Piano for Producers: Intro

This hands-on course is designed for music producers and beatmakers who want to develop essential keyboard skills to improve their melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic fluency. Whether you’re sketching ideas or programming MIDI, keyboard fluency makes the creative process faster and more intuitive. The course focuses on practical piano techniques that translate directly to DAW workflows.
By the end of the course, students will build the confidence and coordination needed to create original MIDI parts, record live takes, and produce music more expressively with the keyboard.

Topics

• Keyboard Layout and Technique
  • Learn note names, octaves, finger numbers, posture, and C position drills.
• Scales and Triads
  • Practice C, G, and F major scales with correct fingering and build major and minor triads.
• Chords and Progressions
  • Build I-IV-V and vi-IV-I-V progressions and move efficiently between shapes.
• Rhythm and Timing
  • Count in 4/4, practice subdivisions, and play to a metronome with steady time.
• Melody Writing
  • Use scale and chord tones to create motifs with clear phrasing and articulation.
• Basslines and Left-Hand Patterns
  • Play root and root–5 patterns that define harmony and drive the groove.
• Two-Hand Coordination
  • Combine melody, chords, and bass while keeping alignment and smooth transitions.
• MIDI Recording and Production
  • Record, quantize, humanize, and edit in the piano roll to shape tight performances.

Goals

• Compose and produce a 1 minute original track that features clear keyboard parts.
• Perform C, G, and F major scales and basic triads at 80 BPM with clean fingering.
• Play I-IV-V and vi-IV-I-V progressions to a click at 80 to 100 BPM with steady timing.
• Write a right-hand melody over a left-hand bass pattern that supports the harmony.
• Record MIDI takes into a DAW, apply quantization and humanization, and fix notes in the piano roll.
• Arrange, balance, and export a WAV mix at 44.1 kHz and 24 bit.
• Organize a project with labeled tracks, color coding, and clear routing for submission.