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How many producers here have midi keyboards and still suck at playing? I'd be willing to be a lot of people use theirs to tap out ideas but couldn't actually play a full track without quantize. Let's change that!

Time to get dextrous ninjas. Commit to a practice regimen, share drills that have worked for you, or moan about your carpal tunnel and tendonitis.


I just recently got an MPK61 and have embarked on the journey to become a good pianist. I've played several instruments before so I have a strong grasp of music theory, I just need to bring myself up to speed technically. To start off, I'm trying for 1 hour of practice a day. At the moment it's comprised mostly of technical drills, although I do some ear training and note memorization while my hands rest.

To build that initial digital agility and coordination, I've been doing 5-finger drills. Here's a link to the Hanon exercises I've been using. Basically just been working through them slowly. Learning them for each hand individually and then combining the two. Starting off very slow to imprint it cleanly into muscle memory, and using a metronome to keep it rhythmically tight. I double the metronome speed and play eighth notes instead of sixteenths so there's an extra tick in the middle of each grouping. Also if you use the Hanon drills, disregard the part about lifting your fingers high, you should be training them to be economical with motion. You don't want to ingrain the habit of having your fingers too high above the keybed since it'll just waste energy and slow you down in the future.

After my hands get a bit more coordinated, I'll be moving towards scales, modes and arpeggios. I drew myself up charts for each key, containing the parent scale and all 7 modes of that scale and their accompanying arpeggios. I'm just gonna work in a new key every day, rotating around the circle of fifths.

Interval training will be part technique, part memorization, and part ear training. Basically ascending and descending scales, jumping by various intervals. Good practice for making leaps with your hands and good relative pitch training.

Then I'll throw in some chord voicings and inversions to get comfortable playing and transitioning between them. Practicing transitioning from each chord in a key to every other. Similar to interval training but with full chords on top of the root notes.

After doing all of the above for a couple months I should be a fairly competent pianist. I might learn a few songs for extra practice but I come from the jazz improv side of things so I'll probably just be jamming and composing. The great thing about being a producer is that you can use a lot of tools to help you practice. All DAWs have a metronome built in and you can easily record midi to assess your progress and see how tight you're playing. Recording yourself is a really important thing to get better and a lot of instrumentalists neglect to do it. You also have the ability to build your own backing tracks for things like improv practice.

Just a couple months with short practice sessions every day will radically improve your playing. It doesn't have to be an hour, you can just play scales while you wait for a video to load or wait to respawn in Battlefield. Every little bit adds up. I see this as probably the easiest way to measurably improve your skills as a producer. In comparison to arranging and mixing, learning performance is considerably less tedious to practice. It'll also make it much easier to compose, as well as speed up your producing time, especially during that vital first hour after the spark. Jamming on keys is much more inspiring than looking at a piano roll. If you're a skilled player, playing will be fun, and the more you play the more opportunities for inspiration to strike.

Commit to a month and see if you end up with something other than turds to polish.
Worst case scenario you just end up getting attention from the ladies for your strong agile fingers.

I suck, I need to practise. I use my MPK Mini simply to bash out ideas that I then record/quantise or pencil in to the piano roll, sometimes ironically I "humanise" the notes hahah.

I used to be not bad at piano when I was much younger but now I'm really crap since I don't practice or develop, part of my problem is my only keyboard is the MPK Mini which has limted keys and I really hate how the keys are sprung and not weighted.

I'd be up for practising ideas and such like.

Great idea, i spent a while about a year ago learning some scales and a few songs but never really concentrated on it. Ain't got much else to do atm and have a proper piano at my parents house so now's a better time than any, dunno any other exercises other than those hanon ones, i found learning actual songs helped me alot especially forcing myself to read the sheet music however long it took haha.

Is it bad if I use sticky tack to indicate keys out of scale and therefore to avoid? I know my music theory, but there's something about the visual aid that helps me physically put it into practice... on the plus side, over the course of doing this for a few months I find I need it less and less. So there's something to be said about this childish technique.

SunkLo wrote: wait to respawn in Battlefield.

This sounds like something I would do! lol.

Very long; don't have time to read it all right now. But this thread is perfect for me. i've actually gotten better since getting my keyboard, but I'm still pretty shitty. I just use it to get ideas down. Can't play two hands at a time. Doesn't help that it's only 37 keys and the keys are smaller than a regular keyboard.

mthrfnk wrote:I'd be up for practising ideas and such like.

