I need help adapting my guitar playing style to the requirements of keyboard instruments.
Unsurprisingly, many common guitar voicings - and perhaps more importantly, strums - don’t line up with the way great keyboards sound. When I listen to @LoFiLeiF, I’m so impressed that his pianos sound like pianos. My MG2 keyboard playing, by contrast, very frequently sounds choppy, and/or has stray notes ringing through.
Any suggestions for settings or comping approaches that work well? By way of example, I’m trying to set up a simple bass-organ-guitar trio, a la Wes Montgomery or Pat Martino, and the only way I can get the organ to sound right as to play it almost pad-like, in whole notes.
A great help to play a organ or piano VST in a realistic sounding way is using multiple fingers to pluck the relevant strings simultaneously. Try to avoid playing open strings. Remember that most common piano chords have 3-4 notes only.
Thanks! So you’re suggesting finger picking or thumb strumming instead of using the pick?
Also, you’re saying stick as much as possible to closed voicings on the middle 3-4 or top 3-4 strings? That’s probably a large part of my problem. I’m so used to playing solo with voice or in guitar duets that my reflex is to use Drop 3 voicings that rely on bass notes on the low E string.
Some part of the pianistic approach is of course combining or interwaeving small chords into melody lines.
But another part is to create a virtual “left hand” for you to play chords/notes over. I usually set up with two chains with the same instrument (piano), but where my right hand stuff is transposed up an octave or two. So say I play a chord with both chains active, I get the doubled octave notes for that and then I press an expression pedal for HOLD effect on whatever my left hand played, and I can keep on playing (right hand melodies) over that. It can look something like this:
And with that setup for a double Pianoteq patch, listen for the lingering lower notes. (This is just improvisation, so no need to look for a melody or anything)
Many thanks to both of you!! I’ll try the see suggestions, and if I encounter obstacles, I’ll let you know. I haven’t downloaded the MG3 beta yet, but I’m going to do
It this week.
