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90s songs with keyboards


Bob L

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Looks like I am joining a band that is going to play mostly 90s. Female and male lead vocalist. The pop/dance stuff (Paula Abdul, Maria Carey, Whitney Houston) has a lot of keyboards (I think). Are there some gems that were reasonably big hits from the 90s that have distinctive keyboard parts that audiences would enjoy? Some genres like grunge seem to be barren waste lands with regards to keyboards. Full disclosure, when I was living through the 90s I mostly listened to jazz (was taking piano lessons and learning jazz) so I don't have any life experience to draw on. I know for some material I will be filling in stuff for songs that have no keyboards ( I think all keyboard players have to go with that for some songs), but I don't want to do that all night.

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This is something I really don't understand. There are lots of bands in my area looking for keyboard players. When they send me a set list, almost none of the songs have keyboards, especially the 90s bands.

 

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This is something I really don't understand. There are lots of bands in my area looking for keyboard players. When they send me a set list, almost none of the songs have keyboards, especially the 90s bands.

 

-dj

 

Same here. However, in all fairness, if they've been playing without a keyboard, then they've been forced to "use what they have" thus focusing on guitar-centric songs. Sad, because as WE all know, the best songs feature keyboards! :-)

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I was in a successful 90s cover band but I also doubled on guitar. I grabbed a random set list. We churned tunes a lot. We would cycle in different Brittney and No Doubt tunes. Being from Illinois during the Blackhawks Stanley Cup runs I of course loaded goal horn samples for the beginning of Chelsea Dagger. The are a lot of good tunes with keys but I wanted to play guitar.

 

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Pretty cool that a band was covering Supermassive Black Hole I must say :)

 

I'd love for us to cover a Muse song but the band isn't really down with it. I don't think we do any actual 90s songs that had keyboards, Basket Case is my cue to run out front and check the mix (we run sound from stage).

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Sheryl Crow songs usually had some Hammond or wurli.

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I played a set of No Doubt songs at a tribute band gig, all really interesting keys, except I'm Just a Girl: great hook but incredibly boring to play

 

Not sure why people are mentioning Cranberries, great songs but there's no keys afaik

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There were some great retro-sounding acts during the era, some mentioned above: Wallflowers, Counting Crows, Blues Traveler, Barenaked Ladies, Sheryl Crow, REM and similar, and keys work well with most of the material. The retro 90s genre also appeals to folks steeped in 60s-70s music, so you get two audience demographics for the price of one. Somewhat related: when I first arrived in FL about a decade ago, there was a 50s-60s music demographic and bands that catered to them. No longer, as the line seems to have moved to around 1967.

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So when you're on stage for a "no-keys" song that you don't sing on, do you add something on your keys or do you just smile and dance? For real though, what do you guys do in those cases? I play in a classic rock band that does a lot of guitar only tunes. I add in some organ or EP at times.
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So when you're on stage for a "no-keys" song that you don't sing on, do you add something on your keys or do you just smile and dance? For real though, what do you guys do in those cases? I play in a classic rock band that does a lot of guitar only tunes. I add in some organ or EP at times.

 

For most of the 90s stuff its easy to write some keyboard parts that blend well. I played in a 70s-'00s band that had a good collection of songs before I joined that were non-key. They encouraged me to write keys. Not all guitar bands do that though â¦

 

In my 80s harder rock bands, I"ll emulate an amped electric guitar sound sometimes.

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This band is just getting put together and the guitar player and bass player (great guy who I played with in the past) want a keyboard player. So we are in the process of putting a set list together that will take advantage of everyone's talent. So the rare opportunity to engineer the set list around the instruments. I've gotten awesome feedback on this thread and appreciate everyone's input.

Korg CX-3 (vintage), Casio Privia PX-5S, Lester K, Behringer Powerplay P2, Shure 215s

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Yes, I agree... If your band REALLY wants a keyboard player, they should be adding lots of songs to the set list that HAVE keys in the original recording.

 

There will, of course, be songs that DON'T. But that's okay. Just recognize that Guitar is the main instrument of Rock (everybody else, more or less, does). Then just tastefully add keyboard parts (usually Wurly works out fine), and you can just double up on what the rhythm guitar is doing... like in the intro to the Stones' "Brown Sugar", or in lots of Rod Stewart/Faces songs. Then you won't step on anybody else, and you add some nice texture to the rhythm parts.

 

As the band's keyboard player, you have a nice opportunity to become the "musical advisor" and even "musical arranger" to the band. The two bands I'm currently in call upon that skill of mine a lot.

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90´s bands that sounds like 90´s and are keyboard heavy:

 

Faith No More

Smash mouth

No Doubt

 

90´s bands that sounds like 60´s/70´s bands and are keyboard heavy:

 

Black Crowes

Wallflowers

Charlatans UK

Counting Crows

 

For a little less keyboard heavy 90´s bands, you can look at Oasis, Blur and brit pop in general.

 

Hope that helps.

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Smash mouth

This really depends on the song. "All-Star" is prototypical 90s. But "Walking on the Sun" is as vintage late-60s as they come with an awesome transistor organ part!

