and potatoes ’ songs that have you playing a piano and pad combination .
Because your hands are close together it is very important to make note choices carefully to avoid muddying up your sound . If you play chords that are more complex in closed position you can get very interesting interplay between notes , sometimes to useful effect , other times to the detriment of the overall mix .
If you ’ d like to practice playing in closed position a good place to start is giving yourself a hard boundary to play within , something like ‘ for this song I will only play notes between C2 and C4 ’ and then forcing yourself to get creative within that range alone . Being able to dynamically build in intensity while staying within a limited note range is a vital skill for staying in your lane in busier mixes .
NOW OPEN IT UP ‘ Open Position ’ might sound like ‘ just do the opposite of closed position ’ but there ’ s much more to it than that . While it can be hard to exactly define where closed position ends and open position begins I like to loosely define open position as any playing ranges for your left and right hands that leave at least an octave or more of space in between them .
Now of course on an 88-key piano that leaves a huge amount of differing ranges that could all be defined as ‘ open ’, so again it ’ s helpful to practice this skill by defining some useful ranges to be constrained to . For example , give yourself a two-octave range in the left hand , say C1 to C3 , commit to not playing any notes between C3-C4 , and give your right hand the space between C4 and C6 .
Try to play an entire song within those ranges alone , relying on your voicings and playing dynamics to ensure you fill the right amount of space throughout the ups and downs of the song . This may prove more challenging than the closed position practice above , because the higher notes here in open position are going to stand out more naturally in the mix , but if you are very intentional about your dynamics and the number of notes you play at any given time you can absolutely still fill the right amount of space .
PERFECTLY BALANCED , AS ALL CHORDS SHOULD BE Music is all about balance and interplay , each member of the band playing with and standing in contrast to the others , and each individual musician purposefully leveraging the unique traits of their own instrument to create a result greater than the sum of its parts .
Keys players are often asked to be ’ the glue ’ that holds the band together . This can make it challenging to focus intentionally on doing anything outside of just ‘ gluing ’, but the reality is that the note ranges and voices you choose from the keys position are the most important decisions that not only determine how well you glue together your band but also how you ’ re able to elevate the quality and dynamics of your band as a whole .
As with all musical disciplines being able to choose the ‘ right ’ voices and ranges is a subjective skill , equal parts muscle memory , intuition , and musical ear . Get in the habit of artificially constraining yourself to force yourself out of your comfort zone and you ’ ll find that over time these decisions happen more naturally in the moment as your musical vocabulary grows . At the end of the day your intentionality to fill the right amount of space and serve the needs of your band will pay off !
David Pfaltzgraff Founder and Lead Sound Designer at SundaySounds . com , a site that resources worship keys players and guitarists around the world . David currently resides in Des Moines , IA with his wife and two boys . He enjoys volunteering in his church ’ s worship ministry , old synthesizers , and a good super-hero movie .
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