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 and other electric organ such as the Farfisa and Vox Continental
• analog synthesizers such as Moog, ARP and units produced by a variety of other manufacturers such as Alesis.
• Analog modeling synthesizers produced by such companies as Alesis, and Novation
• digital keyboard workstations such as those produced today by Roland, Yamaha, Kurzweil and Korg
• samplers
• mellotron
• clavinet
• continuum
• melodica
• pianet
• piano (but see Pianist for a list of famous pianists)
• harpsichord
• reed organ
• celesta
• clavichord
• pipe organ
• harmonium
• keytar