Favorite keyboardist?

[Demonspell]

Focusing on keyboardists who help define a band's sound without lapsing into self-indulgence (relatively anyways, as this is a prog-metal focused list!):

Sverd
Martin Hedin (Andromeda)
Fredrik Hermansson (Pain Of Salvation)
Richard West (Threshold)
Michael Pinella (Symphony X)
Richard Barbieri (Porcupine Tree)
Kevin Moore

And of course the first generation proggers: Wakeman, Bardens, Banks, Emerson, Kerry Minnear, etc.

 

[yourdeadgroom]

As a pianist I hold little to no respect to keyboardists

So, you play piano, but apparently you're not much of a musician, if you actually believe what you just said

 

[IanDork107]

There really is no competition...SVERD!

 

[Jo]

Ray Manzarek, Jon Lord

 

[ffanatic]

Sverd-Arcturus
Kevin Moore-ex-Dream Theater
Jordan Rudess-Dream Theater
Fredrick Hermassen-Pain of Salvation
Andy Winter-Winds

 

[Smitty]

Kevin Moore (Chroma Key, OSI, ex-Dream Theater)

 

[illbeleavinnow]

So, you play piano, but apparently you're not much of a musician, if you actually believe what you just said

I wrote like 4 paragraphs worth of response but I deleted it by accident so I'll give you the main point: I could gather for you 10 random people who have never played keyboards/piano in their life and given at most a day 9 out of those 10 could do the job of 80% of the keyboardist's working in bands.

If you're a good musician and you play the keyboards you owe it to yourself to either be the frontman and focus on the keyboards (much like what the old school prog bands did, like ELP and Yes), or to play solo piano.

 

[MetalManCPA]

Finally someone who knows Keith Emerson.

I grew up with two bands I considered the elite - Led Zeppelin and Emerson, Lake & Palmer. And the beauty of it is I lived through their careers, not picking up an album and listening to something 10 years old for the first time.

Rick Wakeman got more press, but I always have (and still do) consider Keith Emerson to be the best keyboardist to ever play on a rock band. The problem with keyboards in todays music is it is the fourth instrument most listeners are interested in. Guitar, bass, drums - that's the base of rock today and for the past decade plus. Bands like Kansas were the last to truly incorporate keyboards into there mix.

Some of my favorite solos on keyboard (not including ELP because there are too many): Smoking by Boston, Call Me The Breeze by Lynyrd Skynyrd, Rat Bat Blue by Deep Purple - all bands from the 80's and before. There doesn't seem to be mass interest in keyboards. To me, it's considered more of a novelty, which is really too bad, because I think keyboards add the most interesting dimension to music. When I saw Dimmu Borgir, I was awestruck by how keyboard/synth was utilized. It just made the sound experience complete for me. I love guitar, but adding a keyboard doesn't detract from anything - it only adds more substance.

There are probably many obscure bands today that use keyboards as a major part of their music that I don't know of. But the bands I listed above were all quite well known.

 

[illbeleavinnow]

:zombie: Led Zeppelin and ELP are two of my favorite bands. My fav bands have always changed but these two have come back to the top over and over again.

Anyways, Rick Wakeman got more fame because people caleed ELP pretentious and pompous, and most of the hate was coming from within the prog rock community. It's good they shook it off.

On a related note, my favorite solo by ELP is the second one in Take a Pebble. I'm learning the whole song, and it's always nice because everytime I play it it's different (there's a part near the end of the song where you improvise ad lib over a left hand pattern). It's so amazing playing that song.

 

[MetalManCPA]

Best keyboard solo EVER:

Keith Emerson from the live Welcome Back My Friends....album (CD): Piano Improvisations, which includes Fugue and Little Rock Getaway. It's 11:53 of pure bliss. Now I must go listen to it.
:hotjump:

 

[illbeleavinnow]

Do you have EMerson Plays Emerson? The title alone is worth buying it. (if you're not a fan of jazz you won't get it)

In any case it's not his greatest stuff, but it's very different. I mean, it's just: Keith Emerson playing piano. Just piano. Some great tunes, great improvisation, great solos.

Godamn I love Keith Emerson. Since the day I found out about ELP I've idolized the man to no end. I hope one day my piano playing will get me as far as it got him. *gets teary eyed*

 

[ProgMetalFan]

Richard West (Threshold)
Martin Barbieri (Porcupine Tree)
Rikard Zander (Evergrey)
Sven Karlsson (for his work on Evergrey's "In Search of Truth"...which was incredible... don't really care for his Soilwork keyboards)
Kevin Moore (O.S.I., Fates Warning)

 

[narcisco]

Nothing like an elitist piano player for putting down electronic instruments and the rock genre in general.
Man so what if some of the stuff is not that technical to play. Just like if you isolate certain sections of bass playing that just are well pretty straightforward. Any way you come across as a musical snob but hey.
A keyboardists role in a metal band is generally support driven but as many have pointed out their soloing ability and intricate compositional pieces are at times brilliant. And it takes more then technique to play metal and rock and improvise. I mean I have played in small orchestras (bass guitar) for stage shows and here is this classically trained pianist who can sight read absolutely anything. But if you played a blues progression could absolutely not play a fucking solo to save her life. In fact the whole concept of "making something up" was terrifying for her.
And believe me this a common affliction of classically trained "musicians".
It cuts both ways.

 

[Windom Pearl]

Kevin Moore, he's always played with genuine emotion and 'A Pleasant Shade of Gray' is one of my favorite albums by in large part because of him.

My words exactly.

 

[I-F 2.0 (Cause Its Cool To Do)]

Janne! Children of Bodom! Wooo!

 

[Tee]

Mic Michaeli

 

[Captain Beard]

Well, Domingo Smets, but I've been told by a former band of his he can't keep up live... But I'll hear it for myself, I imagine.

 

[Steingrim]

The guy from Arcturus, hands down.

That would be Sverd and I very much agree.
He also did the keys for Covenant. Check out their masterpiece Nexus Polaris!

 

[yourdeadgroom]

Oh, and that guy that used to play for Yngwie Malmsteen back in the early/mid 80's, I think his last name was Johanson or something (his brother played drums in the band too). He was really fucking good, some of his soloing is just as cool as Yngwie's.

 

[Static]

Sverd is my favourite metal dude.

Worthy of mention is Richard Wright...he was absolutely nothing flash that's for sure, but he added a subtle element to the music that I think may PF fans and prog fans in general often take for granted. The man was a genius at adding something and not getting in the way, and one reason that Pink Floyd's music has aged so well is due to his restraint and tastefulness.