Are keyboards in Prog music 'played out'?

What could modern keyboardists do to invigorate their music and make it more fresh? Is it just a need for more skill? Different timbres? Expression pedals? Altogether different hardware (umm...glockenspiel anyone?)?

I'm not sure how this will go over with this being my first post outside of my introduction post...

Keyboards are as integral a part of a band as a guitar or drums.  Now how much a part of the band's core relies on any one instrument is up to the members of the band itself.  Frost's uses of keys is what I would consider the core of their music.  If you take the keyboard away from them, you don't have anything close to Frost.  On the other hand, take everything but guitars and drums from Animals as Leaders (keyboard done on a computer), and you still have AAL.  In the collection of music that I have, a keyboard is nothing more than that extra kick needed to thicken up a song.  I hear a lot of songs and think to myself, "that song could use a synth."

I see what you're getting at, but from where I stand, the replies that you get are going to largely be based on each user's knowledge of the music that's out there to date.  An example from one of my favorite bands would be Symphony X's use of piano.  In some of their works like Communion and The Oracle, the piano is an important part.  The piano in A Winter's Dream Pt. 1 is more important in my opinion, but importance doesn't derive from complexity in this example.  In either case, you can lean either way in your question. 

Coming from my composition background, a knowledgeable and capable pianist is almost necessary to create some things (epics), but a hindrance in other songs (djent), so it again goes back to what the members deem necessary.  I know that in my region, skilled pianists are incredibly difficult to come by.  If I could find one, I would do whatever I could to get them on with my band. 

On the level of theory alone, I've seen some argue that there is nothing left to accomplish on piano or any instrument.  I personally feel that that idea is completely erroneous and that those individuals need to take a step back from the mechanics of music for a while.  Eddie Van Halen was quoted as saying that "there is nothing left to compose on the guitar" while at a party of his, yet I still find some guitar passages from other bands that blow my mind from time to time.  Piano fits the same bill if you ask me. 

I personally don't believe that more skill on the piano is what is needed.  If you play long enough, you eventually get to where you just practice what you've written and what you're trying to write.  I stayed on a huge practice kick for the first 6-7 years that I played guitar, practicing for as many as 10-12 hours a day from time to time.  I could nearly play MAB's Speed Kills, but I couldn't compose anything outside of heavy metal to save my life.  As a result, I started spending my time listening to more complex music and learning the finer elements of composition and related topics.  Short version: more technical skill isn't needed; more fearlessness in composition is.

Is Piano played out?  I believe that when the mean product of the genre has the vast majority of fans of this genre thinking to themselves, "here we go, another piano", the use of piano may then be due for a new direction, but that's as far as I'd go.

No because there are loads of bands with keyboard players.

I probably don't listen to enough modern prog to make a judgement on this. My hunch is that keyboards will always have a place in progressive music in some shape or form, and there is more to keyboards in prog than just mellotrons and Moogs of course.

We've seen keyboards disapear from mainstream pop music in the past, after the 80's synth mania had 'played out' There was a rush to go back to basics with guitars.

I think in an absolute sense, that is simply not the case.  I will not spend time enumerating bands because others have done that.  In a relative sense, it depends on what bands, what kind of prog you want to focus on.  In the first half of the noughties, it may have appeared as if guitar-based prog metal would dominate the scene. But Porcupine Tree steadily built up a following and thereafter Wilson as a solo artist has emerged in his own right as one of the most popular faces of prog.  And certainly both Grace for Drowning as well as Raven incorporate a lot of keyboard.  Often times very understated, elegant keyboard in a ITCOTCK/Nursery Cryme way rather than in your face synth tones.  Please check out especially the track Deform to form a star from Grace for Drowning and tell me it is not reminiscent of classic Genesis.  A much more mainstream, crossover face of prog is the band Muse.  I need say no more.

rogerthat wrote: I think in an absolute sense, that is simply not the case.  I will not spend time enumerating bands because others have done that.  In a relative sense, it depends on what bands, what kind of prog you want to focus on.  In the first half of the noughties, it may have appeared as if guitar-based prog metal would dominate the scene. But Porcupine Tree steadily built up a following and thereafter Wilson as a solo artist has emerged in his own right as one of the most popular faces of prog.  And certainly both Grace for Drowning as well as Raven incorporate a lot of keyboard.  Often times very understated, elegant keyboard in a ITCOTCK/Nursery Cryme way rather than in your face synth tones.  Please check out especially the track Deform to form a star from Grace for Drowning and tell me it is not reminiscent of classic Genesis.  A much more mainstream, crossover face of prog is the band Muse.  I need say no more.

But aren't keys added almost as an afterthought without much presence on most songs on albums like Fear Of a BlanK Planet? A very guitar heavy album.


Edited by SteveG - July 30 2014 at 12:23

HackettFan wrote: What could modern keyboardists do to invigorate their music and make it more fresh? Is it just a need for more skill? Different timbres? Expression pedals? Altogether different hardware (umm...glockenspiel anyone?)?