Beat Making: Free Piano Lessons

Beat Making

Free Piano Lessons

As beat makers and producers, we could all use some piano lessons. Nowadays, skills on the keys could translate to hits. Keyboards give our hands access to virtually any sound in a piano's layout, so learning the keys should be one of the most important things you can do for yourself.



No piano? No prob. Get yourself a midi keyboard. A great option is the M-Audio Keystation 61es 61-Key Keyboard which gives you plenty of velocity-sensitive keys to work with, along with the octave shifter and mod wheel to give you nearly full control over your sounds. Many other stand alone keyboards, which have their own sounds, also have midi controlling attributes and can do the trick, but a midi controller is all you really need in terms of hardware.

To supplement a midi keyboard, a good soundbank is needed. Vsti's (virtual studio technology instruments) are great tools that not only provide the sounds, but are a great way to link your software to hardware. Hypersonic 2, which boasts 1.7 GB of sounds,  is an excellent vsti to begin with, but there are literally hundreds of different vstis to pick from. With a combination of a midi controller and a slew of vsti's, your arsenal will multiply tenfold.

Now for the free piano lessons! A user by the name of Lypur has posted a very detailed series of piano lesson videos on youtube, containing 40 videos, ranging from 15 to 30 minutes each. He is offering these piano lessons for free because he believes that everyone should have the opportunity to learn to play the piano. These videos could've easily been sold in a Dvd collection for hundreds of dollars, but they are 100% free. Check it out!