This is awesome! I am a trumpet player, but have always wanted to learn piano to improvise my compositions. I started to practice piano a few times, but could never get past the idea of learning so many chord combinations in so many keys and modes - such a huge learning curve. Later I found out about isomorphic keyboards, and am so glad I didn't invest so much time in the standard piano keyboard, when I could be using my time with a more logical layout to do interesting things. I would like to be a pro at this. The one thing I see as very important for a new keyboard like this to succeed is the pleasure of the tactile feel that piano keys have, and a good range of motion to strike or gently touch. There is a reason that the harpsichord died out, and why "piano" is short for pianoforte (soft and loud). It is a way to transmit your emotions while playing directly into the instrument (they don't call it the romantic period for nothing, when the emotional possibilities of the piano as a solo instrument really took off). For this reason I can't see the alternates that have been presented in the market so far (except the Janko) being feasible for musicians. Along this line of thought, I do think the idea of raised keys to feel around differences in height levels is a really cool idea. And please no clacking! All of the alternatives iso keyboards I see have an distracting offputting clacking sound when playing that gets in the way of the sound produced. Also, hopefully the keys are big enough to easily touch chords without cramping your hand. I see this as a limitation with the axis keyboards.
Siemen, this is a gorgeous presentation. Completely mind expanding. Wish you the best success in your Indiegogo campaign. (From a Uniform keyboard owner.) --William
Only 19 days left for another $10000 to raise :/ I am totally gonna donate for the tip level keyboard and then hopefully get my grandma to donate for one too. She's been playing piano 70+ years and is blown away by revolutionary ideas like this. I hope this works out as i've wanted one of these for years since I first saw it on that Canadian site. I might cry if this doesn't work. Plz let there be at least one production run!!! I would love the mapping flexibility for microtonal stuff!
I agree. The traditional piano keyboard is so wrong, which makes it only good for C-major! The Janko keyboard or this one, which is basically an upgrade of Janko keyboard is much more logical, mathematical and ergonomic!
Contrary to popular prejudice, it is actually possible to play in other keys on a traditional keyboard. Sure some things are easier in some keys than others (and not everything is easiest in the key of C!), but it is probably all the more interesting to explore other keys on the instrument. EVERY instrument has its benefits and limitations - even the Terpstra is bound to have the latter!
The true position of A is G since our A was put in the same location as the ancient Greeks but they were doing their scales backwards from how we do them. Therefore the fundamental scale: 1/1, 9/8, 9/8, 256/243, 9/8, 9/8, 256/243, 9/8 which is also the fundamental definition of the octave puts A (1/1) at our G since that scale is the original scale if you go from Low to High note. But if you do that scale going backwards on the keys then you get all the white notes where it is right now on the keyboard. So we took the Greek's position but not their perspective and that's why everything is convoluted. If you take that scale going forward then every white note moves back and all the white notes would be at A Hypophrygian scale which we erroneously call the Mixolydian scale. This also puts the 3/2, the fifth at the center of the keyboard and makes everything make much more sense.
Actually C major is the hardest key to play in. No landmarks, no topography, so it makes sight reading more difficult and as far as scales go it's more difficult to keep track of where you are when trying to run them off quickly.
We live in fast times! Like it or not, this Kbd layout will invariably become the Kbd of the future The change from the traditional irregular Kbd pattern to the regular Terpstra patterns will be initiated by modern, young hobby musicians, realizing that the potential of this layout: it offers the chance to acquire the skills of a Profi musician ten times faster!! With that a new generation of keyboard artists will arise and gradually replacing, the grossly, irregular zebra piano Kbd layout.
@@Persun_McPersonson They have already use isomorphic keyboards for temperaments other than 12-TET, and changed over from the irregular (split-sharp) keyboards from the Baroque period
@@Persun_McPersonson They did become dominant in basically all temperaments except for 12-TET, so at least it is lucky that we don’t have to learn 53 fingerings for 53-TET, for example But now that I think about it, people are also holding onto 12-TET and they don’t want to change… (other temperaments may be relatively unstudied now, but they have the potential to be highly explored in music in the future…)
@@ValkyRiver That's not saying much though, because other temperaments are still a niche subject. 12-TET is a good and useful tuning, but yeah people are afraid to branch out.
