How to Create Flourishes With Keyboards

A flourish on keyboards is like a riff inserted into a chord progression or static playing. It's something that sticks out to a listener's ear. Flourishes are used in many genres to add to a musical piece or to provide transitions (listen to live jazz for some good examples of this). Here are some tips for playing good flourishes on keyboards.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

1. Stick to your key. Whether you're doing chords, flourishes, full-scale solos or anything else on your keyboard, you want to stay within your harmonic scale to make sure you don't hit some sour or dissonant notes.

2. Keep up with the rhythm of play. If you're transitioning from rhythmic chord play into a flourish or melodic riff, it may be hard to keep an ear to whatever everybody else is playing, especially for a slower song. You may need to count to yourself and pay close attention to the drummer or bass strings.

3. Maintain good volume. Make sure your single notes are loud enough to be heard but not loud enough to slice through the music.

4. Use "beat rests." This technique is almost standard for flourishes and transitional melodic note sequences. Musicians leave out one or more chords in order to add a different note combo. Try adding your flourish in place of a chord on a specific beat for a good, professional transition.

5. Utilize arpeggios and scale note combos. Arpeggios are truncated scales that lots of players find perfect for flourishes and transitions. These four-note combos, played fast, ring harmonically within a chord progression and catch the listener's ear at the same time.