“I wish I could play the piano. That way it would be so much easier to produce music!”
A statement like that is what is called a limiting belief. It’s like saying, “When I win the lottery, I’ll be happy.”
Granted it might not be as extreme but it’s definitely going to stop you from making progress. Having a keyboard, piano or MIDI controller will not instantly make you a phenomenal music producer and you can produce amazing music without having any of those accessories as part of your setup.
I’ve explored this idea further in today’s video and I’ll show you exactly how you can produce music without a keyboard.
Now, I’d love to know…
Do you feel a piano, keyboard or MIDI controller is an essential part of your production setup? Can you produce music without it?
Leave a comment below!
professional sounding mix every time...
I use Reaper and it has a built-in midi keyboard and it works just fine when keyboards are needed in one of my Productions I also really like Scaler vsti which provides all types of chord progressions and chord substitutions and lots of good ideas. And although I don’t have it yet I would think ezkeys would be another nice addition to add tasty keyboard parts
Thanks for sharing Pat. I’ve had a lot more exposure to Reaper recently. I can see why you use it!
I remember years ago when I was in bed recovering from a surgery… I had a little PC (that I still have) with something called Magix Music Maker. With nothing else better to do, I made some arrangements with that tool, including several Major 7 / minor 7, complex chords and arpeggios (in almost every keys) both midi and audio to built some kind of portfolio (that still exists), everything without a keyboard as you might imagin. So, yes, it`s perfectly possible to make music / produce without any keyboard whatsoever… BUT it helps a lot! 😉
All the best from Portugal!
Great answer Paulo and thanks of sharing! That must have been difficult for you but you worked through it anyway. Nice work!
I`m the one who thanks Stephen. And yes, sometimes music and production in its most deep creative way can be the best pain-killer one can find…
Only now I managed to watch this new video of yours (things are getting complicated now that I said yes to a stage band as a keyboardist…) but couldn`t help making a comment… 😉
Hope you`re having a nice week! Paulo
Although I agree that no keyboard shouldn’t be a blocking point, I just find it very difficult to enter all my keyboard parts with a mouse. I have to be zoomed in too close and just don’t get the global vision I need to do it easily. It’s just so much easier to use a keyboard and then go back in with the mouse to do corrections, and like yourself I’m not a keyboard player. But I just love the flexibility that midi offers. Being able to record left hand and right hand separately, at slower speed, in C and transpose afterwards. +1 for Reaper, so easy to use.
Thanks David. It’s whatever works for you really. And I’m delighted that you know what works for you! Interesting to hear from another Reaper user. Thanks again!