I'm not 100% sure this is the right place for this but here goes...

 I can play guitar a little so I know quite a few chord progressions and I've found those sites where you can find how to play what chord in which scale (which notes they are on the keyboard) etc.

 Bare with me here, with the guitar, you can change the feel of a progression with the strumming. Instead of boring down strokes, you can use different strumming methods to make the same progression feel different. Now, with the piano/keyboard, say I use the following progression: C,G,Em,D, when I play this back in FL Studio, the progression sounds boring, the same boring down stroke strums of the guitar.

 I know almost nothing about Piano playing, but something I remember you can do to make the playing less dull or to give it a fuller sound, is you play different notes with your left hand too. With a C,G,Em,D progression on piano, what can I play for the left hand? I need something that joins each chord together some how like a note or notes just played just before the next chord.

 Sorry if this post is long or you don't understand what I mean haha, it's hard for me to put into words because I know hardly any terminology/music theory, I just have an ear for things.

I dont know much about strumming the guitar and how it makes the prog. feel different but there are a few things you can do to make the piano sound more interesting so I think I can help you out...

- When your playing those chords with your RH, play those single notes with your LH just like what you would do with a bassline if you were making a beat. So just play a C, G, E, D with your LH & the chords with your RH. You could also play some passing notes in between those notes if you want too C,[ D#, F really fast], G. That might be hard to understand because its hard to draw that out with letters so google "Piano passing notes" & they should have pictures for you. You should check out NFX's video on basslines because thats pretty much what you do on the piano with your left hand.

- You can also invert the chords you mentioned. For the C chord, instead of playing CEG, you can play the C in the next octave and play EGC. If you invert it again you get GCE. You can do this however you want with any chord you want. It might still sound dull but it will sound different and still be in harmony so just have fun with that. If you didnt understand that paragraph either then google "Chord Inversions". You'll get more pictures there too.

- Instead of playing all the notes of those chords at the same time, you can strum them. Since you said you did this in the piano roll in FL, click the strum function in the menu & see what it does. That will really make your prog. sound more interesting. Also, instead of playing the chords try playing the single notes in the chords and alternating them alot. So instead of playing CEG, play C,E,G,C,E,G,C,E...... Play with the arpeegiator function in the channel settings if that didnt make sense.

If you wanna give that prog. even more feeling to it, you can combine any of those tips I told you about & get real creative with it.

There's alot more stuff you can do but thats all I can think of. Somebody will probably come in here & give you some more ideas I mightve missed.

Thanks man! That's given me a lot to play around with for sure. I've just read a little about passing notes and transition notes, but the lack of music theory means I don't understand how you come up with the notes you can use with the different chords haha.

Oh and with the arpeggiator, I was messing with that yesterday and found some presets it has, is it worth looking around online for more presets for it or is it best just to make your own?

Just so you know, this is alot of information but as a musicians this is what we spend time practicing along with other things..so don't get discouraged..take your basics and then work that..
and to give you some insight I practice at least 2-3hrs a day..
practice if your serious about it.

Yeah it's definitely a lot to get my head around. I'm still learning FL Studio at the minute but I've always wanted to learn to play piano. Hopefully I can buy a keyboard in the new year and start learning it in depth then.

no doubt...I think its something that all beat makers should do..keep music alive..
good luck with that..and remember...the greatest musician wanted to give it up at some time in his life from frustration..its not an easy road..but its a fun road..that will train your ear and skills..

Great advice...

Henry Brewer is an instructor at Musicaians Institute in L.A., a lot of my private guitar and bass teachers went there. Very informative book on this subject even if just to listen and learn the history of Hip Hop Keyboards. I got the R&B one too.

Hip Hop Keyboards

Posted By mysh on 30 Nov 2010 11:39 AM

 I'm not 100% sure this is the right place for this but here goes...

 I can play guitar a little so I know quite a few chord progressions and I've found those sites where you can find how to play what chord in which scale (which notes they are on the keyboard) etc.

 Bare with me here, with the guitar, you can change the feel of a progression with the strumming. Instead of boring down strokes, you can use different strumming methods to make the same progression feel different. Now, with the piano/keyboard, say I use the following progression: C,G,Em,D, when I play the piano this back in FL Studio, the progression sounds boring, the same boring down stroke strums of the guitar.

 I know almost nothing about Piano playing, but something I remember you can do to make the playing less dull or to give it a fuller sound, is you play different notes with your left hand too. With a C,G,Em,D progression on piano, what can I play for the left hand? I need something that joins each chord together some how like a note or notes just played just before the next chord.

 Sorry if this post is long or you don't understand what I mean haha, it's hard for me to put into words because I know hardly any terminology/music theory, I just have an ear for things.

Well since I self studied on playing the guitar and piano, well when I started cause I eventually took some lessons, here is how I play the piano. I first learned the guitar and then I learned the piano. Mostly when I play the piano, I integrate some things I do in a guitar. What I play in my left hand is the chords that I use in the guitar. Then with the right hand are the notes that plays rhythm. So yeah, hope that helps.

I'd like to add I did a tutorial on funk strumming which IIRC shows how to use the FL strummer to make down and up strokes as well as mutes. It's a more work than I like to do but you can get decent results. A lot of the benefit would be from your guitar sound source. There are not a lot of real sounding strums from most of them (especially acoustic) as the attack is always too harsh or to soft.

Ther are also some alternatives VST's that do strumming for you ( ie RealGuitar, RG from Rob Papen - I did a vid review on this - and one from Applied Acoustics that I'm too lazy to look up) Also I think Kontakt has a performance macro that does this and Halion might as well.