Sorely Lacking of Good Keyboard Courses

[Theo Verelst]

Thar sounds ugly, and is of a makeup that suggests more a desire to flatten out a musical idea than to enjoy it.

[uhoh7]

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?

 

With respect, you are high. There are a zillion times more materials for every aspect of Keyboard available to us than ever before. Un fortunately there is a very great deal of needlessly complicated pedogogery at the same time.

 

So you must take the time to sift and find the gems. For gospel:

It does not get any better than this.

 

That little tome would save a lot of hours of trying to "soak it in", and it's never been easier to slow down and learn stuff note by note, like every great player did sometime.

 

But chops don't grow without alot of nuture. Play play play. Few "real" people understand how much time it takes to learn a motor skill. Instead they say, "Oh, I'm just not musically talented".

 

Playing is essentially a sport. Thinking only gets you so far, and is not even a pre-requisite to virtuosity.

[GovernorSilver]

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

 

You said you looked at the Gospel Musician stuff before. Did you get the Tritone Xtravaganza DVD? I thought was it was a fairly accessible approach.

 

Most of what i've learned of this stuff is from chord-melody arrangements for guitar. I'm still on the learn by playing/hearing stage - not quite on the fully memorized formulae stage.

[AROIOS]

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?

 

With respect, you are high. There are a zillion times more materials for every aspect of Keyboard available to us than ever before. Un fortunately there is a very great deal of needlessly complicated pedogogery at the same time.

 

So you must take the time to sift and find the gems. For gospel:

It does not get any better than this.

 

That little tome would save a lot of hours of trying to "soak it in", and it's never been easier to slow down and learn stuff note by note, like every great player did sometime.

 

But chops don't grow without alot of nuture. Play play play. Few "real" people understand how much time it takes to learn a motor skill. Instead they say, "Oh, I'm just not musically talented".

 

Playing is essentially a sport. Thinking only gets you so far, and is not even a pre-requisite to virtuosity.

 

Thanks for the recommendation Uhoh7, I'm gonna check Kurt's material out.

 

In terms of "needlessly complicated pedagogy", can you offer a few examples, so I can avoid falling into their dark traps?

[AROIOS]

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

 

You said you looked at the Gospel Musician stuff before. Did you get the Tritone Xtravaganza DVD? I thought was it was a fairly accessible approach.

 

Most of what i've learned of this stuff is from chord-melody arrangements for guitar. I'm still on the learn by playing/hearing stage - not quite on the fully memorized formulae stage.

 

Yes, I came across Jamal's DVD promotions a couple of years ago. I was intimidated by his level of proficiency and must have subconciously felt I need a lot of "padding" before getting ready for his materials.

 

Now that two brothers here have recommended it, I'm gonna take a leap of faith and give it a shot. Thank you GovernorSilver.

[AROIOS]

For brothers/sisters with a similar interest in the Soul genres, here's what I just came across:

https://hearandplay.infusionsoft.app/app/storeFront/showProductDetail?productId=408

 

Mike Bereal and Jason White are the real deal. Between the collection above and Jamal's tutorials on GospelMusicians.com, I'm gonna have a lot of fun learning for sure.

 

Thanks again to every brother who beared with my ignorance/impatience and shared your generous insights, experience and recommendations. You guys are awesome.

[GovernorSilver]

 

Yes, I came across Jamal's DVD promotions a couple of years ago. I was intimidated by his level of proficiency and must have subconciously felt I need a lot of "padding" before getting ready for his materials.

 

Now that two brothers here have recommended it, I'm gonna take a leap of faith and give it a shot. Thank you GovernorSilver.

 

This is the first one I got. I probably would have gotten more out of it if I knew the songs that the chord progressions were intended for, as he seems to assume the audience for these DVDs go to churches similar to his, and thus are familiar with the songs. Still, it was a nice quick start to some cool chord progressions. He had some kind of software running to highlight exactly what keys he was playing.

 

https://gospelmusicians.com/instructional-videos/

 

You're welcome and good luck!

[AROIOS]

 

Yes, I came across Jamal's DVD promotions a couple of years ago. I was intimidated by his level of proficiency and must have subconciously felt I need a lot of "padding" before getting ready for his materials.

 

Now that two brothers here have recommended it, I'm gonna take a leap of faith and give it a shot. Thank you GovernorSilver.

 

This is the first one I got. I probably would have gotten more out of it if I knew the songs that the chord progressions were intended for, as he seems to assume the audience for these DVDs go to churches similar to his, and thus are familiar with the songs. Still, it was a nice quick start to some cool chord progressions.

 

https://gospelmusicians.com/instructional-videos/

 

You're welcome and good luck!

 

Yes, the Gospel instructors assume the audience's familiarity with the tunes in the same way Jazz folks do with the Jazz standards. I'm sure there's a similar catching up on the repertoire for folks moving from Classical/Pop to Jazz too.

[Rally]

Matt Johnson has a few tutorials on 'funk licks' . . .he lays it out nicely.

 

[David R]

This is exactly why I started my YouTube channel (aside from giving me something to do during quarantine) â most content I saw for keyboard players online was either super beginner easy piano stuff or very advanced jazz and classical concepts. There wasn't a lot for the intermediate player the way there is for drummers.

 

[video:youtube]

[AROIOS]

Matt Johnson has a few tutorials on 'funk licks' . . .he lays it out nicely.

 

Matt Johnson has a few tutorials on 'funk licks' . . .he lays it out nicely.

 

 

Thanks for the recommendation, Rally. I happened to have come across Matt's tutorial videos a few days ago as well. You are right, he's a great instructor.

[AROIOS]

This is exactly why I started my YouTube channel (aside from giving me something to do during quarantine) â most content I saw for keyboard players online was either super beginner easy piano stuff or very advanced jazz and classical concepts. There wasn't a lot for the intermediate player the way there is for drummers.

 

[video:youtube]

 

You rock, David! I totally dig what you are teaching and subscribed immediately.

[Sophie Leblanc]

Hi! I'm new here and just wanted to drop a line a recommend a platform that I used as a tutorial for the keyboard. La touch musical is one of the popular educational tools for keyboard beginners and advanced users. The program teaches you keyboard techniques such as striking notes, pedaling, and finger placements. The program has several lesson modules that help you develop piano playing skills fast. The program can be downloaded for free. This application and lessons, simple and easy to understand.

You can also hear actual instructors give you step-by-step advice in teaching you piano techniques. This application offers different lessons that fit different levels of learners. Great for any level: Beginners, intermediate or advanced.

If you are interested here you can find more details.