A wearable Keyboard: the small "ZipEx" jammer
The wearable ZipEx is a 4-row musical jammer keyboard I built because (1) one can't buy a Thummer yet and (2) it happens to be surprisingly easy to build from a "regular" keyboard. Jammers have several advantages over a traditional keyboard.
This design is also a living illustration that one can make a virtue out of necessity; when forced to make do (e.g. can only make 4 rows), then the "making do" forces interesting innovation (e.g. use tricks to make the thing have 8 rows - take that Thummer!), and with the dementia that comes of gadget-building obsession.
This unit has 4 rows of 15-20 keys, arranged thus, when playing in "laptop" mode:
And in "guitar" mode:
The black keys at the side are pitch and octave-shifting function keys, used to make it pretend to have more rows and keys. In effect one can have a 96-key keyboard that pretends, if you want it to, be two keyboards, one for each hand.
So there you have it, the music geek's newest fashion accessory:
I've actually had multiple people stop me and say: "what the hell is that?" - no finer accolade can a geek get.
Comments
Hi Ken
I really enjoy reading your blogs.
I have a Casio keyboard that I am considering turning it into a Jammer keyboard.
I have background on computer and electical. I think I understand your description on the hardware side.
I am a bit confused about the arrangement of final octaves. Do you have a diagram showing the final key assignment? If so, can you share that?
Thank you.
Eric, MusicLearner
Ken. MSG
Hi Ken
No need to post your key mapping if you have got one.
Instead of remodeling the Casio I got, I found a virtual midi controller from Soundcosoftware. I have set up the Jammer key mapping on my laptop to try out the key layout.
I would say the keyboard layout is a very clever way of encapsulating music theory. I tried it for about several hours on simple melodies.
Just want to share my experience:
I found that it is excellent for
1) playing scales - just the start
2) playing melodies that do not have flats/sharpes
3) chords - I only know some simple ones.
On the other hand, it does nothing to help scroll reading. And it is a bit confusing to play with the standard notation. So I used the numbered notation (See wikipedia:Numbered Notation). Numbered notation is also called Solfege. I found that I can do some simple songs relatively easy; however, it is not as easy as playing the numbered notation on a transposed keyboard.
Obviously, I cannot play chords on a transposed keyboard easily.
Cheers
Eric, MusicLearner
1) I've posted the ZipEx mark II keymapping (but not reviewed it for errors) - how does it look?
2) Great that you have implemented it - your experience echos mine. Sharps & flats are not bad at all, but take practice.
However, I've learned the trick for reading a score and keying it on a jammer. It's actually simple. I intend to post a blurb with graphics, but can't promise when. If you'd like to take a stab at it, I'll explain it (see my Music-for-Nerds posting), and we can work on it together.
Ken.