t's certainly strange territory ....... being trained as a 7-5 keyboard player and experimenting with 6-6 (and guitar) you start to notice the different possibilities in harmony and melody and a difference despite the simplicity of "the bar chord" - All these systems work, they are just different!! Best regards; PaulPb
"Lucy tuning, Bohlen-Pierce or tunings derived from Wilson's scale tree, golden horograms, hexanies, the co-prime grid and Pascal's triangle, even the Pythagorean Lambdoma - to name just a few -" Even in 2024 this still sounds like a sci-fi plot about advanced ancient civilizations
(the 6-6 presents more options then the 2 level 7-5 - so this is where the confusion of learning the 3 or more level keyboard comes in - there is a different level of difficulty despite the 'sameness of fingering patterns')
10:04 Terpstra. Ok but ftw there's no such a thing for sale anywhere and it's so expensive they haven't even filled their second batch's 20 pre-bought units. If only i could just make a ritual and get one that pops right in the middle of the altar.
For instance, there's no need for crossing hands anymore... or put up with irregular scale patterns, etc. It's just that those, who struggled a decade or more to acquire dexterity on a irregular, zebra piano Kbd layout, understandably refuse to give it all away by start again (almost) from zero! A. Rubinstein made it clearer by saying: "If I were to begin my career anew it would be on this keyboard!"
There are only 8 patterns for major, minor, diminished and augmented triads. not 48. Of these 48 triads, ten use white-black-white (D major, E major, A major, C minor, F minor, G minor, F dim, E aug, A aug, B aug), seven each use W-W-W, B-W-W, W-W-B, and B-W-B. Of the remaining ten chords, 4 use B-B-W, four use W-B-B, and two use B-B-B. Each of the groups - major, min, and aug - use just six of the possible eight patterns, with three chords sharing a pattern, three more sharing another pattern, a further three sharing a third pattern, and the remaining three chords having their own pattern Diminished chords still only use six of the possible eight patterns, but group together as 3, 3, 2, 2, 1, 1. The biggest advantage a tradition keyboard has is that it IS irregular. It's much easier to navigate by touch when you know which combination of lower-front-white keys and higher-back-black keys to expect. When I play piano accordion, the right hand is easy, but if I accidentally shift by just one button in the Stradella bass, it's a nightmare to get back. Even worse if I shift to the wrong row. It's the same for reading: lower-case is easier because it has more variation than upper case. Ever wonder why highway signs converted to lower case?
I don't think the 7-5 will become obsolete because it is a system that obviously worked for certain people and a huge amount of literature has been written for that keyboard layout. Don't you think that if any of those composers (that are the 'godfathers' of piano based music) had a 6-6 keyboard on their organ/harpsichord/piano, would have composed music that was a lot different!?
We have twelve notes, can we just switch from a-g to a-f (remove g and g sharp, and add b and e sharp) there's no reason to not do this, the only reason we go a-g is because of tradition and the fact we use the major scale. and it's stupid.
You are correct - and this has been done - and it reduces pattern memorization from 12 to 2! Hobbyists assemble them from old MIDI keyboards. However, the Terpstra keyboard reduces pattern memorization from 12 to 1 !! I play piano and I also have a Chromatone MIDI keyboard (a Janko style layout) which is why I think the Terpstra hexagons are the correct choice of shape - because the round Chromatone keys don't seem to add any improvement to playing. The Terpstra keyboard is a tilted Janko - it's the most ingenious attempt to fix the unintuitive Western keyboard. I've never played one and it's hard to imagine how it feels to play the different key heights but perhaps height is another dimension that makes it even more intuitive but you never know until you try. But for me, the most exciting thing about it is the tilt - it makes Western and Janko one and the same - GENIUS !! @3:37
Thanks for the very informative and interesting video - Although let me correct 1 mistake - When he is explaining the basics of harmony on the 7-5 and 6-6 layout of the keyboard, he show examples of basic harmony on the 6-6 in only 2 rows that's wrong from the start, use 3 rows!!
For many years I used to play the piano accordion only in Cmaj and Amin. - Then I did the same with a couple of Synths, because they offered me changing scales electronically. I just couldn't be bothered to learn and keep practicing 22 more scales of Maj and Min and its countless chords! It seemed grossly illogical. At that time there still was no internet and so, I was kept in the dark about regular keyboards, such as Janko or button accordion keyboards.. At last, this regular patterned Terpstra Kbd layout offers us latent Kbd talents the chance to make it to the top, without 20 years of irregular scale dexterity! - If that's not progress... I don't know what is?
