Synthesizers in Rock Music

Hi! I (Carsten) grew up with a big brother who really loves rock music. Of course, I listened to his music too. Queen, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, The Who… One of the first songs I learned to play on the bass was “My Generation” by The Who, but of course without the fast parts : ). Then my brother came home with this Pink Floyd LP. Wow!! That totally fascinated me! All these sounds… as if they were coming from outer space or another world! But… 

I just love those distorted guitars, you know, Deep Purple and stuff.  

 Hard drum beats… Uuh! Yeah!   

 People often ask me, “Why do you have all these keyboards? You play rock, right?”  

Oh man, YES! I do, and I love it. And I’m going to prove to you that synthesizers can rock like crazy!  

 Okay, that screaming Hammond organ sound rocks, of course. I play the organ too. But synthesizers offer you so many more sonic possibilities for your music. And they can provide all the harmonic context that heavily distorted guitars (or organ) can only hint at. 

But, it’s like an orchestra: no single group of instruments does all the work. Together, they sound simply fantastic! 

Listen to this Synthe solo start at minute 3:04: (played by David Rosenthal (Synthesizer: Moog MiniMoog Model D) 

This next is also pretty  ; ) cool too: Pretty Maids “Future World”

It’s starts with this awesome synthesizer intro but the synthe parts doesn’t stop there.

Enjoy!

Cheers

Carsten