Padtastic Korgy

It's been a weird time lately, but I've had lots of people ask me how i play 'pads' and what are 'pads', so I thought I'd blog it and then direct everyone here.

Firstly, what are 'pads' - put simply, if you listen to songs like 'Our God Reigns' you will hear those kind of string sounds, weird keyboard sounds that just seem to sound angelic ... thats pads.

I use a Korg M1, and also my Laptop to make these sounds, I also have a little mixer to match the sounds up. The Korg is generally left on 'Dream Pad' while the laptop could be a full string orchestra or any number of other sounds that I have downloaded. However, don't be fooled into thinking that to have pads in your band that you need to invest so heavily. Most keyboards have sounds like 'Synth Strings' - that will do, especially if you can add a little reverb / sustain to the sound. Your Sound guy may also be able to knock some of the treble out as well, which will make it sound less harsh.

It's important to note, that pads are nothing like playing piano, and the style of playing pads is all about simplicity. When every other member of the band drops out and you're just playing Majesty (Delirious) it is an incredibly humbling and awe inspiring moment.

I have spent quite a bit of time perfecting my own way of playing pads, so I'm going to share that now....

Firstly, it's essential that you understand standard chord triads, i.e. the chord C Major will consist of C, E, G. The simple method of making a triad is to count 5 and 4 (including the notes that you are playing) example:

1 2 3 4 5,1 2 3 4
C (c# d d#) E (f f#) G

That simple method also applies to Minor Chords, however in that situation you would count 4 and 5 in the same way as above.

Confused yet? Hope not!

Ok, you can play triads, let's zoom on a bit...here is a nice easy example, Delirious Majesty consists of 4 chords, they are: B, F#, G#m and E. If you played them as triads you would be playing the following...

F# ---- C# ---- D# ---- B ----:|
D# ---- A# ---- B ---- G# ----:|
B ---- F# ---- G# ---- E ----:|

B ---- F# ---- G# ---- E ----:| (LEFT HAND)

Now if you play that, it will sound reasonable, if a little wide in range. So, try playing this...

B ---- A# ---- B ---- B ----:|
F# ---- F# ---- G# ---- E ----:|


B ---- F# ---- G# ---- E ----:| (LEFT HAND)

You will see in what I play, that the F# lasts for 2 bars, and the B lasts for 2 bars. I'm hoping that you will notice a significant difference in tone.

Although what I play is much more simple, thats the key to pads, the brain work comes in when you are looking at a set of chords, what goes through my mind is, how can I simplify them, how can I move my hands less, if you look at my example above, the range is from an E to a B, thats just 8 semitones (inclusive of the E and B) whereas playing in triads spans a whopping 15 semitones.

I think it will make sense if you play it!