This looks really interesting and certainly opens up amazing new tonal options. My objections to the philosophy presented are the following: 1) Considering the traditional piano is supposedly such a "bitch" to learn (they do have a point there); there STILL has been tons of amazing music written for it, and equally tons of amazing players executing it - making you forget how clumsy and limited the traditional piano is claimed to be by some in the first place. 2) I doubt that this keyboard design could ever achieve the same "ballistic" (for want of a better word) feel a traditional piano has - a quality that evens out the inherent imbalances of the human hand with fingers of different length and mass. 3) This is a purely electronic instrument by design. Many professional musicians would agree that electronics are not "there" (yet?) in terms of sonic richness and depth, immediacy and tangibility, dynamics, subtlety, "sit well in the mix" tonal quality etc. While electronics obviously open up vast tonal possibilities, they tend to tire the ear unlike acoustic instruments. 4) Being able to do just about anything (if only harmonically) on one instrument can be a trap. You can get lost in zillions of options and never get to the point in any single area. When working within a limited system, the interesting thing is to push it to the max and seemingly transcend its limited possibilities (which is exactly what has happened with traditional instruments of whichever design). You can ridiculously blow up a drum kit to be able to play tonally (think Terry Bozzio), but it is still just as fascinating (probably even more so) to watch a master drummer do their magic on a classic four piece jazz kit. Likewise, pencil drawings are not necessarily more boring than a full colour painting - monochromatic artwork can (at least sometimes) have even more impact than complex works. 5) There are many videos discussing and demo'ing exotic new controllers / keyboard layouts on TH-cam, but I have yet to see a SINGLE piece of music played DECENTLY on any of these (which would mean even, precise, balanced, dynamic). The playing is advanced medium level at best. Does that say something about the practicality of all those fancy new concepts? Since the invention of even much older concepts like the Jankó keyboard, most alternatives have managed to remain on the fringe of general music culture. From here, one could go into an epic discussion as to how limited "general music culture" or "mainstream" is and how much more artistically relevant (or paradoxically, not) exotic concepts are. 6) Bottom line is that I believe, while concepts like these can vastly extend the possibilities; they will probably never reach a level of general acceptance, and thus relevance, like a piano (or a violin, for that matter). Still it is probably worth checking out - if it does not cost an arm and a leg.
I agree that we need to upgrade the keyboard but I think the honeycomb is needlessly fat and hard to look at. Just round it out and make it more pleasing to look at. Also I think it's important to consider how to implement this with analog instruments instead of only electronic. Try to remember that the reason the old keyboard has been used so much is due to the strength of traditions. So utilizing that to your advantage, if you just make this LOOK more traditional then you will make a bigger impact.
Honeycomb keyboards are really popular with microtonal artists as they can easily change the tet/edo theyre using without the issues of trying to make it compatible with a standard 12-tone keyboard and they make sense for artists who think with coloured notes such as Dolores Catherino. But yes this honeycomb style also makes it less friendly towards those who've never encountered it and it can look ugly if it's done wrong
In a limited way, yes. Shortcomings of guitar 1) chord fingerings limited to one hand, while the other strums 2) locked-in to 12-tone music. Terpstra allows 1) 10-finger chords 2) alternative scales like microtonal, indian, etc
@@jonwilson7871 There are guitars that can play in other divisions of the octave via special fret configurations or removing the frets entirely, but they're rare...just like the Terpstra/Lumatone, so I don't suppose either win on that front. Terpstra is made for keyboard players anyway, so comparing it to guitar isn't really fair when they're made to achieve different things.
Me too 70+... and living in poor Chile. Please buy me one of these, too! :) If you don't I will become a drug addict, attack rich people and feed them to the poor.
Interesting concept (basically a Janko) but on the few videos where someone plays it, it sounds terrible. Like a cheap synthetizer. It sounds like you completely removed the subtile amplitude variations of weighted notes from a regular piano, basically killing any piano music that has ever been made. While also removing its natural sound. In the end, it's just a toy for electronic music. And for what price ? quoting your site : "If commercially available, the keyboard would cost more than $10K USD"
The keyboard doesn't make the sound, software does. This is a MIDI controller. If what you heard wasn't responding to key velocity, the guy must have been using some weird software. Modern DAWs and VSTs have exceptional piano reproduction. As for the keyboard itself, every key is a continuous controller, so it is more expressive than a piano.
