How to improve your solo piano / synth playing

How to improve your solo piano playing.

Want to improve your solo piano playing (and improvising)? Here are the basic steps to follow.

1. Learn your scales: Helps a great deal to improvise, provides you sort of a blueprint as to what notes should be used when soloing. Scales that are commonly used – major, minor, major pentatonic, minor pentatonic, and blues.
2. Know when and where to use the scales: The key and the chords usually determine what scale you should use. If you are playing in A minor, then you can use the A minor scale or the A minor pentatonic, for example. You can even start with the blues scale and then learn the other scales.
3. In more complex music, the key may change mid-music. So learn to smoothly move between different chords and scales. Learn to keep up with all the chord changes, it will make your solo sound rich.
   

   “There are no wrong notes,” Miles Davis.

4. Practice Effectively: Once all the pieces are in place, start practicing. Running up and down the scales as quickly as possible is a common mark of a beginner soloist. Avoid this instinct. Start practicing slowly, try to experiment rather than develop speed (initially). Try creating pleasing melodies. speed will come eventually. Listen to great piano solos and try to emulate them. Borrow riffs and tricks from the greats. Improvisation is the most rewarding part of playing music so go ahead and enjoy it.

The Art of Synth Soloing: Richard Wright (Pink Floyd)

Richard Wright, an English composer, singer, and songwriter, was the founder member, keyboardist, and vocalist of the progressive rock band Pink Floyd.

Richard did the synth work on some of the most iconic albums of the late ’60s and throughout the ’70s.

Not a flashy player and not particularly known for his technique, Richard used to play perfect-for-the-song parts that were crucial to the Pink Floyd sound. An important lesson for all musicians to keep their egos aside when in order to serve the song better. After all, it’s all about crafting a memorable, hummable song.

Here, we decode a few of their songs and see how Richard created the synth solo part for the songs. In most of these songs, you can hear the Minimoog-driven solo sections, when you have a great-sounding instrument like the Minimoog, you should unleash it from time to time, and that’s what Richard Wright craft-fully does in these songs.

Here’s a lesson in the Art of Synth Soloing. Read Full Article.

The Magnetic Fields – ’81 How to Play the Synthesizer

The Magnetic Fields shared their music video for ’81 How to Play the Synthesizer, from 50 Song Memoir, due March 10, 2017. It introduces squelching synth lines and blunt lyrics on, well, how to play the synthesizer.

The video is focused on the synthesizer, with clips from John Erickson, Alex Basco Koch & José Zayas featuring a ton of synthesizers, as well as their very detailed manuals.

50 Song Memoir is available for pre-order on iTunes and Amazon. Its a “five-disc” collection of 50 songs.

KeytarHQ Editorial Team

KeytarHQ editorial team includes musicians who write and review products for pianists, keyboardists, guitarists & other musicians. KeytarHQ is the best online resource for information on keyboards, pianos, synths, keytars, guitars and music gear for musicians of all abilities, ages and interests.