The difference between pianists and keyboardists

hello music people today I'm going to be talking about the difference between a pianist and a keyboardist yes there is a difference as a pianist when you sit down at a piano you don't really have to think very much about Tambor that's because the Tambor of a piano is quite fixed you can play a piano even if you've never seen it before and you can have a reasonable expectation about what it's going to sound like I have a piano sound up here on this key you play a piano it sounds like a piano yes there are terrible differences from one piano to the next right if you're playing a grand piano versus an upright piano or you might notice that a piano is out of tune and you would say oh I have to call the piano tuner but in that moment there's nothing that you can do to alter the tambour of that instrument it's fixed you play middle C on a piano it's gonna sound like a piano playing middle C and so the only thing that you're really thinking about as a pianist is the music that you are making using your fingers on the keys and I guess also your foot on the sustain pedal if you're using the sustain pedal and when you take piano lessons you are learning how to use your fingers on the piano to make music you're learning proper fingering and technique you're learning about sight reading you might be learning about how to read lead sheets or how to improvise all of these things relate to the music that you make with your fingers but if you're a keyboardist you need to think about all of those same things plus you need to think about Tambor because as a keyboardist you have virtually unlimited options at your disposal in terms of the different Tambor's and sounds that you can use and as a pianist approaching a keyboard you might just be comfortable bringing up a piano sound like this one and sticking with that and depending on the ensemble that you're in and the repertoire that you're doing that that may work and that might be perfectly appropriate but a keyboard also imitates other acoustic instruments other electronic instruments there are some synthesizer type sounds there are other worldly type sounds there's so many options available and those other kinds of sounds might be more appropriate than just using a piano sound you need to think about what your role is in the band that you're playing your role is going to depend on the style the songs who the other band members are and what they're doing you'll suddenly have to do a bit more thinking about you know what frequency range even am I gonna play let me play down here up here up there and those decisions are gonna be affected by what sound you're using because some sound sound better higher or lower and it is much more difficult I think to get training in these kinds of areas when it comes to figuring out your role as a keyboardist choosing the right sound for the right song going in and finding a good sound on that keyboard and maybe editing it making it creating a custom sound or a custom layer or split keyboard those aren't commonly topics that are discussed in piano or keyboard lessons and yet it's really important in fact in a lot of cases I think it's even more important to be thinking about those sorts of things then some of the more traditional focuses piano lessons and there is a number of different sounds that I can draw up on this keyboard in order to demonstrate the importance of thinking about Tambor and listening to the sound that you're playing with a critical ear but what I'm going to use today is a Hammond organ sound this is the classic sound that is used in a lot of different styles and lots of people who play keyboard will want to use hammond organ sounds some keyboards do a hammond organ sounds better than others I think this particular keyboard does an okay job with with hammond sounds now one thing that I find is a general rule when it comes to playing hammond organ sounds on keyboards is that typically you will want to play a Hammond sound an octave higher from where you would normally play the piano because I'll show you that might sound good on a piano sound I just played a C major chord if I switch to a ham and sound play the same chord same notes that sounds muddy that sounds dirty it's too low I should be playing it an octave higher but if you're a pianist and you're not really used to listening to tambour with a critical ear you might just play this out of habit and not really realize or think gee does that sound good or would it sound better if it was up here maybe it sound he would sound better if it was all the way up there right the other thing to bear in mind is that a Hammond organ does not have a sustain pedal and a piano does as pianists you might be used to using a sustain pedal and you might use it when you're using a Hammond organ sound that's completely inappropriate it's not going to sound like a realistic Hammond organ if you're using a sustain pedal it won't sound right it'll sound ridiculous in my opinion so don't use a sustain pedal when you are using a ham and organ sound and so this is just one example of the kind of thinking that really needs to go into your playing as a keyboardist and so I hope this video has been helpful and I will see you next time

Channel: JLFListen

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Id: jADuW7jiCZQ

Length: 6min 59sec (419 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 07 2017