@@Discrimination_is_not_a_right "Anyway" implies that it is better no matter which tuning, especially since you dismiss the Terpstra/Lumatone's use for other tunings entirely, but that's just wrong. It's certainly not better for 31-TET, and whether or not it's better for 12-TET is largely preference.
@@Discrimination_is_not_a_right That's an incredibly short-sighted strawman argument to make, considering that "what you have", by default, can't accurately play most of the things that a 31-TET layout can. Other than the silliness of such a criterion, name-dropping a piece is also a vague qualifier; what it means for something to count or not count as being "Rhapsody in Blue" is up for debate. Someone could arrange a version of the piece that you could only accurately play on a 31-TET layout, and yet it would undeniably be identifiable as a rendention of the same piece of music. You let your bias cloud your judgement past the point of narrow-mindedness straight to outright hypocrisy. You're so stuck in one mode of processing the world that you've come to mistaken it for some inherent reality, and see other avenues which contradict this line of thinking as something which must be denied of their undeniable existence, lest break the illusion. You can't hide from reality forever.
@@Persun_McPersonson Well, glissandos would be kind of tricky. Depending on the layout, chromatic runs would be as well; pianists would have to learn how all over again. Octave leaps would be a pain with smaller targets to hit, alberti bass would put your hands in a cramp until your hands learned to adapt all over again, repeated notes might be a bit easier with more positional options though, I'll give it that. But I really can't see relearning ten thousand hours worth of technique to play it.
Are people really having trouble remembering triads???? You'll know the triad if you know the scale..... if you don't know the scale then your not practicing
no, but it helps condensate all possible patterns into even less more, and you would still have to learn the steps to get the chords and the position in this configuration
@@EasternEden what’s hard to understand? You learn 12 keys and inversions, arpeggios, scales in the stupid accepted piano layout. That would be called working harder not smarter.
That doesn't even make sense, this is a hexagonal isomorphic layout keyboard instrument. It's somewhat similar to the Jankó keyboard invented in 1882 (but that didn't have hexagonal keys and was acoustic). And even if what you said was right, so what? Just because one instrument has something in common with another instrument that already exists doesn't mean the former is automatically BS- I think that's called writing something off before watching skilled musicians play good music on it. So I'd recommend the Lumatone channel, which is the modern day version of this keyboard. Lots of great music posted there (warning: a lot of microtonality, since the lumatone is very optimal for playing in microtonal tunings). Mike Battaglia is an absolute beast on the instrument
This layout is so amazing after understanding the explanation.
Hi ancient Lumatone
This is awesome! I am a trumpet player, but have always wanted to learn piano to improvise my compositions. I started to practice piano a few times, but could never get past the idea of learning so many chord combinations in so many keys and modes - such a huge learning curve. Later I found out about isomorphic keyboards, and am so glad I didn't invest so much time in the standard piano keyboard, when I could be using my time with a more logical layout to do interesting things. I would like to be a pro at this.
The one thing I see as very important for a new keyboard like this to succeed is the pleasure of the tactile feel that piano keys have, and a good range of motion to strike or gently touch. There is a reason that the harpsichord died out, and why "piano" is short for pianoforte (soft and loud). It is a way to transmit your emotions while playing directly into the instrument (they don't call it the romantic period for nothing, when the emotional possibilities of the piano as a solo instrument really took off). For this reason I can't see the alternates that have been presented in the market so far (except the Janko) being feasible for musicians. Along this line of thought, I do think the idea of raised keys to feel around differences in height levels is a really cool idea.
And please no clacking! All of the alternatives iso keyboards I see have an distracting offputting clacking sound when playing that gets in the way of the sound produced.
Also, hopefully the keys are big enough to easily touch chords without cramping your hand. I see this as a limitation with the axis keyboards.
I guess Lumatone is that concept as a final product?
The lumatone is something you can buy now
Siemen, this is a gorgeous presentation. Completely mind expanding. Wish you the best success in your Indiegogo campaign. (From a Uniform keyboard owner.) --William
Its a great idea but on your site it says they cost $10,000USD...
Only 19 days left for another $10000 to raise :/ I am totally gonna donate for the tip level keyboard and then hopefully get my grandma to donate for one too. She's been playing piano 70+ years and is blown away by revolutionary ideas like this. I hope this works out as i've wanted one of these for years since I first saw it on that Canadian site. I might cry if this doesn't work. Plz let there be at least one production run!!! I would love the mapping flexibility for microtonal stuff!
as a young musician, this is fascinating!
