- Order:
- Duration: 9:59
- Published: 15 Sep 2008
- Uploaded: 04 Apr 2011
- Author: NevadaMusicUK
A keyboard instrument is any musical instrument played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include multiple types of organs as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments. In common language, it is mostly used to refer to keyboard-style synthesizers.
The clavichord and the harpsichord appeared during the 14th century, the clavichord probably being the earlier. The harpsichord and the clavichord were both very common until the widespread adoption of the piano in the 18th century, after which their popularity decreased. The piano was revolutionary because a pianist could vary the volume (or dynamics) of the sound by varying the vigor with which each key was struck. The piano's full name is "gravicèmbalo con piano e forte" meaning "harpsichord with soft and loud" but can be shortened to "piano-forte", which means "soft-loud" in Italian.
Keyboard instruments were further developed in the 20th century. Early electromechanical instruments, such as the Ondes Martenot, appeared early in the century. This was a very important contribution to the keyboard's history.
On most keyboard instruments, a "black note" is one of the smaller keys that stand above the "white notes". All the black notes found within an octave form a pentatonic scale. Black notes can be referred to as sharps of the white note below, or as flats of the white note above. In keyboard percussion instruments with a layout similar to that of the piano, the corresponding notes are often also called "the black notes" even though in reality the bars producing those notes are of the same color as the rest of the instrument's bars.
These notes act as the "accidentals" to the original notes, allowing the player to play sharps or flats of a given note. However, not all notes have a sharp or flat version, and the sharp of one can be the same note as the flat for another, for example C# and Db are the same note.
The five accidentals written as sharps are: C#, D#, F#, G# and A#.
Significant development of the synthesizer occurred in the 1960s and has continued ever since. The most notable early synthesizer is the Moog synthesizer, which used analog circuitry. In time, digital synthesis, using actual piano samples, has become common.
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
Name | Ronald Jenkees |
---|---|
Background | non_vocal_instrumentalist |
Instrument | Keyboard controllers , Piano, Harmonica, Vocals |
Genre | Electronic rock, Hip hop, Techno, Rock |
Occupation | Songwriter, Musician |
Years active | 2004—present |
Label | Independent |
Url | www.ronaldjenkees.com |
Ronald Jenkees is an American composer and musician, best known for his YouTube keyboard performances, coverage on G4 TV's Attack of the Show!, and an appearance in Paste Magazine. His YouTube videos have been viewed (in total) over 46,000,000 times. Jenkees has thus far released two independent albums: the self-titled Ronald Jenkees (2007), and Disorganized Fun (2009).
Category:Living people Category:American composers Category:American pianists Category:Year of birth missing (living people)
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
Name | Rick Wakeman |
---|---|
Background | non_vocal_instrumentalist |
Birth name | Richard Christopher Wakeman |
Born | May 18, 1949Perivale, London |
Instrument | Keyboard, piano, synthesiser |
Genre | Rock, progressive rock, pop, electronica, jazz fusion, classical, Christian |
Occupation | Musician, songwriter |
Years active | 1970–present |
Label | A&M;, Charisma, President Records, Voiceprint, Griffin, EMI, Music Fusion, Hot Productions, Studio T |
Associated acts | Yes, Strawbs, ABWH, David Bowie, Warhorse, Black Sabbath, Cat Stevens |
Url | www.rwcc.com |
Richard Christopher Wakeman (born 18 May 1949) is an English keyboard player, composer, and songwriter. He is known for being the keyboardist for progressive rock band Yes, as the keyboardist for Ozzy Osbourne, his solo career, and later as a contributor to the BBC Television comedy show Grumpy Old Men.
He had classical piano training and was a pioneer in the use of electronic keyboards and in the use of a rock band in combination with orchestra and choir. He hosted a regular radio show on Planet Rock until December 2010. Throughout his solo career, Wakeman has produced over 100 solo albums that have sold more than 50 million copies. In November 2010, Wakeman was awarded the Spirit of Prog award at the annual Marshall Classic Rock Roll of Honour Awards.
