Things You'll Need:
- Electronic keyboard Piano books
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Step 1
Choose an electronic keyboard. Unless you are a child, you'll want to find one with full-sized keys. If you want to be able to play classical piano music, you will need a full-sized keyboard with 88 weighted keys and touch sensitivity. If you want to play electronic music, however, you can get away with a smaller keyboard. See Resources for more information about choosing a keyboard.
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Step 2
Learn to read music and basic piano skills. You should be able to play rudimentary piano drills and scales, and play through a piece of sheet music on the keyboard. See Resources for more info about reading and playing piano music.
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Step 3
Learn the basic sound settings on your keyboard. Most electronic keyboards have a collection of midi patches--different sound files that let you make the tones of different instruments. Others are designed to model analog synthesizers, with virtual oscillators and filters that allow you to make, filter and modify square, sawtooth and other basic waveforms. Some keyboards combine midi patches, filters and other effects to give you the best of both worlds.
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Step 4
Learn about recording. Most high-quality keyboards allow you to record and playback music. You can speed the tracks up, slow them down, and alter the volume and effects of the playback. Practice recording background parts and soloing over them.
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Step 5
Learn to control dynamics. In most types of electronic music, the keyboard plays a mellow accompaniment in the background for most of the session, except during solos. To solo, you can switch patches to something that cuts through the background music, play louder on a touch sensitive keyboard, or simply slide up the volume.
