Can't afford a keyboard player in the band but need some keys - I have the answer

Danny1969

Buy a Roland SPD-S, record  the chords you need into a patch then trigger with your feet  

Here's a quick demo of me having a go : 

I'm doing 2 gigs using this method as our normal Keys \ other guitar player is on hols for a bit.  Wish me luck

viz

It's very good. Geddy used to play with something similar.

Rocker

Two gigs tap dancing like that and people might mistake you for Fred Astaire . I admire your skills both in your hands and feet. Have two great gigs my friend....

Grunfeld

Very cool. Fancy foot work! 

I like the idea of a sample trigger thing. Band-wise it's sort of a "solution waiting for a problem" for us at the moment but I'd like one all the same.

thomasross20

Hahaha I'd be bound to mess up with all that going on!! Nice playing!

stickyfiddle

Nice playing

Sounded good but I wouldn't fancy doing that live while playing the solos and STANDING UP in a packed pub though!

jd0272

Would it not be easier to employ (for scraps, obviously) a musically competent tramp/hobo?

Danny1969

In a kebab shop just finished ... Played where the streets have no name, everybody hurts, purple rain, superstition and long train running keys parts with my foot ... Worked a treat

MrBump

Blimey - it's not cheap though.  I'm sure I could buy a keyboard player for half that.

Fuzzdog

I had to do the keyboard with feet thing in an old band, as our keyboard player left.  He only ever used to play basic pads and drones anyway, so I spent a couple of hours dissecting a cheap MIDI controller keyboard I got from Gumtree for a tenner, soldering some wires to some of the keyboard contacts and running them out to a little array of microswitches I pulled out of a couple of old game controllers.  

Looked bloody awful, but did the trick surprisingly well. )

hugbot

when i saw dredg the bass player was playing an akai sampler with his toes and the drummer was drumming with one hand playing keyboard.

Danny1969

Fuzzdog said:

I had to do the keyboard with feet thing in an old band, as our keyboard player left.  He only ever used to play basic pads and drones anyway, so I spent a couple of hours dissecting a cheap MIDI controller keyboard I got from Gumtree for a tenner, soldering some wires to some of the keyboard contacts and running them out to a little array of microswitches I pulled out of a couple of old game controllers.  

Looked bloody awful, but did the trick surprisingly well. )

Lol full marks for ingenuity

For songs like purple rain and Streets it's a piece of cake as you the changes are a couple of bars apart so there's plenty of time.   Superstition was a bit harder, playing the horn part in the chorus while playing the chords on the guitar as well.