In 1970-1971, Wakeman played with Strawbs, playing on the albums Dragonfly (1970), Just a Collection of Antiques and Curios (1970) and From the Witchwood (1971).
Wakeman produced his first three solo albums during his first run with Yes. On 23 January 1973, he released The Six Wives of Henry VIII, an instrumental concept album based on his interpretations of the musical characteristics of the wives of Henry VIII, using keyboard instruments. The album was overall well received by critics. Time magazine named the record one of the best pop albums of 1973. In October 1975, the album was certified Gold. The record has sold over 15 million copies.
On January 18, 1974, Wakeman performed Journey to the Centre of the Earth, a forty-minute piece based on the Jules Verne novel of the same name, at the Royal Festival Hall in London. Combining rock with an orchestra and choir, the concert was recorded and released on May 18, where it topped the UK album charts on entry for one week. The record became a multi-million dollar seller in six weeks. The album was certified Gold in September 1974. The album was also a worldwide success, reaching #21 in the United States while going Gold (Wakeman's third) in Brazil, Japan and Australia. The album has sold 12 million copies.
, October 2009, in aid of the Performing Right Society for Music Members' Benevolent Fund.]]
In 1975, Wakeman produced the first of two soundtracks for films by Ken Russell – Lisztomania and Crimes of Passion (1984).
In 2008, Wakeman toured with a solo show named Rick Wakeman's Grumpy Old Picture Show, featuring an evening of music and stories.
In May 2009, Wakeman performed The Six Wives of Henry VIII live at Hampton Court Palace for the first time, for two nights. The performance was recorded and released under The Six Wives of Henry VIII Live at Hampton Court Palace.
A passionate football fan, Wakeman has supported Brentford F.C. since he was a child, and later on he also became a director of the West London club. After a disagreement with the board, he moved on to Manchester City F.C. but never stopped loving the Bees. He was involved in the ownership of the American soccer club Philadelphia Fury in the late '70s, along with other rock celebrities such as Peter Frampton and Paul Simon.
He is a strong supporter of the UK's Conservative Party, and performed a concert in September 2004 for the benefit of the party. The Arthur section of his King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table suite has been used as the theme tune to the BBC's Election Night Coverage since 1979 (with the exception of 2001 and 2010). Wakeman's album Fields of Green '97 featured the track "Election '97/Arthur", which was used by the BBC for their coverage of the 1997 General Election. The music was further revamped for the BBC's 2005 Election Night coverage.
Wakeman can be seen as a contributor on BBC Two's series, Grumpy Old Men. He has also appeared in a number of episodes of Countdown; about twenty per year, according to Wakeman. He has also appeared on the satirical panel show Have I Got News For You as a guest.
Wakeman appeared as himself in "Journey to the Centre of Rick Wakeman", the last episode of season two of Mitch Benn's Crimes Against Music, a BBC Radio 4 comedy programme. The episode detailed a fictional war between England and Wales in 2009 which only Wakeman could stop. Wakeman provided piano for Benn's 2008 single "Sing Like an Angel", which was released on iTunes.
In December 2006, Wakeman was the guest host for an episode of The Personality Test, a BBC Radio 4 programme where the panel stay the same and the host changes each week. The questions set in the programme are all about the host. He set a challenge for a new concept album idea, and the comedian Will Smith suggested "Spiders and Other Invertebrates". Rick said he liked that idea so much, he would include a track of his next album called "Spiders and Other Invertebrates", and would include a sleeve credit to Smith. Smith responded by saying that Rick had "...just made my life".
