Those looking for a new pastime or hobby would do well to remember the benefits of learning the keyboard. But getting started out on this tough instrument will deter many new keyboard players away from becoming experts in their own fields of music. To help speed along the process and enjoyment, following a few guidelines would be in the musician’s best interests.
The first thing to remember in playing a keyboard is to have fun- after all, you’re learning because you want to- not because you have to. It is recommended to try and find songs that you may like and try to find music sheets detailing how to play them. Such music can commonly be found over the Internet, in music stores, and from fellow keyboard players who share same tastes.
Learning how to get the perfect listening ear for musical notes is one of the highest sought skills in keyboard playing. This is because anyone who can learn how to play by ear will essentially be able to hear a song and play it just from listening to it! This also serves great purpose for when the keyboardist with the perfect ear wants to record their own music into tablature. Thus, it’s a good idea to try and learn by ear as well as through reading notes.
Timing and rhythm are vastly important to the success of a keyboardist. Timing and rhythm can both be learned by obtaining a metronome, which is just a device that ticks or beeps based on different timing measures. It’s best to use such metronomes while reading sheet music, preferably of music that the keyboardist enjoys so that proper timing can be observed.
Next, it’s good to try and use both hands where applicable. Even when one hand can be used to play multiple notes close together, it’s good to use two hands to simplify the action and to help learn placement at a quicker pace. This way, less attention will be put onto trying to find keys with a certain hand, and more attention can be put on reading sheet music that most keyboardists require for learning.
As a last word of advice, it is important to have more fun than anything. Often times when a keyboardist makes multiple mistakes, he or she can do so without the listeners actually being able to tell a difference. This fact helps keyboardists relax, since they know that striking every key precisely isn’t vital to having a great show for an audience- since most of the time they won’t even be able to tell the difference!
Closing Comments
Keyboardists will all agree that once they get past the learning curve, the hobby of playing the keyboard is very rewarding indeed. The trick is to keep practicing, resting, taking ample breaks, and getting back to work at becoming a better keyboard player. The best part is, once you learn the keyboard, you can play the piano just as easy!