Standard Expert keys technique question

[epsilon82]

So, I've been trying to get a pretty good handle on Expert Standard keys before I dive into Pro Mode, and I've hit kind of a wall in the approach I've been using. I've been almost exclusively keeping my right hand "tethered" in place on the five applicable keys and hitting green with my thumb, red with index, yellow with middle, blue with ring, and orange with pinky. The idea being that I want to try to build as much dexterity as possible so that when I move up to pro I'm not going to be having to resort to two-handedness or avoiding the pinky too much.

But I'm finding that on some harder songs, or even songs that aren't that hard at all (like Piano Man and Pressure, for instance) I'm just having an incredibly difficult time dealing with chord changes involving the orange, especially my personal dreaded RYO/RBO chords, because it's just too hard for me to avoid brushing the missing note(s) with my middle or ring finger when I have to press down with the pinky.

I've thought about changing my approach a bit to use the pinky more sparingly using a technique similar to what I've always done on guitar and "shift" my hand up to have my thumb on red when those chords with orange pop up and then shift back down when greens appear again. I'd still use my pinky for single orange notes and for GO chords, but I'm just finding myself completely useless with the way I'm doing it now.

I guess my question is, would more accomplished/experienced keyboard players discourage this change, given that I do plan on moving up to Pro mode at some point? The one advantage to this is that it would force me to start getting comfortable with some (admittedly very minor) position changing, which I know will be a huge part of Pro keys, at the expense of avoiding the pinky as a crutch. Should I continue to suffer with my current technique and force myself to get used to it, or would it be acceptable to shift my hand in certain parts?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[epsilon82]

So, I've been trying to get a pretty good handle on Expert Standard keys before I dive into Pro Mode, and I've hit kind of a wall in the approach I've been using. I've been almost exclusively keeping my right hand "tethered" in place on the five applicable keys and hitting green with my thumb, red with index, yellow with middle, blue with ring, and orange with pinky. The idea being that I want to try to build as much dexterity as possible so that when I move up to pro I'm not going to be having to resort to two-handedness or avoiding the pinky too much.

But I'm finding that on some harder songs, or even songs that aren't that hard at all (like Piano Man and Pressure, for instance) I'm just having an incredibly difficult time dealing with chord changes involving the orange, especially my personal dreaded RYO/RBO chords, because it's just too hard for me to avoid brushing the missing note(s) with my middle or ring finger when I have to press down with the pinky.

I've thought about changing my approach a bit to use the pinky more sparingly using a technique similar to what I've always done on guitar and "shift" my hand up to have my thumb on red when those chords with orange pop up and then shift back down when greens appear again. I'd still use my pinky for single orange notes and for GO chords, but I'm just finding myself completely useless with the way I'm doing it now.

I guess my question is, would more accomplished/experienced keyboard players discourage this change, given that I do plan on moving up to Pro mode at some point? The one advantage to this is that it would force me to start getting comfortable with some (admittedly very minor) position changing, which I know will be a huge part of Pro keys, at the expense of avoiding the pinky as a crutch. Should I continue to suffer with my current technique and force myself to get used to it, or would it be acceptable to shift my hand in certain parts?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[malictus]

I'm primarily a Pro Keys player, but I have also played through all the on-disc songs in regular Keys mode as well. I definitely found that at times I was shifting up from the normal position to hit some of those chords --- many of those 'chord progressions' in regular keys mode are quite awkward and strange and wouldn't really show up in 'real' music much.

If you're already doing regular keys mode on Expert, I would highly recommend moving up to Pro Keys right away. The first few tiers are quite easy, even at higher difficulty levels --- you may be surprised how well you do.

[malictus]

I'm primarily a Pro Keys player, but I have also played through all the on-disc songs in regular Keys mode as well. I definitely found that at times I was shifting up from the normal position to hit some of those chords --- many of those 'chord progressions' in regular keys mode are quite awkward and strange and wouldn't really show up in 'real' music much.

If you're already doing regular keys mode on Expert, I would highly recommend moving up to Pro Keys right away. The first few tiers are quite easy, even at higher difficulty levels --- you may be surprised how well you do.