Wakeman has been president of the show business charity The Heritage Foundation (formerly Comic Heritage). The charity erects blue plaques on the homes and/or work-places of late entertainers and sportspeople. He is also Honorary President of the Classic Rock Society, a UK-based organisation helping to promote classic and progressive rock. In October 2007, Wakeman commenced a new tour 'Rick Wakeman's Grumpy Old Picture Show', where he accompanies video performers such as Gordon Giltrap and the English Rock Ensemble (Ashley Holt, Lee Pomeroy, Dave Colquhoun and Tony Fernandez). A Freemason, he is a member of Chelsea Lodge No. 3098, the membership of which is made up of entertainers.
He also appeared on Top Gear and set a race track lap time of 1'55.26.
In 2009, Wakeman became a Patron of Tech Music Schools.
From September 2005 until December 2010, he presented a weekly show, "Rick's Place", on Digital Radio Station Planet Rock together with David 'Kid' Jensen.
Plans for 2011 will include Jon Anderson and Trevor Rabin:
"How much Jon and I will end up doing is not known at the moment as we have to fit in the plans to both record and hopefully perform live with Trevor Rabin which I am so looking forward to."
;Bibliography
Category:English electronic musicians Category:English rock keyboardists Category:English session musicians Category:Yes (band) members Category:Alumni of the Royal College of Music Category:People from Ealing Category:People from Wembley Category:English Christians Category:1949 births Category:Living people Category:The Ozzy Osbourne Band members Category:People self-identifying as alcoholics Category:English heavy metal keyboardists Category:Progressive rock musicians
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
Name | Jordan Rudess |
---|---|
Landscape | Yes |
Background | solo_singer |
Birth name | Jordan Charles Rudes |
Alias | The Keyboard Wizard |
Born | November 04, 1956 |
Origin | Great Neck, New York, USA |
Instrument | Keyboards, lap steel guitar, electric guitar, vocals, continuum, keytar |
Genre | Progressive rock, progressive metal, instrumental rock, jazz fusion, new age, electronic music |
Occupation | Musician, songwriter |
Years active | 1981–present |
Associated acts | Dream Theater, Dixie Dregs, Liquid Tension Experiment, John Petrucci, Rod Morgenstein, David Bowie, Vinnie Moore, Tom Coster, Kip Winger, Nóirín Ní Riain, Rhonda Larson, Paul Winter, Scott McGill, Steven Wilson, Prefab Sprout, Jupiter, Neal Morse, Daniel J, Neil Zaza, Annie Haslam, John-Luke Addison, Behold... The Arctopus, Liquid Trio Experiment, Ricky Garcia, Frost* |
Url | http://www.jordanrudess.com |
Jordan Rudess (born Jordan Charles Rudess on November 4, 1956) is an American keyboardist best known as a member of the progressive metal band Dream Theater and the progressive rock supergroup Liquid Tension Experiment.
After performing in various projects during the 1980s, he gained international attention in 1994 when he was voted "Best New Talent" in the Keyboard Magazine readers' poll after the release of his Listen solo album. Two of the bands who took notice of Rudess were The Dixie Dregs and Dream Theater, both of whom invited him to join. Rudess chose the Dregs, primarily as being a part time member of the band would have less of an impact on his young family, a choice he was not given with Dream Theater.
During his time with the Dregs, Rudess formed a "power duo" with drummer Rod Morgenstein. The genesis of this pairing occurred when a power outage caused all of the Dregs' instruments to fail except Rudess', so he and Morgenstein improvised with each other until power was restored and the concert could continue. The chemistry between the two was so strong during this jam that they decided to perform together on a regular basis (under the name Rudess/Morgenstein Project or later RMP) and have since released a studio and a live record.
Rudess encountered Dream Theater once again when he and Morgenstein secured the support slot on one of Dream Theater's North American tours.
In 1997, when Mike Portnoy was asked to form a supergroup by Magna Carta Records, Rudess was chosen to fill the keyboardist spot in the band, which also consisted of Tony Levin and Portnoy's Dream Theater colleague John Petrucci. During the recording of Liquid Tension Experiment's two albums, it became evident to Portnoy and Petrucci that Rudess was what Dream Theater needed. They asked Rudess to join the band, and when he accepted they released their then-keyboardist Derek Sherinian to make way for him.
