Hello ,

A recent (amicable) discussion in another topic opposed me against a nice and welknown member of this forum about the manner to play guitar with a arranger.
Since it is one of my favourites subjects of musical discussion, I want to explain my point of view without hurting somebody

Remember your arranger is not an instrument in fact but among other things a possibility to play differents sorts of sounds. To play this sounds we use generally a (piano)keyboard. And here begin the problems !!!

If the sounds are better on better with the newest technologies, the way to reproduce this differents sounds depends on a human intervation.
I admit that music is not an exact science and you can play what you want with what you want. It's a personal choice and the creativity has no limits.. It is only another approach of music (see music of others people in the world) .It's always subjective and dangerous to say that our manner of playing music same to be the best

But there are in our (traditional european or american) music certain rules and also and that is important certain "physical" rules that you can't forget in the rendering of an instrument with your keyboard. If you are careful when listening a KBplayer you can guess which "normal" instrument he's usually playing : piano, accordion, organ, and so on, just on the manner he hits the keys.

If you wan to play like for example a guitar player you have to forget your piano or accordion habits ....
Just a little musical theory : everybody knows that the smallest interval between two notes on a piano keyboard is a half-tone . But an half-ton can be subdivide into "commas" (that's the french word). A piano or a arranger KB can't play that. But a violin or a trombone can do it and it is marvellous....
You can play "commas" with a guitar but then you have to use a mechanical "bender" (pop and rock) or "bend" the string with your left land (jazz and classic).
So if you want to do that with your arranger , but in moderation, you have to use your pitch-bend and/or aftertouch.

Another important thing to remember when you want to play guitar with your KB is the fact that you can only play a note when hitting a key with your right hand (for the melody of course) . You can always try with your tooth but it is not so easy !
With the real thing you can play a note with your right hand AND your left hand.
It's make a very sweet interval between two notes (for example C/C# or C/B).
With your keyboard in this circumstance, you have to hit C and C#, it is not always "sweet"
My suggestion : you hit C key you hold this key and then with the bend you tend to come to C# or B . With a little practize it is very amazing, believe me....

So sorry, I was so long ....thanks for reading , I take one hour an half to type this with my dictionnary in my right hand...without "pitch-bend"

Greetings,
JJ

Hi!

I am interested to know how to create guitar strumming on a keyboard. Appreciate any guide / tips.

Keyboard players use little tricks to replicate this behavior. They play grace notes which helps the "mind's eye" resolve two notes to sound like "commas". Granted it doesn't sound the same when you analyze it for what it is, but in the context of a song or a riff, it works quite well. We use this technique on the keyboard to play string or woodwind instruments.

Anyone else have comments on this?

Al

I've used both the grace note method and the pitch bend when playing guitar voices ... Thinking about it, I don't use pitch bend to the same degree if it is a 'jazz' tune, but I do use it....
t.

To play guitar strumming you play arpeggiated chords. You would play a chord one note at a time, very quickly, left to right or right to left. Squeak_D and Andrea are masters at this. Although many purest guitar players say that a guitar cannot be reproduced by a keyboard, these musicians can fool me.
Star