There are two kinds of musicians. Some people adore the sound of a particular musical instrument. They love playing piano, violin, or saxophone. Others, on the contrary, do not care much about a particular instrument, but play with sounds. A MIDI keyboard is a perfect way to meet the desires and requirements of both groups. You can create melodies and mix it handling in hundreds of ways. A MIDI keyboard is a must-have thing for composers, DJs, people who have just started learning music, and professionals who create pieces for movies and video clips.
What is a MIDI Keyboard?
MIDI keyboards can be compact or large, with dozens of buttons, or with a sensor menu. You can connect it to guitar, dynamics, smartphone, or computer. Special software will help you to enlarge the functions of your MIDI keyboard.
A MIDI Keyboard Helps You Learn to Compose and Record Music
One of the main features of MIDI keyboards for beginners is recording classes, rehearsals, and rough work on a PC, tablet, or even smartphone. Composing music captures much more than playing exercises and scales. It not only dramatically increases the effectiveness of any music lessons but also opens the door to creating your material.
A MIDI Keyboard Will Give You Endless Sounds, Instruments, and Their Combinations
A MIDI keyboard has an obvious advantage over an ordinary piano. All sounds are generated synthetically, and there is no limit to MIDI sounds. You can generate a sound of the landing plane, or approaching train, or baby’s laugh, etc. You can create your own library of sounds. On the Internet, you can find dozens of free libraries of samples and synthesizers.
The MIDI keyboard opens up the possibility of working with sound. It is an integral part of the work of a modern musician: every well-known band or solo artist has its style and sound, behind which there are hundreds of hours of experiments and searches. A unique sound is an integral part of an artist’s self-expression because if a track is recognizable from the first notes due to its sound, the listener will remember it.
It Allows You to Perform
We can say that MIDI keyboards are as popular among music composers and singers as synthesizers. As it is a digital device, you can store the sounds, drafts, and files in it and use them like any usual files. It is usually more compact and lightweight.
It Helps You Understand the Creation of Modern Music
The design of contemporary music has gone far from filling the sheet music mill by candlelight. A modern musician is, in many ways, an engineer who uses a variety of software and hardware devices to get the right sound. Most musical genres have moved away from real instruments in favor of electronic and virtual ones.
Home studios of electronic musicians sometimes resemble the control panel — there are so many devices stuffed there. Each device or program needs to be mastered and studied, and many people start this way with MIDI keyboards. They will help you get a basic idea of the work of DAW, samplers, and synthesizers will help you understand the basics of creating modern music and basic concepts.
Creating a Soundtrack for Halloween
Well, you decided to create a soundtrack for Halloween on a MIDI keyboard. It should be a track with a funny satirical mood, including all the orchestral sections. Of course, it certainly had to be a waltz.
Create the First Sketch
Having understood the mood and turned on your MIDI keyboard, you can start. The soundtrack for Halloween will be an orchestral piece. Usually, we begin creating orchestral compositions from the piano. However, you can start with any other tool. For example, you can start by writing the main melody on strings.
The first sketch may contain the main melody played by the first violins and the voice of the sampled woman, and a countermelody at the beginning, performed by cellos and French horns.
Finished Skeleton
Then a two-minute “skeleton” of the composition is created, sketched with sketch samples. Here already include pizzicato on cellos, clarinet, oboe, harp, and piano. You can also work with the outline of a countermelody on the French horn.
Now, you need the magic of arranging and programming virtual instruments. You can change some parts and articulations. Work with tools, especially those that play solo, make them more like live ones.
Arrangement
Don’t be afraid to spend a few days arranging. Do an excellent job with dynamics and voice science. Do not forget about wind instruments. They greatly diversify the sound.
The Development of the Theme and Culmination
Moving more and more away from the original “stone block,” you need to develop a development that is already more different from the central motif, but maintaining the integrity of the composition. For example, you can give the central part of the piano. It is on the piano that the harmonically complex development sounds most harmoniously.
You need to bring the melody to a particular growing moment at the end of this part, foreshadowing something. Namely, it can be a playful, satirical solo violin part and a change of the central motif in the climax. Here you can play with the dynamics: make an influx, and then again a calm party and at the end again an explosive influx, so that it is straight in the spirit of Walt Disney.
It is where you finish the arrangement. These are only the most critical steps for the Halloween melody. Even if this track does not get in any project, you can leave it in your portfolio. In writing it, you will gain a lot of experience in arranging and orchestrating on a MIDI keyboard.
Conclusion
Now you know how to create a Halloween soundtrack. You just need to buy a MIDI keyboard for beginners to implement all your ideas. Here you can find a nice list of midi keyboards.
Just jamming and experimenting with a MIDI keyboard is pleasant and exciting, not to mention its additional features. In many ways. Therefore, MIDI keyboards have become an integral attribute of any musician and home producer today.
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