An audience member recently emailed me to ask, "How do you know what to play in between piano chords?" The question has to do with filling the space, adding rhythm and interest to the performance. In the latest video, using the songs "Holy Spirit" and "Great Are You Lord," I outlined three possible approaches: chords-only, improvised melodies, and chords plus melodies. Approach 1: … [Read more...]
Creative keyboard approach to “Great Are You Lord”
Every musician wants to reach the point where he/she is not only playing correctly, but playing with inspired creativity. But how do we bridge the gap between just playing the chart and truly playing creative keyboard? Often when we hear artists play creatively, it’s not that they are performing with spectacular technique or profound musical understanding. It's just that they’re doing a few … [Read more...]
Hammond organ concepts for worship keyboard
https://youtu.be/LZVO1EstvqQ My grandma had a beautiful Hammond B3 organ in her house. But even though I could play keyboard, I never really got an opportunity to play the Hammond. For a couple of reasons: one, the speaker was positioned right behind my grandmother's favorite chair. We couldn't really play the organ without legitimately disturbing her. But the bigger reason I rarely … [Read more...]
Three filter synth tricks you can do now
For longest time, I was intimidated by synthesizer controls. Terms like oscillators, LFO's, and envelopes seemed beyond my grasp. Somehow, over time, I figured out a few synth tricks. As it turns out, there are some basic synth concepts that enable dramatic and useful results. One such concept is the filter. And filter controls are commonly available, even on inexpensive keyboards. What a … [Read more...]
Easy scale pattern for piano improvisation
Every successful musician has a bag of tricks - playing techniques that sound more impressive than they are difficult to play. In this latest video, I demonstrate one of my tricks - a pentatonic scale pattern. It's versatile and really easy to learn. To start, you need to know: 1) the key of the song you're playing, and 2) the major scale for that key. The pentatonic scale is a major scale … [Read more...]
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