Software solutions
Hit a brick wall in your keyboard practice? Trying to learn a song but can’t work out the chords? Technology is at hand! Online piano lessons aside, tech has pushed even further into music education, with a surfeit of software-based solutions to help producers not only play themselves, but also use modern and convenient methods to come up with new chord ideas and keyboard parts, neatly bypassing all those pesky years of study and toil! Joking aside, while here at we fully realise that there’s no substitute for the dedication musicians put in, there’s nothing wrong with a well-thought out piece of software to lend a hand. Maybe you want to add a classy bit of piano but don’t know anyone who plays, or maybe your songwriting is stuck in a rut. Salvation may just come in software form…
Synthesia synthesiagame.com
This video-game style app for PC, Mac, iOS and Android devices uses a different approach to learning keys – the notes roll down from the top of the screen towards a virtual piano keyboard and it’s your job to play them as they touch down. As well as its built-in song library, it’ll play any MIDi file you throw at it, and with a MIDI / USB keyboard connected, the app listens to your playing and helps you learn any song. If you’re more into learning how to sight read a traditional sheet music score, there’s the option to enable this too. It’s a simple idea, and great fun, and while it doesn’t include any form of dynamics, it’s good for basic keyboard familiarity and timing training.
Melodics melodics.com
A subs-based learning aid for MIDI-equipped keyboards, pad controllers and electronic drum kits designed to make practice fun enough that you won’t want to ditch your instrument. This involves learning modern, relevant songs in an array of styles, tracking progress and practice sessions using a well thought-out and easy-to-navigate interface. One USP is its finger-drumming lesson plan, a growing need among producers. There’s a free version, plus monthly/annual subs options.
Captain Chords mixedinkey.com/captain-plugins/
Part of the Captain Plugins suite of assistive software for beats, basslines, chords and melody creation, this innovative app from Mixed-In-Key helps you put together credible chord progressions and riffs in the DAW of your choice with little or no musical training. Loads of bundled progression and rhythmic presets make great starting points, which you can then tweak directly in the internal editor using inversion and complexity sliders. It will host your favourite virtual instrument plugins too.
Toontrack EZKeys toontrack.com
If you can’t play piano but desperately need a piano part in your song, Toontrack offers a selection of different piano choices in their EZKeys range of virtual instruments. These all come packed with pre-recorded MIDI files that you can fit to your own chord progression, then drag and drop into your DAW, giving you a respectable result with minimum effort. While this might be seen as cheating, it can definitely be a valuable resource for those with no time to learn, and also if you do want to learn it’s a great repository of professionally-played MIDI parts in various styles that can be analysed. From the range, we particularly like the Studio Grand Piano.
Scaler 2 pluginboutique.com/product/3-StudioTools/93-Music-Theory-Tools/6439-Scaler-2
Scaler 2 is similar to Captain Chords in that it presents you with chord voicing and progression choices based on the key you’re working in, then allows you to play chords with one finger, customise progressions and import them into your DAW via drag and drop. It’ll even suggest ways to change to a new key! An approachable interface, audio and MIDI-based key detection, hundreds of artist and moodbased chord sets and more makes this a great inspirational tool for budding songwriters.
Yamaha Chord Tracker uk.yamaha.com/en/products/musical_ instruments/pianos/apps/chord_tracker/ index.html
This handy free app for iOS or Android devices analyses songs stored as audio on your device and generates a play-along chord chart that runs along karaoke-style with the song, making it a breeze to learn to play tunes. You can view each chord shape as staff notation, piano keyboard or guitar fretboard symbols as the song plays, and you can slow down, speed up, transpose and loop sections to nail difficult bits. It won’t work with streamed audio, but a minor quibble for such a useful free aid.
MIDI Packs https://unison.audio/product/unison-midichord-pack/
A popular choice for inspiration-hungry producers, featuring loads of pre-recorded MIDI files. For example, the Unison MIDi pack is a library of over 1200 chords and progressions that you drag and drop into your DAW to spark creativity. The content is structured into 12 folders, one per key, each containing triads, extended chords, borrowed and modal chords, advanced voicings and ready-made progressions. As the files are just MIDI data, they’re platform-agnostic, so work with any DAW. Even if you know theory, this method can be great for finding progressions you’d never have come up with just sat at a keyboard.