One FINGER, Or More left Hand Accmp..

One FINGER, Fingered, multi finger mode, full keyboard, etc,
Or More left Hand Accmp..? what do you use?...and WHY?

Personally I use multi fingered split mode I don't want to miss out on all the kool chords in a song buy using one finger etc,
....but that's me

ALWAYS multi-fingered ...

Multi-fingered (playing regular chords)
Jim

I don't use any one finger, or short cut methods like Yamaha and Korg offer, or even intelligent chord like Roland uses..

Mostly I play piano mode where Roland needs to use 3 or more notes to read chords .. and on the BK9, with hold pedal needs 5 or more notes to change chord recognition..

I always use bass inversion too..

This method always insures me that I will get the intended chord... I have no problem playing full chords with either hand or both hands.. This is the most natural way as a player..

If I am going to use another sound besides Piano and EP or guitar, I will split the keyboard and play actual chords with my left hand... right hand will be sax or any other mono instrument .

Multi-finger.

Left hand multifinger full chords, but trying to act like a pianist and left hand bass once in a while, sadly without any big success.

Multi-finger chords.
Donny this is one of your better posts.
If you study what an organ player is doing with his left hand you will understand why multi-chord finger is the best. In short, there is something happening besides your left hand and the style.

Why?
1-I can add all the extensions of the chord I am playing. Ex. G7-9#5
2-My left hand can feed my right, or my vocal. String section – Brass—or piano. I hate strings in a style – it keeps on moaning and moaning. With my left hand I can control what I need taking the boredom out of the style ---- and it is supporting the solo or vocal.
3-Did you ever want a guitar strumming – well that is my left hand.
4-With my left-hand set to a lower piano sound with after touch – and my right hand is set to piano with or without Ensemble/Chord Harmony I’m a piano player.
5-When a minor chord has its root moving down in half-tones – Am to D7/D9th it is my left hand that covers the change leaving my fight hand free to add what is happening.

Having studied guitar and taught taught guiitar and played guitar since my twenties I was able to transfer what I leaned to the keyboard. If there is any interest I’m up to sharing.

My opinion: One of the best features on a keyboard is the switch that cuts everything but the drums and bass from a style. I get to add the pads I created and my right and LEFT HAND. Good bye boredom!

John C.

Multi finger but only three at a time.

Your very welcome John,...it's a serious topic that we all are familiar with and is well deserved to be discussed as everyone does it differently with fingering and chords which can easily be heard when playing...no way around that.
Timing & the right chords are pet peeves of mine.
Take care

Allways multifingered full chords...
So you can also use the left hand to add some riffs of single and double notes witouth triggering the chords...

Forgive me for probably being the only person on this forum who cannot play a piano, read a single note from a music score... and most would say, "He can't sing worth two hoots in hell!"

My arthritic fingers leave me in the single finger, left hand only crowd... or is it a conspiracy, LOL! In the final analysis, I feel so fortunate to be able to put my songs to music because Arranger Keyboards (especially Yamaha) exist. I can't play golf any more due to spinal sciatica from old injuries and I'm left with spending hours entertaining myself by writing songs, putting them to music (chords only) and recording them so folks can get the gist of what I'm trying to use as bait for somebody with real talent to sing.

To get out of the house and schmooze with friends, I play chess downtown twice weekly for a couple of hours.

Donny's 88 key thread (there is another, I think by Bachus) is what this forum is all about. We like what we like... or not. I don't need 88 or even 40 keys. Mostly the left hand section of the "board" would be fine. I push those intro, break and outro buttons with the other hand as well as the multi-pads. I never entertain and never will. Not my thing. Old and ugly won't play well in Sheboygan.

For those of you who do perform... you have my complete admiration. I wish I had your talent. I only hope that a song or two will be my legacy for the widow and orphans I'll be leaving behind when the Devil comes calling for me.

----Mayberry Dave

I think you missread this topic, this is all about playing technique and using the tools you have in the arranger to the fullest..

Forgive an old geezer for not watching the videos. I don't allow myself much surfing time because of the need to record or write... and often, re-write and/or re-record. But Donny's "Header" seemed to be asking who does and who does not use only one finger to enable the arranger (no matter what brand) to work it's magic. LOL!

I spend more time "tweaking styles" and searching for the appropriate Multi-Pad(s) than I do on the actual final recording. One thing is certain, Arrangers are marvelous... no matter what brand... and, being "above ground" is fantastic.

All my best, ----Dave Rice

Transitioning from midi accordion without previous left hand key experience, I first went with this Orla kx10 configuration..then to a korg pa500 musikant (then others) using single finger chord triggering eventually adding fingers as I did more. I don't aspire to become a pure pianist style player but to be able to use the (auto) arranger for what it was designed to do..
Am I limiting myself in what I can sound like without complete left hand technique? Probably...but am I, and my audiences happy with my sound? Yes..no other approval needed.

I realized that I answered this wrong; I use "Fingered" mode, not multi-fingered, on Yamaha keyboards. This is because (as someone else also mentioned), I like to be able to add "licks" and such; as long as I play those as single notes or two notes, the full chord that I last fingered stays 'active'.