[nextlevel88]

Pro requires even more pinky usage in the form of four note chords and stretching entire octaves. Unless you have six 8" fingers on each hand (which is a deformity I think Beethoven suffered from), I don't know if it's possible to avoid developing pinky dexterity.
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[nextlevel88]

Pro requires even more pinky usage in the form of four note chords and stretching entire octaves. Unless you have six 8" fingers on each hand (which is a deformity I think Beethoven suffered from), I don't know if it's possible to avoid developing pinky dexterity.
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[epsilon82]

Thanks for the quick and helpful replies. I'm well aware that I'm not going to be able to avoid using the pinky on Pro mode, and I'm not saying that I'm thinking of trying to do it entirely on standard mode either...it's just that it seems extremely weird to force myself to hit fast chords on the right side of the lane when the keys aren't that far apart (in Standard mode.)

As a more specific example of something I struggle with that isn't actually very difficult technically, here's the video of Pressure on Expert Keys.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JilE2sAZCe4

If I try to play the part from 1:11 to 1:15 hitting the YO chords with my middle and pinky fingers, I tend to struggle with it, but I can hit the part where it just "drops" everything a note right afterward just fine. The real problem is overhits, which I think is exacerbated by the fact that I'm pretty sure my middle and ring fingers are disproportionately longer than my pinky. And I suspect that the overhitting problem would actually be mitigated somewhat if there were more space between the keys as there would be on Pro mode. For instance, I don't have nearly the same trouble hitting GRO chords using my thumb, index, and pinky as I do hitting YO or RYO chords. It just seems with that small of a distance it doesn't make much sense to force myself to use the pinky in those instances.

Anyway, that video shows a specific instance where I'm thinking it would be better for me to shift my hand up a key so I can hit the YO chords with my index and ring fingers and then move back down a key to use the same motion on the "transposed" part afterward.

Would that be recommended, or should I just force myself to stay in place?

Also, thanks for the suggested exercise. I do actually own a full-size real keyboard, but I'd have to dig it out of my closet, and my only experience with it was just playing simple crap by ear just picking at keys mostly using both of my index fingers. But I don't have a MIDI cable. I was curious, though, since I'm on PS3 and I can use my other instruments on the PC, could I plug my keyboard USB dongle into the PC and use it on the computer directly that way? That'd save me the trouble of digging out my bulky real keyboard.

[epsilon82]

Thanks for the quick and helpful replies. I'm well aware that I'm not going to be able to avoid using the pinky on Pro mode, and I'm not saying that I'm thinking of trying to do it entirely on standard mode either...it's just that it seems extremely weird to force myself to hit fast chords on the right side of the lane when the keys aren't that far apart (in Standard mode.)

As a more specific example of something I struggle with that isn't actually very difficult technically, here's the video of Pressure on Expert Keys.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JilE2sAZCe4

If I try to play the part from 1:11 to 1:15 hitting the YO chords with my middle and pinky fingers, I tend to struggle with it, but I can hit the part where it just "drops" everything a note right afterward just fine. The real problem is overhits, which I think is exacerbated by the fact that I'm pretty sure my middle and ring fingers are disproportionately longer than my pinky. And I suspect that the overhitting problem would actually be mitigated somewhat if there were more space between the keys as there would be on Pro mode. For instance, I don't have nearly the same trouble hitting GRO chords using my thumb, index, and pinky as I do hitting YO or RYO chords. It just seems with that small of a distance it doesn't make much sense to force myself to use the pinky in those instances.

Anyway, that video shows a specific instance where I'm thinking it would be better for me to shift my hand up a key so I can hit the YO chords with my index and ring fingers and then move back down a key to use the same motion on the "transposed" part afterward.

Would that be recommended, or should I just force myself to stay in place?

Also, thanks for the suggested exercise. I do actually own a full-size real keyboard, but I'd have to dig it out of my closet, and my only experience with it was just playing simple crap by ear just picking at keys mostly using both of my index fingers. But I don't have a MIDI cable. I was curious, though, since I'm on PS3 and I can use my other instruments on the PC, could I plug my keyboard USB dongle into the PC and use it on the computer directly that way? That'd save me the trouble of digging out my bulky real keyboard.

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