Basic synth solo techniques

Although basic competency on the piano is key, playing synths demands the adoption of one or two extra techniques you won’t be able to practise on the piano. Like, what are these weird-looking wheels to the left of the keyboard? What’s aftertouch and how do I use it? For now, we’ll address one of the main differences between synths and the piano – the fact that some synth sounds are monophonic. This means they’re only able to play one note at once, and this in turn means there’s a range of techniques you can adopt when putting together a rip-roaring synth solo or a funky synth bassline. How they work depends on how the synth sound you’re currently playing has been set up – whether or not the amplitude envelope retriggers whenever you play a new note, for instance, or whether or not portamento (glide) has been enabled. You can make monophonic sounds respond differently in subtle ways.