Rudess has been the full-time keyboardist in Dream Theater since the recording of 1999's . He has recorded five other studio albums with the group: 2002's Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence, 2003's Train of Thought, 2005's Octavarium, 2007's Systematic Chaos, and 2009's Black Clouds & Silver Linings. In addition, he has appeared on the live albums Live Scenes From New York, Live at Budokan, Score and Chaos in Motion.
In addition to working with Dream Theater he occasionally records and performs in other contexts, such as a 2001 one-off duo performance with Petrucci (released as the CD An Evening With John Petrucci and Jordan Rudess), as well as backing up Blackfield on their first short US tour in 2005 and playing a solo opening slot for them on their second in 2007.
In 2010, Rudess composed "Explorations for Keyboard and Orchestra," his first classical composition. It was premiered in Venezuela on November 19, 2010 by the Chacao Youth Symphony Orchestra and guest conductor Eren Başbuğ. Rudess played all of the keyboard and synthesizer parts.
Rudess says his influences as a keyboardist are Keith Emerson, Rick Wakeman and Patrick Moraz. His favorite musical artists and groups include Gentle Giant, Yes, Genesis, Pink Floyd, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, King Crimson, Jimi Hendrix, Autechre, and Aphex Twin.
While Rudess' physical method of changing live setups will more than likely remain the same, his choice of hardware to implement this changed as of 2005. Citing a need for better tour support and more current technologies (his Kurzweil K2600XS's maximum sample memory of 128 MB had become insufficient for his touring needs), Rudess switched keyboard endorsements from Kurzweil to Korg's new flagship Korg Oasys workstation (which can support up to 2 GB of sample memory ), which he first used on Dream Theater's 2005-2006 20th Anniversary tour, along with a Muse Receptor hardware VST and a Haken Continuum X/Y/Z-plane MIDI Instrument triggering a Roland V-Synth XT and a Synthesizers.com Modular. Rudess is the first well known keyboardist to bring a Haken Continuum on to a live stage. Rudess still uses the Kurzweil for studio recordings and some of his most well known sounds, such as "the pig", one of his signature sounds which is often played in unison with the guitar or bass guitar, were sounds from the K2600xs.
Since 2001, Rudess uses custom made rotating keyboardstands on stage for both Dream Theater and his solo career, which are built by Patrick Slaats from the Netherlands. On Dream Theater's 2007-2008 "Chaos in Motion" world tour, Rudess expanded his live setup with the addition of a Korg RADIAS, a Manikin Memotron, and a Zen Riffer keytar. Rudess stopped using his Synthesizers.com modular after the European leg of the tour due to its size and weight. Rudess still owns the synthesizer and keeps it inactive in his home studio. During the Progressive Nation 2008 tour, he introduced on the stage a Kaoss Pad 3 for the closing medley.
For the 2009-2010 tour, in support of Black Clouds & Silver Linings, Jordan introduced the Apple iPod Touch on stage, running an application called Bebot Robot Synth. He plays it during A Rite of Passage - both studio album and live versions of the song - and frequently uses it for improvised solos, like in Hollow Years' intro and during a new instrumental section on Solitary Shell.
On September 24, 2010, Rudess released the song "Krump," which was an electronica "single" released on iTunes. It featured the use of the new Roland Gaia, Roland's more recent keyboard.
Rudess has also been seen trying out a Moog Guitar at a trade show, whether he owns one is unknown.
Category:1956 births Category:American keyboardists Category:American session musicians Category:American electronic musicians Category:American Jews Category:Jewish American musicians Category:Dream Theater members Category:Dixie Dregs members Category:Heavy metal keyboardists Category:American heavy metal keyboardists Category:Jewish musicians Category:Juilliard School of Music alumni Category:Living people Category:American multi-instrumentalists
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.