Building Your Band

A better conversation about music, with David Loftis and Peter Bulanow

Beginning and Advanced Keyboard

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The genius plan of David Loftis was to feature a key signature a day and build from there. Generously, instead of starting with the key of E, which would be easy on guitars, he started in the key of C which would be easy on keyboardists. BEGINNER COURSE
Jamaican Co-instructor Luke Smith) by Pete Bulanow

Jamaican Co-instructor Luke Smith by Pete Bulanow

This was my curriculum for my beginner keyboard class in Jamaica. Again the goal wasn’t to teach “piano” it was to teach “keyboard” chart playing. Prerequisite:  identify middle C / names of notes Warm Up:
  • Scales: 3 octaves up and down, correct fingering, one new key signature per day
  • Right hand first, then left, then both hands
Lesson:
  • Chords with all inversions, I, IV, V, and relative minor, all chords on the keyboard, up and down, correct fingering
  • Right hand first, then left hand, then both hands
  • One key signature per day. Continue building on this for all keys in the circle of fifths.
  • Introduce a new song in the key of the day. Show instructors’ preferred inversions for a chorus or a verse), let students develop their own voicing for the verse (or chorus).
Practice makes PERMANENT:  Go slow and even, the speed will come.
ADVANCED COURSE
Keron Scott) by Pete Bulanow

Keyboardist Keron Scott playing bass by Pete Bulanow

I had a few students who were interested in an advanced course, but were courteous enough to sit out of my beginner course. If we had an advanced keyboard course, this would be my suggested curriculum. Prerequisite:  All Major/minor chords, all inversions Warm Up:
  • Scales:  3 octaves up and down, two hands played evenly, all key signatures
  • Hannon Exercises – add one new one per day
Lesson: Idea Share  (we can all learn something from each other)
  • Pick a song or two or three
  • Pick a tempo / groove (with a drum machine)
  • Go around the room and share how you play/voice the tune
Intro to Classical Technique (fingering, pedaling, terminology)
I would love to hear feedback on this from any of the veteran or advanced students in Jamaica, or anyone else for that matter. Thanks!

Keyboard Class in Jamaica

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My Keyboard Class (Pete Bulanow)

My Keyboard Class (Pete Bulanow)

I just wrapped up a week of keyboard instruction in Jamaica at Dave Loftis’ Teach 412 camp, and this was (most of) my keyboard class. I can’t say enough about how hard these guys all worked. They came in not quite sure of a C Major scale, and left knowing all inversions of the I, IV, V and vi chords, as well three octaves of scales in the keys of C, D, G, and A, all with correct fingering. Most of the students could play this not only with their right hand, but their left hand as well, and a couple attempted with both hands. This is incredible work in 2-3 hours of instruction per day for one week. I couldn’t be prouder of these guys. There was a choice to make with curriculum: teach notes or teach chords. Since we came with 104 chord charts, I wanted to teach to those. Although I have had 17 years of piano lessons, 15 of them were about notes. So although my personal journey has been grounded in notes, my journey has been one of moving away from them, which ultimately provides a freedom of expression. So the class was not a “piano” class, it was a “keyboard” class. We applied our new found chording skills to play a song in the key of the day. On the first day, the song was Stronger (mp3). I taught how I would voice the chorus (starting with a 2nd inversion C), and then let each student work out their own voicing for the verse. The amazing thing was that everyone voiced the verse differently, but each was correct. This is what we wanted to teach with the knowledge of chord inversions – the power to play the song the way you individually feels best serves the song.

