Piano Keyboard Player Jobs - What Sort of Work Do Professional Pianist, Keyboardist Get?

What is the nature of work of full time professional pianist, keyboardist and Keyboard Players?

Every keyboard player or an aspiring pianist dreams of becoming a professional player, of making a living out of this profession but ever wondered what it takes to be a professional piano keyboard player and what sort of work do they get.

Usually a professional pianist or a keyboardist will not just concentrate on performances, which you may have guessed correctly, but in all probability they will and can do several other music related activities.

Videos, Movies, Games

Keyboard players and pianists can hope to find work in several places. You can work in studios, TV, film, radio doing music production. You can even create music for websites or video games.

This sort of work requires you to understand digital and audio technology to some extent as most of the work gets done on computers so if you don’t feel comfortable with technology, its time that you start spending some time on improving that aspect.

Playing Live Music

This is what most keyboard and piano players love to do, that is perform for an audience.

Besides the usual gigs and nightclubs doing solo performances, you can also do performances at theaters, concert halls, and or as part of a group.

And what sort of skills is needed? You will do performance related work that keyboard players do for playing in bands and live gigs.

For theatres and concerts, you will be required to be good at sight-reading as well.

You can find more opportunities here on Musicians classifieds where several Piano Keyboard Players are Wanted...

Other Activities

Besides the ones mentioned above, a professional pianist / keyboardist may also do other music related activities like singing, arranging, composing, and facilitating group performances, and so on.

Some of them may also venture into education and take up teaching assignments in good schools and colleges.

These are some of the related musical areas where you could find professional work.

Summary

If you are a Keyboard Player, you might be aspiring of becoming a professional player someday, earning a livelihood out of your passion. And there is no reason for you to get disheartened as you can see that for musicians with the right skills there are plenty of opportunities. You just need to be skillful and look for work at the right places. If you intend to become a professional pianist, keyboardist or keyboard player take heart, there is lot of work waiting for you.

Portable Digital Piano Keyboard - Do Pros Care about Portability?

How important is portability for professional keyboard players who want the best piano keyboard for performing on stage? If you do gigs regularly, do you really look at the weight of your synth / keyboard over features?

What do Pros Prefer?

I doubt so, especially if you have recently started playing for an audience! The aim is obviously to get people to like your music, with the hope of getting more work and at some stage create and present your own music in front of the audience.

So you will definitely like to go ahead with the best possible gear for your shows. It is just that over the years, after doing hundreds of gigs you realize the importance of having multiple keyboards in your arsenal. And then there are times when you think that it really is not worth taking all those heavy keyboards and a lighter won would suffice, this is purely based on your experience of the audience.

This is something that beginners may not be able to relate to as they need to experience this first.

For Hobbyists

Most salesman stress the importance of portability in digital pianos but if you were to think about it how important is this factor when ones goes about buying a digital piano? Is Portability really a factor when it comes to Digital Pianos?

If you want something that you can take along on holidays and while travelling, not across countries but nearby, then portability becomes the most important factor, much higher than features, weighted keys and things like that which would add to the weight of the keyboard.

Professionals who do a lot of gigs and get paid for their work, they do have their own means of transport and more importantly they are looking for good sounds on the board and features that will help make their piano playing easier on stage.

But then it also depends on the audience that you wish to play, and at times you may prefer to have a portable keyboard than a really heavier one, never mind the lesser features.

For Studio Use

Another place where professionals use keyboard, synth and midi controller is in the studio and certain DJs are also known to use controller keyboards during their sessions. This is where space comes at a premium and there are so many things to be fit into a limited space.

Such musicians definitely give important to the weight factor and definitely prefer something that does not take up a huge amount of space.

Summary

Digital keyboards and pianos are used by musicians with varied skills and have different purposes for their gear, some which requires portability whereas for some others it does not matter. So if this is one parameter that is important to you, weigh the pros and cons before buying a digital piano. Alternatively, you can have a spare digital piano that is lightweight and can be carried around whenever needed.

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Keyboard for Music Production - Arranger Workstation, Synth, Stage Piano for Beginners

So are you interested in creating your own music and are looking for a decent arranger music workstation, synth keyboard, or digital piano to get started with Music Production? This is logically the next step once you have learnt to play the piano for a couple of years and are fairly confident of playing a variety of songs.

Finding a Suitable Instrument
Depending on what you play and how you have picked up the various nuts and bolts of piano keyboard playing you may choose to buy an arranger workstation, a synth keyboard, a stage piano or a midi controller to get started with Music Production.

So whenever one is considering purchasing a digital piano keyboard it's really possible to go crazy with your spending budget as well as get confused with the various options. It is also quite possible that you may totally ignore your present needs as well as your abilities and go for something very expensive. It’s probable that you might look at digital piano models that you should not be considering as of this moment, may be perhaps a couple of years down the road.

Or perhaps you should not be looking at digital pianos at all and should look at some good arrangers or may be a synth that will give you the right set of tools.

Besides, if you choose a digital piano you may get bored with the piano after some time. Therefore you should think what you are searching for and take decision accordingly.

Need Decent Budget
So for somebody who's a college student or anybody at an intermediate level of skills, what is a good digital piano keyboard instrument? There are some options but then it is also dependent on your budget.

The actual spending budget also performs an essential component in the decision making and if you have anywhere around $1000 to $1500 to invest in a good digital keyboard instrument, you will get some good choices.

What are the Options?
In general, you can choose either an arranger keyboard or a synthesizer or a good stage piano, depending on how you are going to use your keyboard for learning music production.

Arranger Music Workstation Keyboards - Some possible choices for the budget mentioned above include:

Yamaha PSR-S650 61-key Arranger Workstation Keyboard
Yamaha PSR-S710 61-key Arranger Workstation Keyboard
Roland GW8 61-key Interactive Music Workstation Keyboard
Korg Pa500 61-Key Professional Arranger Keyboard

Synthesizer Keyboards - Some possible choices for synth keyboards include:

Yamaha MM6 61-Key Synthesizer
Korg microSTATION 61-Key Synthesizer Workstation
Yamaha MO6 61-Key Music Production Synthesizer
Roland JUNO-G 61-Key Synthesizer Keyboard

Digital Stage Pianos - Some possible choices for stage pianos that will help you to create your own music include:

Casio PX-3 Privia Digital Piano
Yamaha CP33 88-Key Stage Piano
Kurzweil SP47 76-Key Stage Piano
Yamaha CP50 88-Key Stage Piano

Summary
As mentioned above, you may start learning serious music production using either an arranger workstation, or a synth keyboard, or a stage piano or a midi controller. When it comes to choices, you have Yamaha, Casio, Korg, Kurzweil to consider with your spending budget. So pick up something that suits your style and get started with digital music production on your digital piano keyboard.

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