I agree. The traditional piano keyboard is so wrong, which makes it only good for C-major!
The Janko keyboard or this one, which is basically an upgrade of Janko keyboard is much more logical, mathematical and ergonomic!
excuse me the janko key is for lazy people mind you learn how to play a real piano idiot
Contrary to popular prejudice, it is actually possible to play in other keys on a traditional keyboard. Sure some things are easier in some keys than others (and not everything is easiest in the key of C!), but it is probably all the more interesting to explore other keys on the instrument. EVERY instrument has its benefits and limitations - even the Terpstra is bound to have the latter!
The true position of A is G since our A was put in the same location as the ancient Greeks but they were doing their scales backwards from how we do them. Therefore the fundamental scale: 1/1, 9/8, 9/8, 256/243, 9/8, 9/8, 256/243, 9/8 which is also the fundamental definition of the octave puts A (1/1) at our G since that scale is the original scale if you go from Low to High note. But if you do that scale going backwards on the keys then you get all the white notes where it is right now on the keyboard. So we took the Greek's position but not their perspective and that's why everything is convoluted. If you take that scale going forward then every white note moves back and all the white notes would be at A Hypophrygian scale which we erroneously call the Mixolydian scale. This also puts the 3/2, the fifth at the center of the keyboard and makes everything make much more sense.
Actually C major is the hardest key to play in. No landmarks, no topography, so it makes sight reading more difficult and as far as scales go it's more difficult to keep track of where you are when trying to run them off quickly.
We live in fast times! Like it or not, this Kbd layout will invariably become the Kbd of the future The change from the traditional irregular Kbd pattern to the regular Terpstra patterns will be initiated by modern, young hobby musicians, realizing that the potential of this layout: it offers the chance to acquire the skills of a Profi musician ten times faster!!
With that a new generation of keyboard artists will arise and gradually replacing, the grossly, irregular zebra piano Kbd layout.
It won't, but I wish it could.
@@Persun_McPersonson They have already use isomorphic keyboards for temperaments other than 12-TET, and changed over from the irregular (split-sharp) keyboards from the Baroque period
@@ValkyRiver
You didn't understand what I said. I was lamenting the fact that isomorphic layouts will never become dominant.
@@Persun_McPersonson They did become dominant in basically all temperaments except for 12-TET, so at least it is lucky that we don’t have to learn 53 fingerings for 53-TET, for example
But now that I think about it, people are also holding onto 12-TET and they don’t want to change…
(other temperaments may be relatively unstudied now, but they have the potential to be highly explored in music in the future…)
@@ValkyRiver
That's not saying much though, because other temperaments are still a niche subject. 12-TET is a good and useful tuning, but yeah people are afraid to branch out.
I want one soooo much
yea - finally - NEW Out of The Box thinking OTB. Or ancient thinking! well done...
t's certainly strange territory ....... being trained as a 7-5 keyboard player and experimenting with 6-6 (and guitar) you start to notice the different possibilities in harmony and melody and a difference despite the simplicity of "the bar chord" -
All these systems work, they are just different!!
Best regards; PaulPb
What is the name of the inſtrument ſeen in the bottom right coꝛner at 10:28 ?
Archicembalo
please type normally
"Lucy tuning, Bohlen-Pierce or tunings derived from Wilson's scale tree,
golden horograms, hexanies, the co-prime grid and Pascal's triangle,
even the Pythagorean Lambdoma - to name just a few -"
Even in 2024 this still sounds like a sci-fi plot about advanced ancient civilizations
If you only use the top half of the keys, a piano is isomorphic. I use this to help me transpose chords.
Great video!
_"COOLER THAN A_ *_CHAMELEON"_*
No thanks, I'm colour-blind. Black and white keys suit me just fine. Anyway the better you play, the less you need to look at the keyboard.
(the 6-6 presents more options then the 2 level 7-5 - so this is where the confusion of learning the 3 or more level keyboard comes in - there is a different level of difficulty despite the 'sameness of fingering patterns')
10:04 Terpstra. Ok but ftw there's no such a thing for sale anywhere and it's so expensive they haven't even filled their second batch's 20 pre-bought units. If only i could just make a ritual and get one that pops right in the middle of the altar.
The great news is that modern technology is able to overcome all these traditional (and grossly outdated) obstacles ...on press of a button!
Fantastic stuff! - if a little overwhelming for a music novice . .
