Avoid Sounding Cheesy On Arranger Keyboard

Tips and demo for KORG Pa5x, YAMAHA GENOS 2 and players of PSR arranger keyboards.
MORE WOODY PIANO SHACK

[TNYFERRELL]

“Jazz Scat preset is forbidden”
Woody, you are a man after my heart.

[EricFraga]

Great advice on muting most of the auto-accompaniment tracks, Woody! Cheers!

[YotamPiano]

Buttt.... playing with the Jazz Scat sound is sooo much fun !! One of my guilty pleasures. Props to Nik Kershaw btw

[orangeman]

Thanks so much. This is what I’ve been trying to figure out for a long time and it really unlocked a lot of creative blocks.

I’ve also found that changing the tempo can dramatically change a known style.

[baotruongvan]

Great demo on Korg pa5x ever. Thanks Mr Woody

[BensMusicDojo]

I love arrangers, and don't think they are cheesy at all if used tastefully. I'm a guitarist, but got started with arrangers when I bought a PSR 373 for my sons birthday. They make for great drum machines, and I recommend them to all guitar players for that purpose. Now, I also own a PSR 473, and am about to buy a Go Keys 5 for a music studio I teach lessons out of.

My dream instrument is a more premium spec Roland FP-E50 with PHA 50 keyboard, premium speakers, transport controls to operate a DAW, and built in guitar modeling interface. Pretty much combine the FP90X, a PSR900, a Novation Launchpad, and a Neural DSP Quad Cortex, and then I will never buy another gadget again. Nor would I leave the house.

Thanks for all the great content Woody.

[samsafran]

I agree with you regarding the type of pop music you are playing. If one uses the variations, some of the tracks are already muted in the style. Yamaha (Genos2 and Genos1) has a live control knob that allow you to sucessively add drums, then bass, then chord1, then chord2 etc. and another knob that goes in the opposite direction. This feature is useful for seeing how much one should pare down or increase the orchestration of a style, in real time. As far as right hand playing sounding more realistic, the ensemble feature on Genos1 and Genos2 combines 4 right hand voices in a "smart" manner so they do not all just play the same notes. [Maybe Korg has something similar.] Different genres of music might be more appropriate for arrangers, including orchestral where one can combine sounds on the right hand and use a free style (never very busy) in the left, along with a left hand voice and if one wishes, multipad arpeggios or orchestral drums.

[clauswagner]

Great advices. This is the way i always try to play my PA1000, however i often regret not to have bought a workstation like the MODX or Montage.

[RichKielbasa]

Woody, that's some good playing. You're music did not sound Cheesy until I looked at the screen and saw more plants than wires. MORE WIRES! We know their there, you are cropping out with your camera angle. And, not a beer can in sight 😢😮🍻 🎹

[edjones]

I think a Bossa Nova will always sound
But loved you playing on Don't give up ! 👍

[gamingking.]

Kindly do tutorial about "full keyboard" accompaniment mode.
Searched whole YouTube, no related videos are available.
1. How to use full keyboard mode.
2.full keyboard vs multifingering mode.
3.how to play different voices in full keyboard mode (adding left voice).
4. How to improvise on full keyboard mode without of clashes...
5.how chrod recognition is working on full keyboard mode
Thank you 😊

[x_]

What level of professional keyboardist are you :
Plugs in a TV for display 😮

[musicmaniackeyboard]

Fun to see some more of the Korg Pa5X, also a great work station. I allready am so used to how the Yamaha workstations works, and can't afford both of them, so i stick with the Genos 2 🙂 But i do enjoy seeing and hearing you have fun with the korg. Keep having fun making music.

Kind regards, Ronald.

[AlanJanetMallett]

Thank you woody. This is the conclusion that I have come to as well. Basic Bass and drum Acc. With my new Pa5x some off the Acc are good so make a keyboard set with some in or out and you can switch. Talking of switching I have got a Blackstar Live pedal to do the job of an EC5. Also I use a Nord 6D and Nuatilus as external modules playing them from the Pa4x. Took some to to figure out how to get this to work but it is great now it does!

[HappyOrganMan]

Great demo, good hints. Thanks a lot, Woody.

Kind regards,
Thomas

[WildernessMusic_GentleSerene]

Tough to do the non-cheesy with preset styles. When you build your own for your own song, that's when the miracle of arrangers show their true value. You can build up for big peaks of excitement by using the Intro's or endings in the middle of songs or transitions, then build 2 or more measures into the variations so you can hold for that second measure with extra drum alterations and some instrument stabs options. You can also use the intro's and endings' for chord progressions and free up drum dynamics matching the progression changes. On the fills you can build a pattern that can launched more than once, 2x or 3x in a row to match the keyboard stabs. Pretty much endless possibilities, like making very complex arrangements using the faders or mutes to bring in more complexity instead freeing the other variations for other chores, and then the bank and registration allow changes in time switching so now you can have 12 variations for example....on and on...

[billgrabbe]

It seems that pads bass and drums are ok in controlled doses. Stabs and stacattos are the problem. Especially b horns. And you need to let your playing do most of the heavy lifting. Good job sir.

[markwilson]

Love this video Woody give me some ideas with my Geno s 2 one sick of sounding cheesy cheers👍

[renemerlijn]

Awsome video. I realy would like to learn how to get to this super result. 😊

[billfriesTPA]

The Korg Pa5x sounds so much better than other arrangers. Less cheesy than the Genos2.