Chill Out Room • Re: It's hope for the Arranger Keyboards future

Been able to hear a song 'playing in your head' is called audiation. Most people can do it.
But it's difficult to hear a totally new song in your head. You can easily recall and 'play' a song that you heard and know. Composing is a challenge!
Actually been able to play on the keyboard something that plays in your head, is what people call 'playing by ear'. This is something that can be learnt, although some people pick up this skill very quickly and others slowly.
I can easily play on the keys what's playing in my head. I stumble sometimes if I am missing the skill or speed to play it. Chords may take longer (on scales that I am less familiar with). And I don't really know how I do it. I just put my hands on the keyboard and play.
I also routinely turn on the radio and just play with my small midi controller whatever song is playing there in real time.
I guess quite a few people here have this ability.

100% on both counts (both posts); this is actually very trainable. We closed our schools after summer of 2023 (I learned here as a kid!) and the Yamaha method? Trains kids to be able to hear a song and playback immediately; that's how I was trained, and I've seen decades of children learn this and most of them can do it. It's definitely a trainable skill being able to 'synch' what you hear to what's on the keyboard (no I don't have perfect pitch; but I do have perfect relative pitch, which most people do)

Yes, there are several ways to enjoy a synthesizer or an arranger. It doesn't have to be the standard 'playing the keys' thing. The whole idea on synthesizers is creating your own sounds, hence there are quite a few with no real keys.
Similarly you could use an arranger as smart backing track. If you let go of the rules, the possibilities are endless.
Many of the complex modern workstations can play complex stuff by themselves, Montage for examples has thousand of arps and predefined performances with amazing sound evolution. And synths like Wavestate take this to extreme.

Yup, nobody says you *have* to learn chords and scales to make music. Just plunk around and see what sounds good. Kanye (not discussing his character here) has won a few Grammys, and based on the 1 time I saw him perform 'live' on SNL, I think it's a safe bet to say he can't play a single note; don't forget, drums are instruments, too!! You could *literally* write an entire song with just drums and a bassline. e.g Iggy Azailia's "Fancy"

Mark

Statistics: Posted by amwilburn — Mon Feb 10, 2025 9:52 pm

---