Welcome
Ever wonder about how music works? How harmonics interact with the ear and brain to produce harmony? Ever longed to learn an expressive instrument quickly?
This site, with the help of a growing community, is becoming a cool place for information about music, especially how to learn it, make it, and how the thing actually works, all in a more-or-less scientific (yet whimsical) way.
Initial focus: making a faster music keyboard
See Kit for a DIY General-purpose keyboard
Building an innovative keyboard called a jammer, similar to
a Thummer
. Think of it as a "piano 2.0", built using simple principles.
In a nutshell, all we did was use current music theory and simple ergonomics. I've built two jammers and have found they have very significant advantages over the traditional design and few disadvantages. They are faster to learn, very significantly faster and easier to play and more expressive. They are also easier to play by ear, in other words, to jam, hence the name.
In practical terms, it takes 10 years to become skilled enough to be passable pianist. With the jammer design, the same level should be reachable in 3 yrs. It's not a free lunch, but it is less expensive, yet more filling.
The meshing of the keyboard layout with music theory, kinesiology and human perception is likely to be the greatest leap forward: its fun to have an instrument where the melody and the chords intertwine, where it's easy to add chords to a melody and the music makes sense.
However, it takes a community to raise a child, so please join in; post your ideas and comments. This is your opportunity to make a difference, to get in at the start of something very cool, and have fun doing it. If you see anything where you think "that wasn't too clear" or "I wish I could see a demo of what he's talking about" there's your chance.
Interesting posts
The jammer explained (forthcoming)
A summary of its pros and cons, where you might best benefit, and a comparison of alternatives
Why the Jammer is laid out they way it is: The Short and Simple explanation A longer explanation for those who like detail & theory, What we want to develop
Part one: It's easier to learn
Part Two: It's easier to play
a portable, flexible design example - here's how I built it
Relevant snippets of Music Theory
The secret patterns of harmonics
The basis of harmony is harmonics, would it help to know "where" the harmonics are? Yes, it really helps.
The surprising contribution of volume (forthcoming)
Pitch seems to reign, but volume actually rules.
In music, everything, but Everything is relative (forthcoming)
A "G" is the dominant of "C", but what is C the dominant of?
Building jammers
Without an electronics degree and not as hard as one would think
A wearable jammer
The first attempt - it worked, but had issues, above I describe how to make it.
- a demo is forthcoming
Making a kit for a DIY General-purpose keyboard
The project is now underway.
Note that it can also be a Janko or a C-Thru Axis design too
Future Improvements:
1. a better keyshape?
2, Other improvements I'd like to see
- Key spacing, shaping and other tweaks.
Design notes
Making a virtue out of necessity
Having fun with design to create a very powerful instrument
An idea that paid off very well
Learning to play a Jammer
Learning is simpler and faster if the instrument helps the learner, instead of confusing.
Fingering the jammer
How to get started
Advice from those who have gone before
Thummer (tm) users offer tips
Key shifting is simple
Really, really simple
Reading a musical score and playing it on the jammer
The musical score makes sense at last
Playing by ear
Finally we have an instrument that it's feasible for a novice to play by ear.
Playing Chords
Chords on the jammer – simple diagrams
- the root / key center - building the triads - building the major 6ths and 7ths
- building the minor 7ths - building the jazz chords - building other fun chords
Possible shortcuts to faster learning http://musicscienceguy.vox.com/library/post/shortcuts-to-faster-learning.html
Humor
Fortunately rare, and not well done
Music for Nerds
Music and musicians explained simply, as befits the subject and this writer
You thought I was joking when I said "Music Science". No, it's not an contradiction in terms
Related sites
Working from a keyboard to music:
Try out the jammer/Thummer keyboard on your own PC
http://www.thummer.com/ThumBoard/thumboard.html
Copyright (c) 2008 Ken Rushton
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2
or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover
Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".