For instance, there's no need for crossing hands anymore... or put up with irregular scale patterns, etc.
It's just that those, who struggled a decade or more to acquire dexterity on a irregular, zebra piano Kbd layout, understandably refuse to give it all away by start again (almost) from zero! A. Rubinstein made it clearer by saying: "If I were to begin my career anew it would be on this keyboard!"
There are only 8 patterns for major, minor, diminished and augmented triads. not 48. Of these 48 triads, ten use white-black-white (D major, E major, A major, C minor, F minor, G minor, F dim, E aug, A aug, B aug), seven each use W-W-W, B-W-W, W-W-B, and B-W-B. Of the remaining ten chords, 4 use B-B-W, four use W-B-B, and two use B-B-B. Each of the groups - major, min, and aug - use just six of the possible eight patterns, with three chords sharing a pattern, three more sharing another pattern, a further three sharing a third pattern, and the remaining three chords having their own pattern Diminished chords still only use six of the possible eight patterns, but group together as 3, 3, 2, 2, 1, 1.
The biggest advantage a tradition keyboard has is that it IS irregular. It's much easier to navigate by touch when you know which combination of lower-front-white keys and higher-back-black keys to expect. When I play piano accordion, the right hand is easy, but if I accidentally shift by just one button in the Stradella bass, it's a nightmare to get back. Even worse if I shift to the wrong row.
It's the same for reading: lower-case is easier because it has more variation than upper case. Ever wonder why highway signs converted to lower case?
Every white key topologically is different, and every black key is topologically different.
Where is the second part?
In the making.
That must be a long video then! sry, but I really need that instrument! :D
I don't think the 7-5 will become obsolete because it is a system that obviously worked for certain people and a huge amount of literature has been written for that keyboard layout. Don't you think that if any of those composers (that are the 'godfathers' of piano based music) had a 6-6 keyboard on their organ/harpsichord/piano, would have composed music that was a lot different!?
We have twelve notes, can we just switch from a-g to a-f (remove g and g sharp, and add b and e sharp) there's no reason to not do this, the only reason we go a-g is because of tradition and the fact we use the major scale. and it's stupid.
You are correct - and this has been done - and it reduces pattern memorization from 12 to 2! Hobbyists assemble them from old MIDI keyboards. However, the Terpstra keyboard reduces pattern memorization from 12 to 1 !! I play piano and I also have a Chromatone MIDI keyboard (a Janko style layout) which is why I think the Terpstra hexagons are the correct choice of shape - because the round Chromatone keys don't seem to add any improvement to playing. The Terpstra keyboard is a tilted Janko - it's the most ingenious attempt to fix the unintuitive Western keyboard. I've never played one and it's hard to imagine how it feels to play the different key heights but perhaps height is another dimension that makes it even more intuitive but you never know until you try. But for me, the most exciting thing about it is the tilt - it makes Western and Janko one and the same - GENIUS !! @3:37
Still not made yet?
Thanks for the very informative and interesting video - Although let me correct 1 mistake - When he is explaining the basics of harmony on the 7-5 and 6-6 layout of the keyboard, he show examples of basic harmony on the 6-6 in only 2 rows that's wrong from the start, use 3 rows!!
If the 6-6 has 3 rows or more, then it’s a Jankó.
The accent make it 100 x more interesting.
I only wished they had a WYSIWYG with it... because interpreting conventional notation is a chore for hobby musicians.
Awesome! Is this keyboard available yet?
Lol
:)
Get one from lumatone.io
@@ValkyRiver technically the terpstra is BASED on the lumatone but it isn't the same
@@notwithouttext Actually, it’s the other way around. Lumatone was the successor of the Terpstra keyboard
For many years I used to play the piano accordion only in Cmaj and Amin. - Then I did the same with a couple of Synths, because they offered me changing scales electronically.
I just couldn't be bothered to learn and keep practicing 22 more scales of Maj and Min and its countless chords! It seemed grossly illogical. At that time there still was no internet and so, I was kept in the dark about regular keyboards, such as Janko or button accordion keyboards.. At last, this regular patterned Terpstra Kbd layout offers us latent Kbd talents the chance to make it to the top, without 20 years of irregular scale dexterity! - If that's not progress... I don't know what is?
Have you heard of the Lippens keyboard? They seem to have adapted your idea for their own purposes.
Shining Armor Actually both seem to be inspired by the Janko keyboard which was invented in the 19th century
You can't do glissandos though.
