Keyboardist

A keyboardist is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid 1960s, a plethora of new musical instruments with keyboards have come into common usage, requiring a more general term for a person who plays them. These keyboards include:

• electric pianos such as the Fender Rhodes and Wurlitzer electric piano
• electronic pianos such as the Roland Digital Piano
• Hammond organ
• analog synthesizers such as Moog and ARP synthesizers
• digital electronic keyboards such as those produced today by Roland, Yamaha, Kurzweil and Korg
• samplers
• mellotron
• clavinet
• pianet
• piano (but see Pianist for a list of famous pianists)
• harpsichord
• celeste
• clavichord
• pipe organ

Notable electronic keyboardists

Main article: List of keyboardists

Note: while the term 'keyboardist' can cover a wide variety of instruments both acoustic and electronic, the following musicians are mostly known as electronic keyboardists, although they may also play piano or other acoustic keyboards.

Rock, Pop, Funk and Electronica

Rod Argent (Argent, The Zombies)

Nick Baines (Kaiser Chiefs)

Perry Bamonte

Karl Bartos

Dennis DeYoung (Styx)

Tony Banks (Genesis)

Ronnie Caldwell

Jesse Carmichael (Maroon 5)

Vince Clarke (Erasure, Depeche Mode, Yazoo)

Mike Smith (The Dave Clark Five)

Geoff Downes (Asia, The Buggles, Yes)

Keith Emerson

Wolfgang Flür and Florian Schneider (Kraftwerk)

Franny Griffiths (Space)

Ian Gibbons (The Kinks)

Richard Gibbs (Oingo Boingo)

Gillian Gilbert (New Order)

Nicolas Godin (Air)

Martin Gore and Andrew Fletcher (Depeche Mode)

Eamon Hamilton (British Sea Power)

Matthieu Hartley

Bob Jackson (Badfinger, The Fortunes)

Jean-Michel Jarre

Booker T. Jones

Robert Lamm (Chicago)

Geddy Lee (Rush)

Jon Lord (Deep Purple)

Chris Lowe (Pet Shop Boys)

Arthur Mack (Gerry and the Pacemakers)

Leslie Maguire (Gerry and the Pacemakers)

Manfred Mann

Ray Manzarek (The Doors)

Linda McCartney

Tim McGowan

Ian McLagan (The Faces)

Moby

Kevin Moore and Jordan Rudess (Dream Theater)

Gary Numan

Roger O'Donnell

Billy Preston (solo artist and session player, noted for his work on The Beatles' Let It Be)

Alan Price (The Animals)

Dizzy Reed (Guns N' Roses)

Nick Rhodes (Duran Duran)

Gregg Rolie (Santana, Journey)

Sister Bliss (Faithless)

Bernard Sumner (Joy Division, New Order, Electronic)

Laurence Tolhurst (The Cure)

Vangelis

Rick Wakeman

Alan Wilder

Stevie Wonder

Bernie Worrell

Richard Wright (Pink Floyd)

Jazz

Generally speaking, in jazz music, electronic keyboard players are very often also pianists.

Chick Corea

Joey DeFrancesco

Eumir Deodato (Deodato)

Herbie Hancock

Keith Jarrett

John Medeski

Jimmy Smith

Josef Zawinul (Weather Report)

Classical

Ray Buttigieg

Wendy Carlos

See also

• Pianist
• Organist
• List of harpsichordists
• Classical pianists (recorded)

External links

• Keyboard Player magazine
• Harmony Central resource for keyboard/synth players