3 Tips For Playing With A Band - Piano Lesson (Pianote)

Jamming with a rhythm section is the best way for any piano player to begin to learn the techniques and tricks to play with other musicians. It’s a great way to learn to see rhythm and space as creative tools and not just annoying practice conditions.

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Special thanks to Andrew Clarke and Reuben Spyker for providing guitar and drums!

[niltomega]

I played keys and piano for 12 years gigging and I'm trying to remember what my thought process was on all this back then. I'm talking from 1992 to 2004.
Definitely one of the first things I learned was to stay out of the lower keys. Bass players are NOT into that and its very confusing for them becasue they are not used to competing with sounds in their range. However you COULD help accentuate a note with them now and then and they seemed to appreciate it. Its always been my experience that keyboard/piano players still tend to under play rather than over play. They are usually pretty cautious. Often they cannot be heard at all and sometimes this is becasue the soundman does not know what to do with them, so they just turn them down. I always did by best to make sure my solo's were loud and clear. Keyboardists also need to remember that often they are secondary instruments to the 6 string guitars. Not always...but mostly. Which makes a keyboardists job tough becasue often you are just holding rock organ notes and the like to fill up the sound. Often the audience CANNOT hear you, but if you suddenly stopped playing, they would know something is missing. Even I sometimes wondered if I was making any real sound becasue playing background harmony notes can get boring.
One thing I'm jealous of these days is the live equipment and PA's seem SO much better than what we used.
At 56 I don't do it anymore though. I thought I would ALWAYS play music. For me it just takes up too much time to keep my chops up. I also learned that if I don't have gigs to practice for, I don't really even feel like playing

[Greenriver]

The worst enemy of a bass player is the left hand of a keyboard player

[uzwllwv]

This really helps me a lot. I'm a beginner, and I don't know what to do when I'm in a band. Gotta say thank you very much.

[AlanHB]

Cool vid - it would be also good to talk about developing keys parts where there's other instruments sharing the mid frequencies too like vocals and guitars.

[poopoo]

My problem with playing in a band for the first time wasn't so much playing in the same range as it was playing on the same beats as the guitarist. I was so accustomed to emphasizing the beats because I had been playing by myself for so long

[abrahamlincoln]

Thanks so much for this tip, cause I've wondered why I can't stop playing bass on keyboard whereas the bassist is not enjoying the sound. All I gotta do is let him do his work

[tinotendamandizvidza]

Some rootless chord voicing is good too when playing with a bassist

[TanJurusma]

Quick question: is there a specific term for the “lick” he always does at the end? I want to look deeper into that on YouTube but barely find anything with keyword lick. I suppose lick is a bit jazzy. This thing he does is more pop -ish which is not exactly the same thing(is it?)

[fabiancosster]

I have a question may i play the root of the chord in the middle register without clashing with the bass player? Because sometime the song ask to use the root if i am wrong please could you give me the tip what to do thank you very much and GodBlessing

[bulldogger]

The secret is not to play the bass in the left hand. It muddies everything up terribly. Any experienced bass player can tell you this.

[TreukFlyyy]

Is there a video for those song endings pls ?

[larryinews]

I have ongoing issues with the band that I am playing keyboard with. The lead guitar player issues a song and a chord chart, which is fine. But he never checks to see if I can practice it is a key that is on Youtube or another video. Since I don't have the sheet music, I can't really practice the song. He doesn't not seem to understand this. I think it's because he plays by ear, and just uses a capo to adjust the key on his guitar.

[StratosFair]

So I'm supposed not to use my left hand at all or what ?

[nathanbyrum]

Yep, just because you _can_ do it all, does not mean you _should_ !

[sharalamanda]

Can anyone tell me what music he is playing on piano????

[theodorekorbos]

The problem is I am left-handed and I love to play bass on my piano I was wondering if I can ask somebody maybe somebody can help me is there any way that I and the bass player whoever I work with can work something out? Because just to play chords in my left hand in the middle of the middle section that's just bored to live in hell out of me.

[AudioReplica]

is pianote as ..piano pianote as big piano in Spanish ? lol

[spooon_leo]

Yeah that’s cool and all, but how the hell do I know what keys to use?

[czamyrjacobamandy]

Hello
Can I plug a surge protector into an extension Cord?

[albertwilsonpiano]

Could u tell the chord progressions used.?