New 3D Printed Isomorphic Keyboard Piano Overlay Design

[John Moriarty]

I've uploaded a cover of an old Coldplay song to showcase the new design and coloring system. You can check it out here:

https://youtu.be/3Ed1uxSSMQM

Let me know if you have any questions or comments!

John

[dominique.waller]

Hi John,

Very intersting. And nice colors also.
From what I see, I'd say your keyboard is the equivalent of a 4-row Janko
keyboard, am I right?

Dominique

-----Message d'origine-----
From: John Moriarty
Sent: Saturday, June 23, 2018 9:02 PM
To: diykeyboard
Subject: [diykeyboard] New 3D Printed Isomorphic Keyboard Piano Overlay
Design

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[John Moriarty]

Thanks Dominic =) Since the layout is skewed and I differentiate between sharps and flats, it's not really a janko keyboard, but a janko player might be able to adapt to this keyboard relatively easily. (You'll notice that, going up major seconds, you eventually "fail off" this keyboard overlay, whereas that would not happen in a janko keyboard.) 

The skew makes it so that you don't need two "different" half steps to pay a major scale that arrives back at the same vertical distance from the player, and I find that useful conceptually (I don't ever have to make a decision because there's only one) and theoretically (since note names are now consistent and you can differentiate between shapes and flats). 

[dominique.waller]

Ok. So it’s more of a microtonal keyboard. I get it ! Cheers ! 

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[Joseph Austin]

John,
I'm not much of a Coldplay fan, but I'm intrigued by the geometry and color scheme.
So I see the keyboard divided into different colored octaves,
keytops at ten different levels, one or two per pitch,
with a seven-color cycle that can map to various diatonic major or minor scales by changing levels at appropriate points.
I haven't yet figured out the significance of same color for three adjacent pitches, or the choice between one or two keytops per pitch.

I'm sure there's a lot of practical isomorphism here, but I'm skeptical it's fully 12-tone isomorphic.

Do you have a color-coded notation fo go with it?

Joe Austin

[John Moriarty]

>So I see the keyboard divided into different colored octaves,

Yes! But that's just how I happened to print the bases in sets (for convenience) and isn't really part of the design.

>keytops at ten different levels, one or two per pitch,

If by level you mean "vertical" position, there are actually 19 unique levels, since the keyboard has 19 keytops per octave and each is at its own vertical position. A note's vertical position is determined by its location in the circle of fifths, so D is in the center, and then going up away from the player you get A-E-B and then the sharps, while going down towards the player you get G-C-F and then the flats. This makes it so that you can intuitively reach for keys closer to or further away from you depending on whether you want the major or minor versions of a given generic interval (like a third/fourth/fifth).

>with a seven-color cycle that can map to various diatonic major or minor scales by changing levels at appropriate points.

Yes-ish! It's not so much about "changing levels" (as you might think about on a janko keyboard) though, as much as it is about what explains your next comment:

>I haven't yet figured out the significance of same color for three adjacent pitches, or the choice between one or two keytops per pitch.

Notes of the same color are of the same "generic pitch class". That means that all D's are the same color. (That's Db, D, and D#.) A color scheme like that lets you always see what kind of interval you're playing melodically (as a second, a third, etc) by color, and then lets you decide on the "quality" of that interval (major, minor, diminished, augmented) by the "shape" on the keyboard. (And because the vertical position of a note is related to the circle of fifths, you can keep in mind that minor/diminished intervals will move to a note of that color that's closer to you, whereas major intervals will move to notes of that color that are further away, "vertically".)

Given that, the "changing levels" that happens on this keyboard is really just you moving by the minor second in a scale, whereas staying on the same level that moves you slowly up and to the right via the major second. Because the minor seconds have to move vertically backwards in two steps what the major seconds do in 5, it is a more drastic vertical shift, and that's probably what gives you the impression of "levels". (It's also explained by the fact that the minor second is a much bigger jump in the circle of fifths of 5 fifths, as opposed to the major second, which only moves 5 fifths.)

Notes that only have one keytop just happened to not have an enharmonic equivalent present in the 19 note chain of fifths I chose, which spanned from Cb to E#. And so, for instance, I have an F and F#, but no Fb (which is below Cb in the circle of fifths), and so the E key only has one keytop. It is possible, unfortunately, if you start in an already relatively flat key and then do something harmonically adventurous, that you'd want that Fb there, and it wouldn't be there when you reached for it on this keyboard overlay. Ideally I'd have a slightly larger gamut, maybe up to 21 or 23 keytops per octave, so that you wouldn't have to worry about falling off the edges of the keyboard when you want a double sharp or something. In many cases you could just move "up" the keyboard to the enharmonic equivalent (and so instead of playing in the key of A#, just play in the key of Bb), or just transpose the underlying keyboard if it's electronic (which really isn't cheating for an isomorphic keyboard since it'd be the same shapes anyway =P).

>I'm sure there's a lot of practical isomorphism here, but I'm skeptical it's fully 12-tone isomorphic.

Not sure what you mean by "fully 12-tone isomorphic". Like I said, you can fall off the edge of this keyboard theoretically, but you can do that on any 2D layout. The larger a playing surface provided, the less likely that is.

>Do you have a color-coded notation fo go with it?

No and, given the completely arbitrary color choices, I wouldn't want there to be one. The colors are there to show scale steps and pitch classes, but ideally not be associated with specific ones. From some sort of C to some sort of E is always from a Blue to a Green, regardless of whether it's a diminished third (e.g. C# to Eb), a minor third (e.g. C to Eb), a major third (e.g. C to E), or an augmented third (e.g. Cb to E), but the colors Blue and Green themselves aren't what are important. (And they might really bother some people with already established synethesia...) The important part is that you can see how many steps you're traversing because the steps are shown as a change from one color to another, and you can tell intuitively the majorness or minorness of the interval given the physical location of the note vertically along the axis of notes of the same color.

It was surprisingly intuitive for me, and I already expected it to be intuitive ;-)

-John

[Joseph Austin]

John,

I plotted your scheme on a square grid, with 21 levels (Fb to B#)

with fifths on the forward diagonals and minor second horizontally.

It seems that if the diagonals were rotated to horizontally and collapsed together, the resulting arrangement would be Janko.

On the other hand, if the whole square is rotated 45 degrees left, the layout becomes the same as b-system button accordion.

So I would say, whatever your rationale, except for the color scheme, your layout is indeed 12-tone isomorphic,

and, in terms of intervals between "neighbor" buttons,  is related to other historic isomorphic arrangements.

So then the question is: how easy is it to learn and to play?

Based on your experience, would you recommend this layout for a beginner?

Joe Austin

[John Moriarty]

I've found it surprisingly easy to learn and play. Many of the general chord shapes transfer over from the original piano to this layout, and I've found it to be pretty darn intuitive. (Sometimes I just have to remember, for example, that the major seventh is "high", or that the minor seventh is "low".) I still need to invest tons more time to feel comfortable improvising, but even now I find myself reaching for notes I know will be where I expect them to be, without having to think too much about the interface itself.

I could probably use a couple more keytops per octave so that I'm not getting dangerously close to the edges when not playing in keys closely related to the C Major diatonic scale but, other than that, I have no complaints about it so far. (And I'm playing on an electric keyboard, so I can transpose the keyboard for anything too harmonically adventurous.)

I'd definitely recommend it to a beginner, I think it helps to demystify the "sharps and flats" of the piano that often throw newcomers for a loop, in addition to lowering the startup cost of becoming at least familiar with 12 different keys.

Cheer,

John