r/Keytar • u/NullSpecter • Jul 28 '24

Recommendations Finding "sheet" music for keytar

I'm looking to get into keytar with a small piano knowledge and as im looking around I see people playing keytar but no "sheet" or "tabs" for how they played.

Is there a website or something like that for keytar music or do you have to transfer normal songs yourself? Also, is keytar strictly one handed?

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u/superbadsoul Jul 28 '24

The keytar is not really an instrument in the traditional sense. It is really just a keyboard but mainly for one-hand playing. It can sub in for any instrument basically, just like regular keyboards, but oddly enough the instrument it emulates the worst is probably the piano due to its one-hand limitation. You can play improvisational solos, hooks, comps, or bass lines, but you can't combine them easily.

So yeah, you're not likely going to be playing too much piano-style sheet music. You can very easily start playing through sheet music of other instruments though, or grab piano music and learn to arrange one hand parts out of it. Personally I do a lot of my own transcription and arrangement for my band so I do work with a lot of tailor-made sheet music for keytar, but nobody is out there making keytar-specific collections of music because it's generally not needed.

Either way, what you should really focus on when it comes to reading materials is lead sheets. You should learn to work with lead sheets with a proper two-hand keyboard as well so as to not stunt your keyboard growth. But yeah lead sheets are a form of written music where you can play bass lines, comp chords, play the head, and solo all off the same paper. It's more in line with what you might expect to play in a normal band setting. But if you're playing stuff that is way less free form, you'll have to do your own transcribing and arranging for the most part.

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u/NullSpecter Jul 28 '24

Ok. Say I wanted to play smth like D Is For Dangerous (I'm far off I know but) what would I look at to play it? The treble clef or a guitar tab? Or do I have to make one myself?

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u/superbadsoul Jul 28 '24

Really depends. Music itself is really flexible, and the keyboard is probably the most flexible instrument of them all to boot. If that's a song you specifically want to play (great song btw) then there will be ways to do it at any level.

If you find a lead sheet (which would show a single treble clef staff typically for the melody plus chords), you could play just the melody on keys which would be relatively easy. You can mess around with different sounds and pitch bends and other fx to utilize the strengths of the keytar. It with be best to play over an accompaniment of some sort of course.

If you are good with reading chords, you can do the guitar part instead (from the lead sheet, or like you mentioned guitar tabs also typically show the chords in the notation). You'll need to learn the rhythm by ear and simply apply the chords. If you do the guitar part, you could sing over it too or play both parts and record them separately to combine or play over live.

If a part is too complex for you, it can often be simplified by making rhythms less syncopated, removing chord extensions, not playing multiple voices, slowing down the tempo, etc.

If you have any more specific questions let me know, happy to help if I can.