"Arranging" with an Arranger Keyboard
Before setting off on the journey of reading this, you may like to listen to what it is I have been "Arranging" with an Arranger Keyboard.
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http://www.tierce-de-picardie.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=474&t=9483
When I first had my Tyros 4 the objective was to turn it on and play it. This is what I would do too if sat in front of a piano, or an organ. Arranger keyboards are characterized by their automatic accompaniment styles, which are essentially multi-part MIDI riffs that follow your chord changes, adding not just a drum beat but several virtual musicians worth of backing band as well. So your Arranger Keyboard allows you to hold off calling other musicians in to form a band because you have everything you need right at your fingertips.
But with an 'Arranger' keyboard you can also think ahead of what you want your keyboard to do. Yes, those automatic accompaniment styles may very well have everything in them that you want to hear, and it is possible to just 'play' something just at the press of a button. But if you are creative with your music and know what you want your keyboard to do, are those 'default' sounds you are given by Yamaha exactly what you want to hear? In this topic I am going to explain how I have gone about 'Arranging' my Arranger Keyboard and get it to do what I want it to do.
The song I want to play is Theme from A Summer Place. I want to play it in C and am using this basic chord progression for playing it ..
C - Am - F - G7.
I have listened to Henry Mancini playing it on YouTube and have realised there is a key change to A near the end of it, so these chords will become ..
A - F#m - D - E7.
This is a Waltz, so what choices do I have for a Waltz on my Tyros 4? Not a lot!
Listening to Slow Waltz on VARIATION B, that will suit me .. with a few adjustments! This is after all an 'Arranger' Keyboard!
At the end of the following 'adjustments' there is an MP3 for you to listen to, so make a mental note of what I am doing. Probably the most difficult one to hear is where I change the BASS Voice as this is a very subtle change.
1. The 'default' TEMPO is 90bpm. Far too slow! So I have pressed the TEMPO button ..
.. and increased this to 165.
2. Next, listening to what I have now I do not want to hear that 'string' sound in the backing.
The STYLE is made up of 'PARTS': RHYTHM 1, RHYTHM 2, BASS, CHORD 1, CHORD 2, PAD, PHRASE 1 and PHRASE 2. If you press the CHANNEL ON/OFF button ..
.. you will see the PARTS listed on the screen, and they will say ON or OFF under each one.
By pressing the bottom data control buttons (arrows) under the screen (numbered 1 to 8 ) ..
.. you can turn these to OFF. This bottom button is a 'toggle switch' so pressing it again will turn it back ON (and equally, if it was OFF to start with then pressing that bottom button will turn it ON).
If you turn all the Channel PARTS to OFF and check them out individually, one at a time, you will hear what is in each PART. Those STRINGS I didn't like are in PAD, so I turned that to OFF.
3. Now that those noisy strings have been switched OFF in PAD, I can hear a guitar playing a little 'ditty', and I don't want to hear that either. This is in CHORD 1 so I have turned that to OFF too.
You can turn any STYLE PARTS to OFF this way, so whenever you choose a STYLE for a song you should always check out what those members of your band are actually playing and turn the ones that are a bit 'over the top' to OFF.
4. Listening to that BASS playing, I reckon that it is a bit thumpish and short. You can change the instrument playing any PART, so I'll see if I can find a better sounding VOICE for my BASS. To change the instrument playing a PART you start with the same screen showing the Channel PARTS ON/OFF, but this time you press the top data control button (arrow) under the screen (numbered 1 to 8 ) for the PART you want to change.
Immediately up on screen comes the VOICE currently chosen, and you will see at the top of the screen the Title is VOICE (REVOICE) .. so we're on the right track! For Slow Waltz the instrument playing is Acoustic Bass.
I have listened to all the other BASS Voices and reckon the best one is MiniSub. It plays a longer note, and is a bit deeper and clearer as to which note is being played .. but as I said earlier, you really have to concentrate to notice the difference. But for me, it was worth doing as I do like to hear a good BASS.
The MP3 of all this for you to listen to will be in a couple of REPLIES further down, as there is one more thing I have to do. To add my own PART with a 'Repeating Piano' into the backing.