 

To add my 2cents. I figure most bands want all members playing a good 80% of the time, even if the songs don't have keys on them. It looks and sounds really weird to have one musician who only plays here and there, unless they're a guest. Furthermore, you're going for an even sound throughout the night. Keyboard is not a quiet instrument, you drop out, it's going to impact the mix. I think for the most part, you have an obligation to keep the sound going to some degree, if only to keep the energy up. I find wurli or a distorted hammond sound almost always blends well with rhythm guitar, no matter the era of music. If there is no specific keyboard part, just comp along, maybe hit the accents or add some funk. At the end of the day, it's just another instrument in the band. If there's someone singing, it probably can do every background job a rhythm guitar is supposed to do anyway. So just be a second rhythm guitar (like many 90s bands)... but on keys.

 

The one exception was AC/DC, I always jumped off stage when they did their ACDC mini-set, but mostly just so the band could have an excuse for me to bring them more beers. I probably could have faked that too on Wurli just fine. Hell, I harmonized Thin Lizzy parts on Rhodes, and that sounded great.

Puck Funk! :)

 

Equipment: Laptop running lots of nerdy software, some keyboards, noise makersâ¦yada yada yadaâ¦maybe a cat?

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To add my 2cents. I figure most bands want all members playing a good 80% of the time, even if the songs don't have keys on them. It looks and sounds really weird to have one musician who only plays here and there, unless they're a guest. Furthermore, you're going for an even sound throughout the night. Keyboard is not a quiet instrument, you drop out, it's going to impact the mix. I think for the most part, you have an obligation to keep the sound going to some degree, if only to keep the energy up. I find wurli or a distorted hammond sound almost always blends well with rhythm guitar, no matter the era of music. If there is no specific keyboard part, just comp along, maybe hit the accents or add some funk. At the end of the day, it's just another instrument in the band. If there's someone singing, it probably can do every background job a rhythm guitar is supposed to do anyway. So just be a second rhythm guitar (like many 90s bands)... but on keys.

 

I couldn't have expressed it any better. This is perfect advice.

 

I have always felt that doubling up on Wurly EP to rhythm guitar parts gives it somewhat of a "bubble-gummy" sound. Again, like the Stones into to "Brown Sugar" - perfect example. The Wurly sort of gives a somewhat "sinister" sounding rhythm guitar part a kind of "friendly, skipping down the road chewing bubble gum" kind of sound, and takes some of the "sinister" edge out of the sound. Good for some things, not so good for other things. Probably why Black Sabbath never needed a keyboard player. :)

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[Keyboard is not a quiet instrument
I'm going to respectfully disagree. It's straightforward to play quietly on keys: a tiny bit of 008000000 Hammond is a great way to not sit out a guitar song, if you don't want a prominent part. Plus - how many threads are there on this board about guitar players being loud? And how many about keys players being too loud? We know about dynamics!

 

I've always liked the distorted-wurly-in-guitar-songs sound. To me it's not bubblegum, it's the sound of Ian McLagan in The Faces.

 

Cheers, Mike.

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Snowed in with nothing to do, so contributing as a DJ. Ignore if inappropriate.

 

Looking through my 90s DJ folder here's the top 10 songs I've played over the last 15 years. Traktor keeps a record of his stuff. Some of these have been over 1000 times.

 

You Can Do It

Pony

Back That Azz Up

Hyptnotize

California Love

This Is How We Do It

Regulate

No Scrubs

How Do You Want It

Family Affair

etc.

 

Classic hip-hop from the 90s has really endured, most of it is keyboard heavy, but it's probably not going to apply to your situation. Still you might have them take a listen to No Scrubs. Still huge...

 

Looks like I am joining a band that is going to play mostly 90s. Female and male lead vocalist. The pop/dance stuff (Paula Abdul, Maria Carey, Whitney Houston) has a lot of keyboards (I think)...

 

This would be fudging a bit because it's late 80s, but of the artists you mention Whitney's I Wanna Dance With Somebody would be tops. Absolutely packs the floor with any kind of crowd. It's in F# then modulates to Ab. For mixing purposes I often drop it to F/G, and nobody cares. Might be easier to play there.

 

Sticking to pop/dance stuff with keys (even if it's mostly balloons) here's some that always work well when I'm doing 90s themed nights:

 

Cher - Believe

Britney - Baby One More Time

Backstreet Boys - Everybody (any Backstreet Boys work this one is more uptempo)

NSNYC - I Want You Back

Spice Girls - Wannabe (Never underestimate the power of this song if you have a room full of intoxicated female millenials!) :laugh:

 

However if it's male and female vocalists who are putting together a 90s band, I have a feeling they already know what they want to do.

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I do get the question of whether Wurli is "bubblegum" or not. I usually really turn up the distortion for hard rock, so that it really crackles and sustains. But for early metal, I go full Jon Lord and use a distorted hammond. Black Sabbath? Hammond, all the way. 70/90sRock, Distorted Wurli. If it's really heavy grunge, back to hammond.

 

I guess my point about keyboard being a loud instrument is, it's usually going though the PA, and in my experience, most everything going through the PA is all blended together. Sure, you can turn down, you can play quietly, but it's still "There" in a heavy mix. If you completely drop out, I feel like it really changes the feel of the band, even if you were playing quietly.

Puck Funk! :)

 

Equipment: Laptop running lots of nerdy software, some keyboards, noise makersâ¦yada yada yadaâ¦maybe a cat?

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Completely unrelated to this thread and just for the record, the first Black Sabbath album changed everything - a killer album. :rocker:

 

Speaking as a (primarily) bass player...

 

Yeah...what he said...

 

Grey

 

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