5 More Ways to Play Like Keith Emerson

5 More Wa Ways ys To Play Like Keith Emerson BY BRIAN BRI AN CHA CHARET RETTE TE

June 26, 2013

Keith Emerson is the reason I play keyboards. When I first started playing music, someone gave me a cassette of Emerson, Lake & Palmers album Brain album Brain Salad Surgery Surgeryand and my life !as changed forever. Emerson is undoubtedly one of the most influential keyboardists of the last "# years. $ere are a fe! e%ercises to give you a taste of his diyingly diverse keyboard style. •

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Read our December 2010 interview with Keith Emerson where  YOU wrote the the questions! questions! Read the "5 as o #$a" $esson %rom that issue&

1. Organized

Ex. 1 illustrates 1 illustrates some of Keiths killer organ !ork. 'ar ( begins !ith a descending bass line and Lydian arpeggios moving in minor thirds. 'y bar ) !e see another typical Emerson device* triadic shapes over unusual bass lines moving in parallel. +he e%ample ends !ith rhythmic prog hits. Emerson played mostly $ammond - and L-(## organs, but regardless of your organ rig, set your top manual to /0001 23ust the first three dra!bars, all at ma%imum4 !ith percussion on short decay and vibrato5chorus set to . 6et the  bottom manual to 00 8800 000. heck out ELPs track /Endless Enigma1 for an e%ample of ho! Keith employs these techni7ues.

2. Five To Stay Alive

Emerson routinely sets up ostinato riffs in his compositions. Ex. 2 is influenced by the ELP tune /+rilogy1 and is in "5) time. 8ften after a long cadena, Emerson plays four bars of a vamp similar to this one before drummer 9lan Palmer enters !ith fervent force.

3. Mano y Mono

 9nother sound associated !ith Keith Emerson is the monophonic :oog synthesier. Keith !ould often play s!eeping modal lines !ith a fat monophonic sound employing cray amounts of pitch-bend and portamento, as in Ex. 3. +his e%ample uses the :i%olydian mode 2ma3or scale !ith a flatted seventh4. When you get to bar , channel your inner prog rock star and turn that modulation !heel up.

4. From Rags to Rices

Emerson loved ragtime-es7e piano parts and often used an out-of-tune piano for tracks featuring them, like on /'enny Was a 'ouncer1 and /+he 6heriff.1 Ex. 4 appro%imates this style. $ere the left hand plays a standard ragtime accompaniment !hile the right han d plays melodies voiced in si%ths and other unusual intervals. +he e%ercise ends !ith a right hand fugue-like line.

!. "o Fo#rt

Emerson often employs fourths in his melodic lines. +he notes in Ex. ! all come from the C ;orian mode. In  your o!n melodic e%plorations, instead of playing the mode simply straight up and do!n, try to /see1 it in fourth shapes. +he ELP albums Brain Salad Surgery andTrilogy both feature e%tensive use of fourths.

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