How to Place Backup Sounds with Keyboards

Video Transcript

BEN ANDERSON: Hi. I'm Ben Anderson with Expert Village, and I'm here today to talk to you about appropriate placement in live keyboard setting. A lot of keyboardists, a lot of musicians tend to feel when they're playing in a live band that they need to be playing all of the time and that really, really isn't always the case. It's always important to remember what's appropriate in this situation in the song, and that's determined by dynamic levels. Dynamic levels are very important. There are a lot of times when I play keyboards that I don't play on stage while the other musicians are playing, and that's because by playing keyboard, I'm not really anything extra to the song, into the sound of the piece at that particular moment. It's not to say the keyboard isn't important, the keyboard shouldn't be played, but it's important to determine when keyboard is appropriate and when it's not. For example, during one song of my band, there's a moment where the song gets kinda quiet and really kind of rhythmic, and it's hard for me to fit along with that with all the rest of the instruments during the song just because of the style of the song, so I cut out and I don't play. And it's only for a few measures and it really doesn't matter to me. It gives me a moment to sit and think and remember what I have to do later on in the song. So, it's really important to think of what is really necessary to that song. Just because you can play and you can play anything doesn't mean you have to play all the time. Again, it's all about emphasizing and supporting the song and supporting the other instruments that are already there. What's important is the song. It's not important as what you're playing and what you're necessarily contributing to it. It's all about adding everything into to fit in and to make a perfect song. There are other moments when you might be playing along with the band and for some reason, it doesn't really sound right or it might sound cluttered or it might sound like there's too much going on, and that's another way to show that maybe you playing there really isn't appropriate with the other instruments. It's always important to remember what every other instrument is doing by itself compared to what you're doing as well.

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