Greetings and welcome. My goal with this article is to show you how to develop a solid foundation of technique that will give you better facility on the keyboard. We’ll deal with the fundamentals of playing on all types of keyboards and in all styles, so you’ll be able develop an appropriate physical approach to playing your instrument. Do you prefer to play by ear, as opposed to reading music? You’ll find audio and MIDI files of all the examples at www.keyboardonline.com. If you’re an experienced player already, the tips in this article will help you keep your skills sharp in a minimum amount of time. Put this magazine on the music rack and dig in! The Warm-up and Beyond The logical place to start is with the warm-up. I usually put my hands under warm running water for a minute or so and do some light hand stretching before I play. Hold out each arm parallel to the floor, with the palm facing down and fingers pointed straight ahead. Then slowly angle your wrist upward so your fingers point towards the ceiling. Don’t stretch so far as to cause any pain; a little bit of a stretch is all you need, a couple of times with each hand. When you sit at your keyboard, maintain a good posture. Your arms and palms should be parallel to the floor: Don’t let your wrists collapse. Think of a straight line going along your forearms to the knuckle of your middle finger. You should not feel any tension in your fingers, wrists, arms, shoulders, or back while maintaining this straight line. Give your arms and wrists just enough support to let your fingers curve gently onto the keys. If you experience any pain while playing, stop. Analyze your posture and position for any signs of tension. Remember to breathe; this may sound silly, but it will help you to stay relaxed while you play. If you’re experiencing pain while playing on a regular basis, especially a shooting pain in the wrist, you may be doing something wrong. With any exercises intended to build chops, use caution. If you’ve never studied privately with a good teacher, now’s the time to look into it. The printed word can describe technique to a point, but a good teacher can identify harmful or inefficient playing habits quickly and effectively. The Exercises The two exercises shown here are a good way to start each practice session. The benefits of regularly practicing them are increased finger strength, even timing, and evenness of touch. To work on your timing, play along with a metronome, drum machine, or whatever gets you in the groove with your style of choice — but never play so fast that you can’t play in perfect time. The first warm-up (Example 1) should be played slowly at first, around 80 to 100 bpm for beginners and at up to 140 bpm for more advanced players. This exercise gets the blood flowing and strengthens finger independence. Each measure works a particular finger while you hold all the other fingers down. Lift the working finger enough so that the note stops sounding, but keep the finger close to or even on the key surface — you want to spend as little energy as possible to make the note sound and the finger recover for the next strike.
Example 1: As far as dynamics are concerned, start at a medium volume and make sure every finger plays at the same level. The stronger fingers (thumb, index finger, and middle finger) naturally tend to play louder than the weaker fingers (ring finger and pinky). Listen as you play and give each finger a little more or less energy to make the sound uniform. Now try the second warm-up (Example 2). This exercise gets all of your fingers working together. Make sure you lift each finger after it plays a note; don’t let notes hang over into the sound of the next. Go for a crisp, detached sound, and keep your rhythm and note lengths even.
Example 2:
Make ’Em Your Own One of the great things about fundamental exercises is that you can modify them to make them easier or more challenging and still get positive results. The obvious way to change the difficulty of an exercise is to change the tempo, playing the whole exercise faster of slower. The key is to keep your rhythm and your touch perfectly even, no matter what the tempo. If you’re going to play an exercise fast (and everybody wants to play fast), it’s important to execute it with the same clarity, precision, and relaxed musculature as at a slower tempo. You’ll gain more from a cleanly played moderate tempo than you would from plowing through with your metronome cranked. Try playing at different dynamic levels as well. Playing exercises very soft helps develop control, whereas playing very loud develops finger strength and stamina — as long as you keep your physical mechanism efficient and tension-free. Tom Brislin is a keyboardist, vocalist, songwriter, producer, and instructor. He leads the modern rock band You Were Spiraling, handles the piano duties for rock superstar Meat Loaf, and is the author of 30-Day Keyboard Workout (Alfred Publishing). Tom can be contacted at tombrislin@ureach.com.
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