The Silly Keyboardist

Sure there are tons of concert piano players out there, and some can be real pains to play with. Most, though, know their instruments so well, they know how to have fun with them, and do on every occasion. I'm not asking for you to become the next Lehrer or Borge here, but here are a few thoughts to add more fun to your keyboard playing.

PRACTICE YOUR FIFTHS

Not only should you make it a practice to know your circle of fifths on the keys, but you should also practice doing that five-finger spread that is so useful in most pop music. Sure, knowing which third, second or even fourth to throw in on which chord thickens up your sound, but if you are playing with a full band, sometimes just simple stride-type piano is all you really need to do. Make sure you can quickly hit your root with your left hand, then follow up with a fifth on your right, and make sure you can do this with several different octaves, not just the one around middle C. The easier you can work in different rhythms with just root/chord, changing up when you hit each, then barrelhouse piano becomes second nature, and you can jam with most blues and rock bands very quickly, as well as many country bands (but for those, sometimes the seventh or dominant seventh can sound really cool, too!). Get a simple rhythm book, and try different patterns until you can play them pretty much off the cuff, and then try going out to a jam night sometime. You'll be amazed how quickly you will start coming up with song ideas after this, just from jamming around in basic bands on elementary blues tunes.

PRACTICE RUNS

The run is one of the more fun things a pianist can do to liven up dead parts of a song that just need some little thing to jazz it up and make people take notice. Those little runs in songs like "Close To You" by the Carpenters, or the full out top to bottom or bottom to top runs in many rock tunes are just simple scales or running a finger across keys really fast, stopping and starting along with the rhythm in the hole provided. Given a little practice on scales and just taking the back of your fingernails and pressing then dragging them across several keys (whites work best, but blacks can sound great, too), you will soon be able to do this on cue, and within the needed space in the music. Sure, you can do a real classical-sounding complex scale or even a chromatic scale here, but sometimes simple is all you really need. Play around with some of these in the pauses of songs you have written that people tell you need a little something, and you may have just livened up your piece into a memorable one. Give it a try.

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