How to Jam on Keyboards

Specifically, how to improvise using pentatonic scales

by Dr. Dream (C) 2014

Introduction

Let’s say your guitarist friend wants to jam with you.  Your friend is strumming a chord progression and wants you to play along on keys.  What do you do?  Of all those 88 (or 61 or 73 or 76) keys in front of you, which do you play?

I’m not the greatest improviser in the world, but I’m learning. I thought  I’d write down what I’ve learned in the hope that it might be helpful to some of you out there.

I’m not going to worry too much about the style of music.  Much of what I say here is applicable across a wide range of styles: country, blues, rock, r&b, pop and so on.  At times I do broadly break up the styles into blues and non-blues.  This is because blues (and blues-related styles like boogie woogie) tend to use the basic building blocks a bit differently than the other styles.  I don’t know much about jazz so I largely avoid it, though I do sometimes touch on it.  Most of my examples are from classic rock of the seventies, which gives you some idea how old I am.

I’m going to assume the reader starts like I did, coming back to the piano after a couple of years of lessons in the distant past.  So, I’ll assume you have a good idea what keys and chords are (though you might not remember the details) and that you can read notes written on a piano staff, even though it may take you a while.

I think an important first step of learning something is naming it, so I try to give you some names for the scales, chords, progressions and riffs I talk about.  Sometimes there doesn’t seem to be a name for something I think should have one, so I make one up.  Sometimes a name exists but is pretty obscure, but I dust it off and use it anyway.  I’ll let you know when I do either.  

When I talk about a particular song, I’ll link to a YouTube version, often starting in the middle to highlight the part I’m talking about.  Sorry, there’s no guarantee that those clips will work in the future -- the copyright police are working hard.  Sometimes I include a “(clip)” link that has a few seconds of the part of a song I’m talking about.

Before we dive in, let’s talk a bit in general first.  Sometimes it will be your turn to play lead, and your guitarist friend will accompany you by strumming chords behind what you play.  Sometimes someone is singing or your guitarist friend is playing lead guitar and it’s up to you accompany him, that is, to comp.   A comp is usually a rhythmic pattern that’s similar from chord to chord that you play under the lead instrument.

When you’re playing by yourself you can play a typical comp while you’re singing. When you’re just playing solo, usually you do a simple riff, bass line or chords with your left hand and a lead line with your right.

In our example here, the guitarist likes to strum so it’s your turn to play lead.  What do you play?

Next: The Pentatonic Scale