand more. Just getting answers doesn't mean your ready to understand either. Fingerings are a interesting topic being I came from guitar and now learning piano. At first it was learn all the classical fingers for scales and broken chords, then you start playing and start working out your own fingering. Then now I'm studying piano from Jazz teacher and you ask about fingerings and 98% of the time they won't answer or flat out tell you to work it out. At first that's frustrating, but I know I've learn so much more from having to workout fingerings on my own. All our hands are different so in the long run we need to learn what our own hands are capable of and any issues we might have and how to find workarounds.

 

Bottom line I'm not totally against books and etc, but too many people are not putting the work in and always trying to buy an answer. When you buy answers the only person really learn is the person who took the time to figure the stuff out and wrote it out. Those paying to learn are learning nearly as much. Sometime having to try, and try, and try again to figure some thing out is the best teacher.

 

I totally understand what you're saying. Practice usually leads theory and system in the development of music styles. But we've had Funk/R&B/Gospel for decades now that it would make sense for someone to have systemized and curated the theories and techniques on these genres, just like what academia did with Jazz. Just based on the feedback from folks of this forum on Youtube bread crumbs, we know there's also a commercial interest in systemized/curated contents beyond "tricks/licks".

 

 

This discussion made me remember one of my favorite teacher in music school, he was my improv teacher. One student behind everyone else in class and every time the student asked a question or was asked why he played something his answer alway started with.... I was reading a article, book, or magazine, and it talked about using on yada-yada-yada. Well the teacher finally had it with the kid. I will do my best to clean up what the teacher actually said but it was along the lines of..... You know it's like you can read all the books you want, but you still don't know about what it's like until you've actually done it. So stop reading all those articles and actually pickup your horn and practice.

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I'm going to light a fire here.

In the olden times of old you had to learn by wearing out phonograph needles on lacquer or vinyl. Or becoming acquainted with some who could play and following them around for awhile so you could absorb their magic power.

There was no other way. That's how the great masters of old became great masters.

 

The old ways are the best ways.

 

Except medical technology. New ways of that are good. And cars.

FunMachine.

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There are three centuries worth of published keyboard resources. More than guitar.

I tend to think this is the problem. As the OP said,

Yes, there are tons of classical and purist jazz stuff out there, but there seems to be a sorely lacking of R&B, Gospel, Funk materials. Why is that?

I've seen it here, I've seen it countless places, people who say, "you have to learn to play piano this way" referring to the classic/classical pedagogy. I'm not saying that's wrong for people who want to do that, but for someone who just wants to play some pop tunes it's a real turn off. The reason lots of people play guitar is that you can show someone a handful of chords (literally!) and then they can bang out a bunch of tunes with some simple chord charts. Yes, mastering the instrument is another matter altogether, but for most people, they can have fun and play. You rarely, if ever, see that when it comes to playing keys. "Here's E, A, and B, now you can play a million blues tunes." I often see some video title talking about making you a better keyboard player and instead of showing you some things a keyboard player might play in a tune to sound interesting, it's finger exercises. C'mon man!

 

To the OP, you might want to look at stuff Mark Harrison has produced, like his Blues Piano book, The Pop Piano Book, and others he's published with Hal Leonard Books.

 

Yes, snobbery is part of human nature and teaching well is a talent bestowed upon a limited few.

 

I'm into technology and there are tons of similar snobs in tech. When we're stuck trying to learn a programming language or some physics concept, there are always those who shout out loudly: "RTFM/RTFB" (short for Read The F*** Manual/Book). Then after stumbling around with a half-assed understanding and self-doubt for a few decades, you come across a clear, right-to-the-point explanation from someone with enough empathy and insight to break the knowledge down and reveal the inner connections. It's usually at that moment we realize just how bad our textbooks/teachers/schools are in general.

 

I've had enough of this type of observation and experience to know intuitively now that when someone says something along the lines of: "you just have to work harder at it", "you'll understand it later", "this is THE way to learn it"... Chances are they simply suck at explaining/teaching.

 

Thanks for recommending Mark Harrison's books, Bone. I came across his R&B book over a decade ago, will give his other books a shot.

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This discussion made me remember one of my favorite teacher in music school, he was my improv teacher. One student behind everyone else in class and every time the student asked a question or was asked why he played something his answer alway started with.... I was reading a article, book, or magazine, and it talked about using on yada-yada-yada. Well the teacher finally had it with the kid. I will do my best to clean up what the teacher actually said but it was along the lines of..... You know it's like you can read all the books you want, but you still don't know about what it's like until you've actually done it. So stop reading all those articles and actually pickup your horn and practice.

 

Haha, I feel bad for the nerdy classmate of yours. It sounds like he would have fared better in law/accounting.

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I'm going to light a fire here.

In the olden times of old you had to learn by wearing out phonograph needles on lacquer or vinyl. Or becoming acquainted with some who could play and following them around for awhile so you could absorb their magic power.

There was no other way. That's how the great masters of old became great masters.

 

The old ways are the best ways.

 

Except medical technology. New ways of that are good. And cars.

 

No worries, Jr. Deluxe, I'm not gonna get fired up by an honest opinion from a brother. But what you said about "the old ways are the best ways" (for music education) is still just that, an honest opinion. And I've seen enough evidence contradicting that to know there are better ways.

