When working out what sounds to play with a song what combinations of sounds do you use. Ie a ballad starting off quiet and building to a big finish.

Hi James,

Me personally I would bring in the strings and then a choir for a big finish

Brian007

Hi James,

Choosing voices for a piece is always a difficult one as more often than not the piece one is trying to play is a 'vocal' and one is playing it as an 'instrumental'. So the consideration has to be, "What sound(s) will best fit the 'mood' of the piece?". And different voices are played in different ways. A percussive instrument like a piano or vibes will be played with 'attack'; and with strings or a horn the technique will be to run one note smoothly into the next. I think there is no doubt that how you play a piece will depend on the sounds you are using.

And then you have to think of what tempo it should be set at? Too slow and the piece will 'drag'. Too fast and it will sound as if one is rushing to get to the end, pack up and go home.

Half the fun of playing our keyboards is finding those styles and voices that we think will suit the song we are playing. I think one's approach to any song will depend on the song. In this one below I have started off with no backing at all .. just chords and melody. Then as the song starts I have brought in the drums and bass ... and as the piece progresses I have gradually increased the 'tempo'. And to get a 'fuller' sound I have switched from playing the melody with single notes to playing with full chords. But no 'big finish' as what I have done here is to gradually 'fade out' at the end.

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Those Were The Days

Hugh

As time has moved on with my Korg Pa700 and dug deeper I've found more features that you can use to add to your keyboard sets. You can add multiple splits on your upper sounds (So you can for example have a straight piano sound on 2 octaves and piano and strings on another 2 octaves). You can also set up different velocity settings for your upper sounds (you could have strings when you play softly and then a brass come in on top of the strings when you press the keys harder)

Hi James,

That sounds very interesting, more especially as I too have a Korg but haven't tried multiple split points or velocity switching which
sounds very interesting, just never seem to have the time to experiment that much and tend to only go deeper for a specific need .
But you have certainly given me food fot thought,

All the best, Brian007