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How to Play the Keyboard with Keyboard Crash Course
Keyboard Crash Course is a short book, about 50 pages, that discusses how to take what you already know from learning classical piano and how to apply it to the electric keyboard and mostly within a band setting.
For the classically trained pianist, or myself as a cellist, reading lead sheets can be cumbersome and difficult. What in the world is an A#sus+4? And how does that translate into music, but more importantly, how are you supposed to play that particular chord on the piano? What happens when you get a chart that has chords like the one above and a melody, what are you supposed to do with your left hand? What is the appropriate approach to dealing with chord progressions and inversions of chords? These are just a few of the many many questions piano players deal with when they are asked to basically improvise from a chord chart. To many pianists, learning their own instrument in a new way can be extremely daunting and can sometimes feel damaging to their technique, but this book, Keyboard Crash Course really helps settle your fears and provides a unified approach to dealing with the most common problems classically trained pianist face when presented with keyboard style music.
Playing the electronic keyboard presents a whole new world of sounds to the classical piano. Now you have winds, string sounds, organ sounds, sound effects, etc. So your understanding of how to select and utilize all these new sounds needs to be clear. Keyboard Crash Course walks you through and gives examples of how to use certain sounds and become familiar with them.
Classically trained pianists often are in only a few settings, either accompanying, performing solo, or solo with an orchestra. So when one transfers those skills over to a band, complications can arise. This book helps you understand how to work within a band setting, it even goes into specifics with working in a worship or church band. Some of these more important ideas are addressed by discussing how to leave space for other instruments and how to blend your sound with the rest of the band. And how to also deal with band that have both a keyboard and a piano!
If you’re interested in broadening your piano skills to include the keyboard, this book is a great help. And it’s cheap too. Only $15. It’s not the book that has all the answers to all your questions, but it does give you a great start at being confident and comfortable at playing the keyboards. It takes the knowledge you already know and applies it in new ways.
Recommended as an excellent quick reference.