* * * * *
                                        
                             Alternative keyboards
                                        
> This association of the keyboard with the synthesizer eased its entry into
> the world of music, but it also placed limitations on how the instrument is
> played that its designers didn't intend. The limitations of the piano
> keyboard have been recognized since long before the synthesizer existed.
> The biggest problem that the keyboard has always had is that, due to the
> two-row layout with all of the naturals on the bottom row and all of the
> accidentals on the top row, the performer must usually change fingering in
> order to transpose a chord from one key to another. This frustrates what
> should be a simple operation; the guitar player playing a barred chord can
> transpose it simply by moving up and down the neck, but the keyboard player
> must keep shifting fingers around to insure that each finger hits on the
> correct row. The additional manual dexterity and muscle memory requirement
> makes learning the different keys on the piano a slow and frustrating
> process. From my own experience, it also introduces the temptation to use
> teaching shortcuts that cause the student problems later on: a common
> technique is to start the beginning student out learning the C-major scale,
> which is played all on the white keys. This introduces a sort of fear or
> puzzlement at the black keys—what are the for? When does one use them? And
> then when the teacher starts introducing other scales, the use of the black
> keys seems arbitrary and unsystematic, and the student gets a bit freaked
> out. By contrast, guitar pedagogy treats the accidentals as simply other
> notes in the chromatic scale, which they are, and the guitar student has
> relatively little trouble understanding how to play different scales and
> keys.
> 

Via Hacker News [1] (via Hacker News [2]), “Sequence 15: Alternative
Keyboards [3]”

I'm actually puzzled with (musical) electronic keyboards. Sure, they have a
layout like a traditional piano, and yes, the C-major scale is played with
all white keys, so why can't if you decide to play, say, a F-major scale, why
can't you just remap the frequency of the keys so you can still play it with
all white keys? C-major the keys can go C-D-E-F-G-A-B while in F-major, they
go F-G-A-B♭-C-D-E and for A♭-major they go A♭-B♭-C-D♭-E♭-F-G. The same
fingering, regardless of scale.

Yes, I know you can't do this on a traditional piano, but I'm not talking
about a traditional piano here. You can't change the layout of a typewriter,
yet it's trivial to change the layout of a computer keyboard (used to type
text)—it's a matter of changing the software and boom—you have a Colmak [4]
layout!

But short of that, I am facinated by alternative music keyboards, probably
because I'm not a musician and to me, these alternative music keyboards seem
to show the patterns inherent in music must better than a piano keyboard.

[1] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5350993
[2] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5350778
[3] http://sequence15.blogspot.jp/2010/03/alternative-
[4] http://colemak.com/

Email Sean Conner at sean@conman.org

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