Practice Practice Practice. How many hours a week do you type and for how long back vs. how much time do you spend at the Piano? Also, typing has a concrete end, a word. Whereas music is a lot more abstract. Of course, if you work with MIDI, there is the equivalent of spellcheck for musicians now.
Personally, I just play keyboards wrong. I play the chords with my right hand and then back then add extra bass with the left. But I'm a bass player and biased.
Well, you're right of course about my spending a lot more time typing than trying to play piano, and there's the matter of typing not requiring precise synchronization between the hands as long as each task happens "quickly enough", but at least on a piano the two hands are working on the same communication. (And I don't have any trouble using both hands on a guitar...)
Interesting comment about playing keyboards "wrong". I'm left handed -- well, mixed-dominance actually, with several tasks (including guitar/bass/mandolin) done right-handed, and somehow it's always seemed to make sense to try to finger piano chords on my right hand ... maybe I need a dual-manual instrument so I can play a higher-octave keyboard with my left hand and a lower-octave one with my right?
It takes a little bit of a reach but that an old family style organ would work with its seperate keyboards, or two small electronic. Like a stripped down Paul Schaeffer.
Personally, I like approaching music as ignorantly as possible and consequently do many things "wrong." I don't have the dexterity to be a great musician, I can pass on guitar or Bass but I'm no virtuoso. So, what I do, is bounce from style to style and from instrument to instrument. It really helps me in songwriting and arranging. A lot of the time blending seemingly disparate styles is beautiful. It's like the chocolate in Mole sauce. If I'm trying to record a keyboard part that sounds normal I usually have to do it on a couple or more tracks. I can do simple bass lines and chords simultaneously but my hackishness shines like gold.
You can get some really funny results doing things the wrong way. Especially, if you have little knowledge of theory but write fairly lush arrangements. I had one song in my old band that the guitarist couldn't play because he couldn't get his head around the changes but the keyboard player who has chops and knowledge enough for a few people explained that what I was doing actually made sense and could translate it for him so it was acceptable. It was way over my head. heh.
It takes a helluva lot longer to write my way but it keeps me off the streets and I usually come up with something i like so...
How do you get to Carnegie Hall?
Personally, I just play keyboards wrong. I play the chords with my right hand and then back then add extra bass with the left. But I'm a bass player and biased.
Re: How do you get to Carnegie Hall?
Interesting comment about playing keyboards "wrong". I'm left handed -- well, mixed-dominance actually, with several tasks (including guitar/bass/mandolin) done right-handed, and somehow it's always seemed to make sense to try to finger piano chords on my right hand ... maybe I need a dual-manual instrument so I can play a higher-octave keyboard with my left hand and a lower-octave one with my right?
Re: How do you get to Carnegie Hall?
Personally, I like approaching music as ignorantly as possible and consequently do many things "wrong."
I don't have the dexterity to be a great musician, I can pass on guitar or Bass but I'm no virtuoso. So, what I do, is bounce from style to style and from instrument to instrument. It really helps me in songwriting and arranging. A lot of the time blending seemingly disparate styles is beautiful. It's like the chocolate in Mole sauce.
If I'm trying to record a keyboard part that sounds normal I usually have to do it on a couple or more tracks. I can do simple bass lines and chords simultaneously but my hackishness shines like gold.
You can get some really funny results doing things the wrong way. Especially, if you have little knowledge of theory but write fairly lush arrangements. I had one song in my old band that the guitarist couldn't play because he couldn't get his head around the changes but the keyboard player who has chops and knowledge enough for a few people explained that what I was doing actually made sense and could translate it for him so it was acceptable. It was way over my head. heh.
It takes a helluva lot longer to write my way but it keeps me off the streets and I usually come up with something i like so...