I would like to teach myself accompaniment (and you have an arranger keyboard? Yea).
How did you teach yourself accompaniment? I don't want to play the melody in my right hand. I want to accompany a singer using pads or accompaniment voices (not drums and bass).
Software, books, VHS video's, web sites, whatever. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Starkeeper

well first of all, there's practice practice practice. but you knew that. i would recommend sitting down with a song that has a decent beat and cool chords and just figuring out what the accomp is doing on the song and try to replicate it. nothing teaches like experience. get some midis off the net and turn off the accomp channels and try to play along. mess around, you'll pick it up. there are books, but i never found them too helpful. hope this helps! Zack

Zack,
Thanks for replying. By listening to songs, you mean CD's? I find that in most commercial music, there is no accompaniment, except bass and drums, when the singer is singing. At the end of a verse or long pause, the accompaniment fills in.
I'll try that tip of playing MIDI melody lines (with bass & drums) and jamming the accompaniment with the MIDI.
Starkeeper

I would recommend checking out your peers in your neck of the woods. If there's books/video/instructional aids or such on learning how to accompany singers, I've never seen them. I believe it is more of an acquired ability, combining the better aspects of "chordsmanship" and good taste.

Starkeeper, there are millions of great midi files out there, one for just about any song that ever hit the charts. Download them, listen to them carefully, then just play along with them and you'll accomplish the task at hand. Essentially, do what the sounds in your head tell you to do--it works for me.

Cheers,

Gary

Thank you all for those tips.
MIDI's are the key!! Hmm.
Gary,
As Uncle Dave once said,"I don't hear any voices in my head.. and neither do I"
Yes you do.. No I don't hear voices. We think.. Doh. There is no WE.
Starkeeper

Because I have a background in guitar and bass .... it is easier for me to hear chords AFTER I find the right bass note. It will almost always be the root of the chord, and your ear will get used to the sound of major vs. minor chords after a while.
Try this simple routine with a I - IV - V7 chord song, like say ..... "La Bamba".
Just play the full chord with the right hand on every quarter note, changing every two beats. In the left hand .... play the root note of the chord on each quarter note. This will be the basic rhythm section. Add drums and you can sing over top of it with ease.

As an acompanist ... be aware that the melody (either sung or played on an instrument)ALWAYS has priority over rhythm or harmony. Use fill ins and "fluff" in between the vocal phrases, NOT over top of them. Avoid playing the same melody notes in your chords, and NEVER, NEVER ...... sacrifice vocal comfort for "original" keys to songs. The "right" key is the one that you can SING in. Forget about where it was written, or that it may be tough for a guitarist to finger certain chords ..... it has to be right for the singer FIRST ... everything else follows.

I love singing, and I love playing, but when the two are combined ..... all the rules change, and the vocal is king. ALWAYS.
Arrange your accompaninet around the melody to enhance it, and make it stand out more. Give it plenty of room for expression, and try not to double the melody with an instrument.

An old rule that applies well to this instance is one that business people have used for years.
KISS
(keep it simple, stupid)

Play for the laymen, and the music will speak for itself.

Although I agree with many of the above comments, I believe that books also have an important role in my learning process. I recently made a substantial investment in music books. One that some of you might find interesting is "The Contemporary Keyboardist", by John Novello (560 pages!) - Hal Leonard. I didn't like the quality of the print, but this book covers a lot of material, from the very basics to rather sophisticated harmony and improvisation concepts. The last part (around 150 pages) consists of interviews with some great musicians like Chick Corea or Herbie Hancock. Another quite interesting book is "The Pop Piano Book" - A Complete Method for Playing Piano and Keyboards in Contemporary Styles - by Mark Harrison (Hal Leonard). Many useful advices about how to create pop, country, rock accompaniments.

I hope to be able to post soon a short review of these books I recetly purchased.

-- José.

Nice conversation .

The goal of playing arrangements is to determine which styles sounded like the original song .

When working with arrangements , there are limitions . Some songs have unique tempo or measure changes that can not be duplicated ( without a lot of work sequencing a custom pattern ) using a generic style . So learning the limitations of styles is a big learning experience .

Another thing that I take into consideration is the intro's , endings and variations . They need to fit the song musically . I have learned that many styles can be very effective with just a guitar strum or isolated drums + bass .

So to me, these are very important things to learn in using arrangements .

Dano in snowy Baltimore .


Expecting 12 to 20 inches of snow over the next 24hrs . I'm glad I have an SUV w 4 wheel drive .

------------------
Piano Man's Music City
624 Frederick Rd .
Catonsville Md. 21228
410 747 0200
danosmusic@yahoo.com

[This message has been edited by DanO1 (edited 02-15-2003).]

Uncle Dave,
Playing chords on every quarter note! Hey, I can do that. In the left hand I alternate on root and 5th, or bounce from root to 5th and from 5th to root on the 1st & 3rd beat example:
& 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 1
5 1 1 5 5 1
Do you change the inversion of the chord to match the singer's melody line?
Starkeeper

Jose, (Matias)
Will be looking forward to your review of the books you purchased. So do you recommend "The Pop Piano Book" to learn pop accompaniment?
Starkeeper

Starkeeper,
when I play chords for a given song, I try to keep always in mind the concept that I am really playing nothing else than a counter-melody, made by the highest note of the chords I am taking. So, the answer to your question -as far as I am concerned- is "Yes, you definitely have to play all kind of chord inversions, or even create your own chords, provided they make sense, musically".

Yes..... change up the inversions often. Arpeggiate the chords too. Fill up all the spaces AROUND the melody, but don't step on it. It'll come.... in time, it'll all make sense!

Thank Andrea for your response.
Uncle Dave thanks for the very positive encouragement. I'll keep at it, I'm just impatient.
Starkeeper

The role of accompaniment is to support rather than overpower the singer. Generally whilst the singer is singing the accompaniment should be simple and "back" and should only come up during the gaps.

So I suppose we can now start another debate about whether Yamaha's "simple" styles are better for backing than the SD1 "blimey that sounds good" variety!!!!!

I would MUCH rather sing to a Yamaha arrangement than a Ketron. It's lees cluttered, and give more room to personalize the arrangement myself. Too bad there is not a Yamaha kb I want right now.