Chad Thorne Posted April 1, 2012 Share Posted April 1, 2012 Long before I get to "which Hammond clone is better?" I have a couple of very fundamental questions. I just started working on playing keyboards in earnest (instead of just noodling around) for the first time in my life. 1. My left hand is limited; my pinky is essentially useless and the remaining three fingers and thumb have somewhat limited range of motion and sensation (old injury). I can do, generally speaking, 3-finger chords with my left hand. I'm finding workarounds for things like 7 chords, and I don't expect to do many thick jazz chords. How much of a limitation might this be overall? 2. In what situations do you chord with the left hand? It seems a lot of players will chord in the right a lot while banging on a root note or octaves in the left hand. Not looking for the "hard and fast rule," just ideas on what people like yourselves, who've been doing this a long time, do and why/when. Thank you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Jx Posted April 1, 2012 Share Posted April 1, 2012 1. My left hand is limited; my pinky is essentially useless and the remaining three fingers and thumb have somewhat limited range od motion and sensation (old injury). I can do, generally speaking, 3-finger chords with my left hand. I'm finding workarounds for things like 7 chords, and I don't expect to do many thick jazz chords. How much of a limitation might this be overall? It depends upon what music you're looking to play. If you were looking to play classical, you'd struggle. If you're playing rock, you'll get by. 2. In what situations do you chord with the left hand? It seems a lot of players will chord in the right a lot while banging on a root note or octaves in the left hand. Not looking for the "hard and fast rule," just ideas on what people like yourselves, who've been doing this a long time, do and why/when. Thank you! By chord do you mean triad? There are songs where I have to cover an organ part, and a horn line. In songs like this, I'll split my keyboard, and play chords with my left hand (organ) and play the horn lines with my right. If you talking just covering one keyboard sound I usually try to spread the voices over both hands. I find if you group to many notes together in the lower register, things get muddy. That's just me. There are many better players on this forum who may disagree. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bloodyMary Posted April 1, 2012 Share Posted April 1, 2012 There are players who play circles around me with each of their hands. So yeah, even one handed kb makes sense. Now, you've got 2 hands! Regarding the bass octaves - not much harm will be done if you just play one bass note. And don't forget that modern synths allow you to layer an octaved sound with it so you get an octave with just one finger. Now, in a band setting I see value in playing sparsely, so I never play huge chords anyway. Sometimes when I play a pad, it's just two notes - the third and the fifth, or the fifth and the seventh. Let the bass player bang that root note. Stage: MOX6, V-machine, and Roland AX7 Rolls PM351 for IEMs. Home/recording: Roland FP4, a few guitars Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chad Thorne Posted April 1, 2012 Author Share Posted April 1, 2012 Now, in a band setting I see value in playing sparsely, so I never play huge chords anyway. Sometimes when I play a pad, it's just two notes - the third and the fifth, or the fifth and the seventh. Let the bass player bang that root note. Yeah, as a bass player I'm already there. I've always threatened kb players with dire consequences if they didn't keep their frickin' left hand out of my space! For 7 chords I either do the third and the seventh, or seven-root-third, like G-A-C#. I meant chords bigger than triads. Does that not come up often? I spent a lot of years believing that I couldn't play kb because of my hand. In about the last year or so I've been realizing that lots of people play lots of music without doing an awful lot with the left hand. Don't want to play classical, so that's alright. I'm loving doing this! Friends are saying, "I never knew you played keyboards like that!" hahahahahaha Age and treachery win out over youth and skill every time! lol BTW: I play in a blues band and play "blues-related" music otherwise, funk, R&B, soul, a little jazz. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chad Thorne Posted April 1, 2012 Author Share Posted April 1, 2012 Regarding the bass octaves - not much harm will be done if you just play one bass note. And don't forget that modern synths allow you to layer an octaved sound with it so you get an octave with just one finger.Yeah, when I do that sort of thing I just bang on the single root note, mostly just to keep my left hand from feeling left out... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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