Oh, and I am considering getting piano lessons.

Nice lads. It's unfortunate not having enough keys. I was originally gonna get an MPK49 but ended up waiting a little bit longer to get the 61. It's basically a piano keyboard minus the top and bottom octaves so it's a nice range. Although the spring action didn't really impress me at first, seemed a bit stiff. I've noticed just in two days though that my hands have gotten stronger and the keys don't seem as springy. When I bought it I figured the semi weighted keys would be a good compromise between speed and feel, and of course the 61 is a bit more portable than the 88.

For those with limited keys you can still do some of those 5-finger exercises. At least you'll be better at playing within the limited range you have. Might give you a good reason to upgrade in the future as well.

For memorizing notes I've just been staring intently at keys, playing them, and saying their names outloud a few times in a row
I hope it's working. I try to sing the pitch in my head before I play the note too. Been trying to incorporate ear training in as much as possible to save time. Might have to make an ear training thread as well

SunkLo wrote:Nice lads. It's unfortunate not having enough keys. I was originally gonna get an MPK49 but ended up waiting a little bit longer to get the 61. It's basically a piano keyboard minus the top and bottom octaves so it's a nice range. Although the spring action didn't really impress me at first, seemed a bit stiff. I've noticed just in two days though that my hands have gotten stronger and the keys don't seem as springy. When I bought it I figured the semi weighted keys would be a good compromise between speed and feel, and of course the 61 is a bit more portable than the 88.

For those with limited keys you can still do some of those 5-finger exercises. At least you'll be better at playing within the limited range you have. Might give you a good reason to upgrade in the future as well.

For memorizing notes I've just been staring intently at keys, playing them, and saying their names outloud a few times in a row
I hope it's working. I try to sing the pitch in my head before I play the note too. Been trying to incorporate ear training in as much as possible to save time. Might have to make an ear training thread as well

I'm so tempted to buy a semi-weighted piece of kit, the problem is I don't want it to just end up sitting there not being used.

But yeah we should get some excercises going.

It actually kind of worked the opposite way for me. I bought it because I knew I'd feel guilty spending that much money and not putting all my effort into playing and production. Kind of like spending a bunch on a gym membership so you have no choice but to work out.

Something that's really important to me is injury prevention. I've had tendonitis from playing guitar before and it sucks. Piano players are really vulnerable to it as well. I've been trying to concentrate on having good technique early on so I don't have to undo bad habits down the road. I think it's important to break up your practice into small chunks for multiple reasons. For one, it gives your muscles and tendons a break which is important to keep from hurting yourself. Also, the longer you play and the more tired you become, the sloppier your playing is, which means you're teaching yourself to play sloppily. It's best to stop once you've gotten it right a few times in a row instead of continuing to try and drill it in more. Your time is better spent moving on to something else and revisiting the technique the next day instead. As with many things, it's better to do a little bit every day instead of trying to cram it all in at once.

My hands are aching from those first couple Hanon's so I'm done for the day I think. I managed to get the first two down, one after another with both hands. Transitions between exercises or from ascending to descending is a bit sloppy sometimes but I'm cleaning it up. Tomorrow I might speed the metronome up a bit. Kind of hesitant to start increasing the bpm though since I've seen the value of practicing super slow with guitar.

For the theory side of things, check out the Jazz Piano Book by Mark Levine.

After reading this thread, I must seriously take what I have for granted then!!! I have a fully weighted 88 key Casio Privia right next to me while I produce and I fucking SUCK. I'm self taught piano, I can barely-somewhat-notreally read sheet music, and can jam out a few chords/melodies now and then. I have no excuse for being bad other than I don't practice. My hand positioning is completely improvised and very incorrect, I think it may be first on the list of things that need heavy work.

I really wanna learn Jazz piano! I could do improvisions and come up with some nice melodies/progressions if I would just take time to learn to position my hands the right way.

My ability to sight read, now...... there is no ability to sight read (I can barely read sheet music without stopping and counting notes haha)

dotcurrency wrote:After reading this thread, I must seriously take what I have for granted then!!! I have a fully weighted 88 key Casio Privia right next to me while I produce and I fucking SUCK. I'm self taught piano, I can barely-somewhat-notreally read sheet music, and can jam out a few chords/melodies now and then. I have no excuse for being bad other than I don't practice. My hand positioning is completely improvised and very incorrect, I think it may be first on the list of things that need heavy work.