Serving the song as a… [keyboardist]

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I like to have little 3-octave keyboards on top of a grand piano, and then a 4-octave USB controller to the right of the piano routed to virtual instruments in a mac book pro. While my first love is the piano, my real secret of making the piano sound good is having plenty of other sounds within easy reach… and uh, NOT playing the piano all the time. So what I’m trying to do is to keep the piano sound fresh by varying what I am doing on it. Sometimes that means sitting out a section, and sometimes that means I switch to a pad for the verses and the bridge. Sometimes I play one hand on a pad and one hand on the piano for some sections. I like the smaller keyboards, because then I can have more of them closer to me, and since I’m trying to be sure to make room for the base, the smaller boards are perfect. If I do need to do an epic pad when it’s all me, I can always use two different boards at once and the two different sounds will sound even more amazing. The other thing I love doing is running arpeggiators. But that’s one of those things you can do only if the drummer is playing to a click track, so the tempo is tight and doesn’t drift. You know that cool, muted, 8th note rhythmic device the guitarist is doing? It isn’t good form to try to layer that with an arpeggiator. No stealing riffs! When guitarists do get that mountaintop solo, there are two things we can do: hold down the song and create some space! Two hands down low playing whole notes will define the chord and the downbeat and add meat, freeing up the guitarist to do their thang in the space above.

Making room for the bass

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Once again I am going to write from the perspective of the keyboardist, which I can fortunately do not only because I am one, but also because keyboardists are the biggest offenders at this! It is actually pretty hard for a guitar to get down in that range, in the same way it’s hard for a viola to step on an upright base, or a cello to step on a violin. So, dear keyboardists – your wax- on wax-off is to sit on your left hand. I’m serious – you don’t get to use it – not at all. And here is the really beautiful thing. Your sound guy will appreciate it. The piano will sound better. Your band will sound better. It will be less muddy. Your bass player will probably take you out for dinner!  It’ll be a win-win-win-win-win, at least a five-way win. Once it starts making sense to you what you should be playing, that you can indeed get away with using just one hand, once you don’t need it anymore – then you can finally have that hand back. And you will find that you will sound better than ever. You were getting bored doing the same old thing week after week anyway, weren’t you? You needed a challenge. Well this is it. Protip:  don’t forget to do your Hanon exercises so your left hand doesn’t atrophy!

Flesh and bones

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What on earth am I talking about here? This is how I think about the roles of the various instruments. The rhythm section, consisting of bass and drums is the skeleton, the bones, and everything else is the flesh that hangs off the skeleton. So the real “song” is defined by the rhythm section. A vocal track should have no problem existing inside this space thus creating “the song”. And indeed it is all empty space in there. The other instruments – the acoustic guitar, electric guitar, keyboard, organ, solo and orchestral instruments, backing vocals and choir – all are the flesh and muscle and organs (hah) that exists inside the skeleton, and must not conflict with the lead vocal or each other! This paradigm, these new wine skins, must inform how everyone thinks about the song to include how it is played and how it is mixed. The mix must begin with the kick, snare, hat, etc. and then go to the bass, and then the other instruments. They can be sub-mixed in groups (the rhythm section in Group 1-2, the instruments in Group 3-4), so that the vocals speak, but the only thing that can conflict with the vocals are the instruments, not the rhythm section.

New wine in old wineskins

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If your church has been around for a while, it undoubtedly started out with a pianist and/or an organist. That person was the center of the music. I remember recognizing this quite dramatically when I was 12 years old, the first time the pastor’s wife in my little church of 100 was sick and couldn’t play piano. I was asked to step up and was stunned to notice that I had more power than the choir director. This despite the fact that I had been in orchestras and I knew how to follow a conductor, it turned out the conductor was following me! This paradigm becomes so ingrained that even when band instruments are added – acoustic guitar, electric guitar, keyboard, bass, drums – the piano remains the central point of the music and the mix and directs how everything happens. You can tell this is the case not only when the piano plays the introduction and then the band comes in with the congregation, but also when the piano player is mentioned in the bulletin, to the exclusion of every other musician! I’m sure this scenario isn’t the one Jesus had in mind when he said this, but I think this is one of those cases where putting new wine into old wineskins isn’t going to work out so well. How this shift happens isn’t easy, it’s a discontinuity no doubt, but we need new wineskins in order for the group to move forward, and everyone needs to be aware of it. The long and terrible reign of the piano player as dictator for life must come to an end 😉 ha!