KEYS
ANTI-AMBIENT : THE NEXT KEYS TREND ? | David Pfaltzgraff
Let me tell you a story .
Once upon a time there was a gentle-person named Weekend Warrior . This individual played guitar in church on the weekends , hence their name . They ’ d played in some bands in college , mostly hair-metal cover bands and they ’ d held onto their Les Paul and Marshall half-stack since then , even though twenty years had passed .
Life was good . The pickups were humbuckers and the overdrive was chunky with scooped mids .
Then one run-of-the-mill mid-week rehearsal , Weekend Warrior ’ s life was forever changed . They pulled up behind the church and popped the trunk to unload their gear . As they lugged it into the church ’ s main room they noticed their worship leader , guitar in hand , down on one knee staring at the floor and twiddling something on the ground with their finger .
‘ What ’ s that ?’ Weekend Warrior asked , innocently .
‘ It ’ s called a delay pedal .’ Worship Leader replied , a wild , etherial glint in their eye .
The rest is history , a history which has been repeated many times since .
To the guitarist :
‘ It ’ s a reverb pedal ’, then ‘ it ’ s an amp with tubes in it ’, to ‘ it ’ s called a shimmer reverb .’
For us keys players :
‘ It ’ s called a workstation and it can replace the giant piano on stage .’
Then , ‘ it ’ s called a synthesizer .’
More recently , ‘ it ’ s called MainStage , Ableton Live , a pad ’, etc .
Along with all these new ideas and innovations for keys players has come a myriad of changes to the expected sounds , timbres , and spaces we ’ re asked to fill .
FILL THE ROOM
If I had to sum up the last ten years of worship keys trends in a single word it would be ‘ ambience ’. You might be wondering why I chose to start this article with a story about our hypothetical guitarist friend . The reason boils down to that same word . Guitarists were asked to add ‘ ambience ’ first and then over time we ’ ve been handed down the same responsibility .
I love it , honestly . Adding texture and vibe to a song with a moody , textural pad feels great and can be a ton of fun . So why did I title this article ‘ anti-ambient ’?
Because , my friends , the writing is on the wall . The days of ambience for ambience ’ s sake are numbered . It ’ s time to figure out a new way to ‘ fill the room ’.
CYCLICAL CONTEXT
Music trends come and go , wax and wane , in a cyclical nature , a truth that can be found with only a cursory examination of the last one hundred years of music history . Each time a trend re-emerges a new layer of creativity , nuance , or genre-bending is added on and so the trend continues , evolves , and in some way … deepens over time .