Alternative note naming system?

[Phil Smith]

Originally posted by moley


Yup. And you won't necessarily be sitting in the same place every time you sit at a keyboard. If it were literally black-white-black-white all the way, with no other markings, you really wouldn't know which note is which.

You would know because you would develop a different way of addressing the instrument. I'm a touch typist using a regular keyboard, one day I used one of the Microsoft keyboards with the big space in the middle and it totally threw me off. It turns out that my hands have a notion of how close they are together and I was constantly over reaching for the "T" and "Y" keys becuase of the space.

 

[The Mock Turtle Regulator]

I'm imagining one of those Starrlabs bass/keyboards, but with lots of "strings"- eg. 10 sets of keys a fourth apart (although programming could permit other tuning arrangements), and played like a keyboard with both hands- in effect a 2-dimensional keyboard.

large interval spans could be possible with both hands, and also problems with hands crossing over on a conventional keyboard could be avoided.

different textures could be used for certain keys- maybe even different colours.

 

[The Mock Turtle Regulator]

and by contrast, here's what a keyboard inlaid on a guitar fretboard looks like-

from Roger Giffin's site www.giffinguitars.com

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

 

[The Mock Turtle Regulator]

Originally posted by The Mock Turtle Regulator
I'm imagining one of those Starrlabs bass/keyboards, but with lots of "strings"- eg. 10 sets of keys a fourth apart (although programming could permit other tuning arrangements), and played like a keyboard with both hands- in effect a 2-dimensional keyboard.

large interval spans could be possible with both hands, and also problems with hands crossing over on a conventional keyboard could be avoided.

different textures could be used for certain keys- maybe even different colours.

turns out it's already been made! -

"The ZBoard is a 12-"string" by 23 "fret" MIDI keyboard controller which directly combines the features of guitar and piano keyboard. The Zboard is comprised of a 2-dimensional matrix of touch-sensitive keys set in a piano-keyboard housing and played with the two hands in front just like the piano. Each row of keys is ordered in a chromatic sequence just like the fretted notes of a guitar string. The "Strings" are then offset from each other by a perfect fourth interval (This may be easily re-programmed)."

"In all, there are 276 keys covering a total range of 6 and a half octaves in its standard tuning with many notes duplicated. (The full MIDI note range is easily achieved by a simple tuning change.) The large range, the multiple-notes-per-string, and the many duplicates yield a wide variety of fingering options for chords and lines. Because the instument's note-range is compacted into a 2D key-matrix the overall length of the keyboard is only 22 inches and five and a half octave can sit under either hand at any time. Wide voicings as well as cluster voicings are achievable without the particular gymnastics required when playing either the piano or guitar."

http://www.starrlabs.com/

 

[sunburstbasser]

Why don't we use the Indian 24-note per octave system and go A-X?