Keyboard Skills
Aside from the learning of actual repertoire, there are many skills at the keyboard which are very useful for performers, accompanists, musicologists, analysts and composers. Most of these competencies are closely interconnected – for example, the ability to transpose a theme is important for improvising music with a clear structure. The following list explains the various skills, and ways in which they are valuable, and sometimes essential. All these skills require patient practice: there are no short-cuts - but players do not need to have a professional level of skill in order to still find such abilities useful in their music-making.
A downloadable pdf (above) shows some examples of the skills described in this section.
Sight-Reading
The ability to play (most) of the correct notes at first sight is a skill that can be learned: players need to be able to recognize patterns in the music, understand modulations, have a good grasp of the different forms of musical notation and be familiar with different styles. They also need a technique that is roughly equal to the difficulty of the music (for example, when playing Chopin's distinctive piano textures). Good sight-readers are able to save a great deal of time when learning repertoire, and are better able at recovering when things go wrong in performance.
Score reading
While some choral or instrumental works exist in keyboard reductions, a lot of music is still only available in score, from Renaissance masses to full orchestral works. To accompany from these, or get a sense of their content, keyboard players need to be able to read multiple staves at once, including transposing instruments of all different kinds (for example, clarinets in Bb and A and horns in F), reducing the texture so that the music can fit under ten fingers. Experienced players are also able to reproduce the dynamics, articulation, tempo changes and colour in the score.
Harmonization
The ability to provide an appropriate chordal accompaniment to a melody requires considerable understanding of harmony and musical style, which every serious musician ought to have. Good players are also able to vary textures, introduce variation on repeats, and work in different musical styles.
Improvisation
The ability to 'compose live' was an important skill right up to the mid-19th century, and remains essential for organists working within the liturgy, where music needs to be timed exactly to fit processions and so forth. Improvisation in historical style is useful in order to match other repertoire, for example a prelude to a Tudor choral anthem, adding variations on repeats or an improvised candenza in a concerto.
Notation
Facsimile reproductions of historical manuscripts and scores are now widely available, but can only be played by those who can understand and read their notation. This may involve unfamiliar clefs, different practices regarding accidentals, understanding figured bass notation, reading 'black note' triple-time notation and so on.
Clef reading
Keyboard players now only use treble (G2) and bass (F4) clefs, placed on the second and fourth stave lines up respectively, although viola players and cellists, for example, still use C clefs. In the past, G1, G2, C1, C2, C3, C4, F3 and F4 clefs were used by composers, copyists and publishers, so keyboard players need to learn some or all of these for reading older sources.
Transposition
The ability to play music in a different key is still used by piano accompanists (to change the pitch of a song to match a singer's range) and by organists (for example, transposing hymns to match the keys of other pieces in a service), but is also important for improvisation, and helps with clef reading too.
Figured bass
Figured bass – numbers placed above or below a bass line, indicating intervals and chords for accompanying keyboard (and lute etc) players - was a simple and convenient shorthand form of harmonic notation in the 17th and 18th centuries. The styles and textures used varied from country to country, and it was also part of composition teaching.
Partimenti
Baroque musicians sometimes used shorthand scores called partimenti, indicating harmonic and melodic outlines, which could be expanded into complete pieces. Such sketches are also useful as the basis for improvisation.
Accompaniment
The ability to play with other performers and match their tempo, phrasing, breathing etc, sometimes while following a conductor as well, is an essential skill for keyboard players, whether working with a solo voice or instrument or with a choir or orchestra. Performers need to be proficient enough to play their own part correctly while concentrating on what the other musicians are doing, in real time. Organists also need to know how to adapt piano accompaniments of choral works from two staves into three.