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Nahre Sol has some interesting lesson materials - some are free on Youtube. I think what you get for the paid stuff is sheet music:

 

https://www.nahresol.com/shop-1

 

Chilly Gonzales has an interesting etude book:

 

https://www.chillygonzales.com/books/re-introduction-etudes/

 

Thanks for the recommendations, GovernorSilver. I immediately loved Nahre's open-mindedness and her methodical approach on non-Classical music, not to mention her good taste on harmony.

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If you want to learn to play keyboard styles such as R&B, funk, gospel:

 

1) There are three centuries of resources for building your technique - Hanon, scales, classical, jazz, stride, standards.

2) Bypassing the prerequisites will not accomplish the goal. You cannot run without learning to walk. Developing a keyboard technique demands a foundation. As a keyboard player since age three I know this from experience.

3) You will not be an accomplished player overnight. Practice, practice, practice. Developing the foundation will prepare you for any genre but it takes a LOT of practice. Many students give up because they don't want to put the work into the prerequisites. THERE ARE NO SHORTCUTS.

4) Get intimately familiar with the instruments used. IE Hammond is heavily used in gospel. The playing technique depends heavily on the quirks of the Hammond/Leslie. If you're aiming to learn Hammond technique then learn them on a real Hammond with a real Leslie. Same with Clavinet. Anything else will NOT sound the same.

5) Develop your ears. Styles such as funk and gospel have intricate articulations that requires an experienced ear to pick up. Not just the notes but also smears, grace notes, sweeps, ghost notes, etc. Funk can mess with your head in that multiple instruments with similar timbres are alternating note patterns - what sounds like a single instrument may be keyboard mixed with guitar.

6) Develop the respect for space. It is far more important to know when NOT to play.

7) You'll get a lot more mileage out of listening to commercial material than from a book or video. Listen, listen, listen.

8) If you play a non-keyboard instrument, the hardest part of listening is to train your ears to focus on the keyboard parts while blocking out the instruments of your trade.

9) Commercial artists aren't interested in making instructional books or videos on their playing techniques. That's giving away their livelihood. Jimmy Smith once said he would do it for a million dollars, up front, firm, no negotiation - never happened.

10) I was browsing the Hammond booth at the NAMM 2005 show. The next thing I knew, renowned jazz organist Joey DeFrancesco started demoing the Hammond behind me. I happened to be in a prime location to study not just the notes he played but his technique with drawbars. I got far more education out of that experience than any book or video. The following day the same thing happened with another giant of jazz organ, Tony Monaco.

 

Once you use those resources to establish your foundation, then you're ready for any genre.

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If you want to learn to play keyboard styles such as R&B, funk, gospel:

 

1) There are three centuries of resources for building your technique - Hanon, scales, classical, jazz, stride, standards.

2) Bypassing the prerequisites will not accomplish the goal. You cannot run without learning to walk. Developing a keyboard technique demands a foundation. As a keyboard player since age three I know this from experience.

3) You will not be an accomplished player overnight. Practice, practice, practice. Developing the foundation will prepare you for any genre but it takes a LOT of practice. Many students give up because they don't want to put the work into the prerequisites. THERE ARE NO SHORTCUTS.

4) Get intimately familiar with the instruments used. IE Hammond is heavily used in gospel. The playing technique depends heavily on the quirks of the Hammond/Leslie. If you're aiming to learn Hammond technique then learn them on a real Hammond with a real Leslie. Same with Clavinet. Anything else will NOT sound the same.

5) Develop your ears. Styles such as funk and gospel have intricate articulations that requires an experienced ear to pick up. Not just the notes but also smears, grace notes, sweeps, ghost notes, etc. Funk can mess with your head in that multiple instruments with similar timbres are alternating note patterns - what sounds like a single instrument may be keyboard mixed with guitar.

6) Develop the respect for space. It is far more important to know when NOT to play.

7) You'll get a lot more mileage out of listening to commercial material than from a book or video. Listen, listen, listen.

8) If you play a non-keyboard instrument, the hardest part of listening is to train your ears to focus on the keyboard parts while blocking out the instruments of your trade.

9) Commercial artists aren't interested in making instructional books or videos on their playing techniques. That's giving away their livelihood. Jimmy Smith once said he would do it for a million dollars, up front, firm, no negotiation - never happened.

10) I was browsing the Hammond booth at the NAMM 2005 show. The next thing I knew, renowned jazz organist Joey DeFrancesco started demoing the Hammond behind me. I happened to be in a prime location to study not just the notes he played but his technique with drawbars. I got far more education out of that experience than any book or video. The following day the same thing happened with another giant of jazz organ, Tony Monaco.

 

Once you use those resources to establish your foundation, then you're ready for any genre.

 

Thanks a lot for sharing those sage advice, Gruesome MC. There are many nuggets of gold in what you said.

 

"Commercial artists aren't interested in making instructional books or videos on their playing techniques. That's giving away their livelihood." That makes a lot of sense. On the other hand, I wonder why so many top guitar/bass/drum players don't seem to be too concerned with spilling the beans on putting out master classes. My guess is that's due to the larger amount of learners and players on those instruments.

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Case in point: Here's a progression I came up with noodling around this evening. Other than the tritone substitution, I have no idea how or why it works, it just sounded "right" to me. Every time this happens with other people's music, the engineer in me gets itchy to find out the "scientific explanation" or at least a generalized rule for it.

 

For better or worse, the Jazz people are quite good at it. Heck, they even have a name for sh*t that's "wrong" but sounds "right". They call it "Playing Outside".

 

Link - BluJazPel

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