I really wanna learn Jazz piano! I could do improvisions and come up with some nice melodies/progressions if I would just take time to learn to position my hands the right way.

My ability to sight read, now...... there is no ability to sight read (I can barely read sheet music without stopping and counting notes haha)

Luckily sight-reading is very seldom used in jazz. As long as you know your theory you can play over anything.

Do a few drills a day for a month and you'll be surprised where you end up.

SunkLo wrote:

dotcurrency wrote:After reading this thread, I must seriously take what I have for granted then!!! I have a fully weighted 88 key Casio Privia right next to me while I produce and I fucking SUCK. I'm self taught piano, I can barely-somewhat-notreally read sheet music, and can jam out a few chords/melodies now and then. I have no excuse for being bad other than I don't practice. My hand positioning is completely improvised and very incorrect, I think it may be first on the list of things that need heavy work.

I really wanna learn Jazz piano! I could do improvisions and come up with some nice melodies/progressions if I would just take time to learn to position my hands the right way.

My ability to sight read, now...... there is no ability to sight read (I can barely read sheet music without stopping and counting notes haha)

Luckily sight-reading is very seldom used in jazz. As long as you know your theory you can play over anything.

Do a few drills a day for a month and you'll be surprised where you end up.

Yeah thanks, I plan on doing the Hanon drills (those are the only ones I know). I saw them many years ago when I was first learning piano but never knew what they were for (I was in like 7th grade lol)

Yeah it seems to be pretty debated whether they're a useful tool or not. Half the people see value in them, the other half say it's better to develop technique through learning repertoire. I couldn't give a fractional fuck about learning classical at the moment and I'm just looking to develop some dexterity and coordination to get me up to speed, so I think they'll serve me well. Although I have been conscious of keeping my hands relaxed and playing from the arm instead of fingers. The coarse movement and power should come from your full body, the fingers just work on a fine level for timing and articulation. So in a sense, I can understand why some people say spending all your time trying to drill and isolate your fingers is a foolish waste of time and a path to injury. Especially once you've become an intermediate pianist.

Great for noobs though.

a fractional fuck eh? that's one I've never heard before.

Very relevant to my interests!
I realized I really need to step up my game after trying to learn to play Clarinet Polka on my melodica.
I need to figure out the best ways to move around the keyboard and do shredding with just one hand. I was starting out with Andrew Furmanczyk's lessons on youtube and some other random youtube videos, like this one

at 2:15 he plays the exercise up to speed

I've got a good but not great 49 key spring action midi keyboard, 32 key melodica(so much fun ), a small casio keyboard and a horribly out of tune piano to play on, all of which feel totally different.

Yeah I've seen that video before. Only thing it lacks is both hands. Don't want your right hand to be a badman and your left hand be some lazy lump. What's cool about the Hanon exercises is they train your hands equally. One hand will be taxed ascending and the other is taxed descending.

I'd probably practice on whatever you'll be using the most, probably the midi keyboard.

My right hand hurts a bunch today so I might have to take the day off. The tendon above my right pinkie knuckle is really sore. Kind of odd that my left hand wouldn't be the weakest link. Could just be coincidence or something to do with playing guitar. Although I haven't played in ages so I doubt that's really coming into play that much.

ps There's a whole science devoted to finding the limit of (fuck/x), as x approaches infinity.

It's not supposed to hurt, is it? It seems like when things hurt or are uncomfortable(except for developing callouses), that indicates bad technique. If you keep your wrists straight and loose, you won't get carpel tunnel. That's what I've learned with drumming, and I'm sure it applies to keyboard as well.

Yep it's a sign of overdoing it. I think it's just the extra friction of the tendon on knuckle. Hopefully it's just having a rough time since it's the first couple of days I've been practicing and it'll do better in the future. I don't think it's anything to do with poor technique. Although maybe this is what the anti-hanon people are on about. Finger independence isn't really a natural thing and it's more efficient to play with forearm rotation. But I think finger coordination is important and to gain that you need to work a bit on independence drills. We'll see how it turns out. Might do some scales or theory practice today to give the pinkie another day's rest.

great thead aha. i only have a little midi keyboard but yeh i desperately need to learn more than the Fm scale lol

Kind of like spending a bunch on a gym membership so you have no choice but to work out.

I just signed up for a year, it works

Going to check the exercises you posted about cause i definitely need to become less shitty at this.