I have never tried Yamaha's "Multi-fingered" mode actually . . . just used Fingered . . .

Jim

A gynecologist once said, "two fingers are professional, one is social".



chas

Chas... you crack me up! LOL! (Maybe I should have said that differently???) Are you sure it's Roswell, GA and not the other one? Thanks for your humor.

Dave, I know you can't totally judge someone based solely on internet contact, BUT..., assuming you don't have three abducted women chained up in your basement, you certainly seem to be one of the nicest guys on this forum. Buttering ME up doesn't hurt either .

chas

Chas:

Any friend of Don Mason is a friend of mine. My momma told me it is best to attempt to catch bees with a little honey instead of poking at the nest or hive. LOL!

Off topic: I tried bee-keeping in my teen years and discovered how difficult it can be. A swarm landed on a tree trunk in our front yard. It is written that they are fairly docile in the swarming stage... when a new Queen flies away from the original nest to build her own colony. I took them at their word and reached into the swarm with my bare hands and dumped them into a cardboard box with a lid. Not a single sting. I doubt if I would try it again, though... not without all that garb and smoke pots they normally use for protection and to assure calm.

Thanks for your kind words.

----Dave

Tnx, that gave me a big laugh. Good start of the day.

I never play individual left-hand notes. Being able to trigger a major chord with just one key makes a lot of fast chord changes smoother, and often possible without repositioning your left hand. IMO Yamaha doesn't really have a good mode for this. I actually run the "left" side of my Tyros through a BK-7m to take advantage of Roland's "Chord intelligence." The resulting chords are then fed back into the Yammie's accompaniment engine via MIDI, so I can use Yamaha's bigger style library, and more complete user style control parameters. I have a lot of seat time with the Roland system. One-key majors, two-key minor, 7th, M7, etc., make it easy and fun to play a lot of songs. I can press all the notes if I choose to, and I sometimes do. But if I can get more chords without moving my hand around, that's a win. For a wide variety of songs, I've become convinced that Roland's "Chord Intelligence" (and Casio's "Fingered 1" mode which is very similar) allows the widest variety of chords and chord changes, with the least hand movement.

I agree with your comments. I use Korg's "fingered 1 note" system which is similar to Roland's and lets you play a major chord with one finger and minors and major and dominant sevenths with 2. I am still in learning mode and the less hand movement the better.

Now here's the thing. I still have my Technics KN7000 which would you believe whilst set to single finger left hand can still play three finger chords without changing any settings. So sus4 etc become a possibility whilst playing simple chords single finger.
Do any other manufacturers keyboards manage this?

Yamaha's multi-finger mode allows both single finger and standard finger of chords when this mode is selected. This allows you to rapidly change chords using either technique.

Gary

I think all the brands have a form of it.

This is a defining feature of arrangers. All of the brands do have a form of it, and there are subtle differences among them. I've studied them, and Roland/Casio (newer models) give you the broadest range of chord types with the fewest keys pressed. Korg is close enough to be playable without a lot of re-learning, but it does require additional keys to be pressed for some chord types.

On the only Ketron I've tried, it had a tendency to recognize a 6th chord when I use my typical fingering for a minor 7th. I understand musically why this happens. But since there tend to be more minor 7th chords in the songs I play, I don't prefer Ketron's interpretation. (Casio has a mode where you can suppress recognition of the 6th chord to avoid this issue.)

Yamaha doesn't offer a 2-note fingering for major 7ths. Their shortcut for minor chords involves pressing key(s) that aren't actually part of the chord, doesn't permit inversions, and usually requires repositioning your hand. I've never tested GEM or Technics, but among current brands, I'm pretty sure that Roland or Casio are the most thoughtfully conceived and executed.

Minors are easy on Yamaha - just press the root key and the adjacent, left, black key and you have a minor.

Major 7th, however, will require all four fingers - no shortcut that I know of for Maj7 chords.

This is from the Lessons section of the PSR-Tutorial sit. Note: Yamaha provides players with 7 different fingering modes to select from.

SINGLE FINGER

The simplest method is to use the single-finger approach. This is the SINGLE FINGER type. Using the single-finger method, you can easily play all major, minor, seventh, and minor seventh chords:

In this mode, you need only press a single key, the "root" value of the chord, as described above to trigger any major chord.
For a minor chord, you press two keys at once, the root key and a black key to the left of that root. For example, to signal the Em chord, you would press simultaneously the E1 key and the Eb1 key (the first black key to the left of the E key).
For the seventh chord, simultaneously press the root key and a white key to its left. (E7 would be signaled by pressing simultaneously E1 and D1.)
For a minor seventh chord, simultaneously press the root key and both a white and black key to its left. (Em7 would require pressing E1 and Eb1 and D1 all at the same time.)

However, the Single-Finger method, does not enable you to play a C major seventh (CM7) or C augmented (C+) or C major sixth (C6) or C diminished (Cdim) or C ninth (C9) chords. The single-finger method would work for very simple songs, but could not be used to play more modern tunes using fancier chords.

Gary