Anthony Vanover thats fine with me
You still can, in six directions.
What makes you think so?
This looks really interesting and certainly opens up amazing new tonal options. My objections to the philosophy presented are the following: 1) Considering the traditional piano is supposedly such a "bitch" to learn (they do have a point there); there STILL has been tons of amazing music written for it, and equally tons of amazing players executing it - making you forget how clumsy and limited the traditional piano is claimed to be by some in the first place. 2) I doubt that this keyboard design could ever achieve the same "ballistic" (for want of a better word) feel a traditional piano has - a quality that evens out the inherent imbalances of the human hand with fingers of different length and mass. 3) This is a purely electronic instrument by design. Many professional musicians would agree that electronics are not "there" (yet?) in terms of sonic richness and depth, immediacy and tangibility, dynamics, subtlety, "sit well in the mix" tonal quality etc. While electronics obviously open up vast tonal possibilities, they tend to tire the ear unlike acoustic instruments. 4) Being able to do just about anything (if only harmonically) on one instrument can be a trap. You can get lost in zillions of options and never get to the point in any single area. When working within a limited system, the interesting thing is to push it to the max and seemingly transcend its limited possibilities (which is exactly what has happened with traditional instruments of whichever design). You can ridiculously blow up a drum kit to be able to play tonally (think Terry Bozzio), but it is still just as fascinating (probably even more so) to watch a master drummer do their magic on a classic four piece jazz kit. Likewise, pencil drawings are not necessarily more boring than a full colour painting - monochromatic artwork can (at least sometimes) have even more impact than complex works. 5) There are many videos discussing and demo'ing exotic new controllers / keyboard layouts on TH-cam, but I have yet to see a SINGLE piece of music played DECENTLY on any of these (which would mean even, precise, balanced, dynamic). The playing is advanced medium level at best. Does that say something about the practicality of all those fancy new concepts? Since the invention of even much older concepts like the Jankó keyboard, most alternatives have managed to remain on the fringe of general music culture. From here, one could go into an epic discussion as to how limited "general music culture" or "mainstream" is and how much more artistically relevant (or paradoxically, not) exotic concepts are. 6) Bottom line is that I believe, while concepts like these can vastly extend the possibilities; they will probably never reach a level of general acceptance, and thus relevance, like a piano (or a violin, for that matter). Still it is probably worth checking out - if it does not cost an arm and a leg.
Why "general acceptance" equals "relevance" to you?
Good music being written and played on an inefficient layout doesn't really say anything; you're just committing survivorship bias.
I agree that we need to upgrade the keyboard but I think the honeycomb is needlessly fat and hard to look at. Just round it out and make it more pleasing to look at. Also I think it's important to consider how to implement this with analog instruments instead of only electronic.
Try to remember that the reason the old keyboard has been used so much is due to the strength of traditions. So utilizing that to your advantage, if you just make this LOOK more traditional then you will make a bigger impact.
totally agree
Honeycomb keyboards are really popular with microtonal artists as they can easily change the tet/edo theyre using without the issues of trying to make it compatible with a standard 12-tone keyboard and they make sense for artists who think with coloured notes such as Dolores Catherino. But yes this honeycomb style also makes it less friendly towards those who've never encountered it and it can look ugly if it's done wrong
This is so exciting but I’ll just stick to guitar. It basically achieves the same thing
In a limited way, yes. Shortcomings of guitar 1) chord fingerings limited to one hand, while the other strums 2) locked-in to 12-tone music. Terpstra allows 1) 10-finger chords 2) alternative scales like microtonal, indian, etc
@@jonwilson7871
There are guitars that can play in other divisions of the octave via special fret configurations or removing the frets entirely, but they're rare...just like the Terpstra/Lumatone, so I don't suppose either win on that front.
Terpstra is made for keyboard players anyway, so comparing it to guitar isn't really fair when they're made to achieve different things.
Me too 70+... and living in poor Chile. Please buy me one of these, too! :)
If you don't I will become a drug addict, attack rich people and feed them to the poor.
Instaboner
just get a harpejji lol
Interesting concept (basically a Janko) but on the few videos where someone plays it, it sounds terrible. Like a cheap synthetizer.
It sounds like you completely removed the subtile amplitude variations of weighted notes from a regular piano, basically killing any piano music that has ever been made. While also removing its natural sound.
In the end, it's just a toy for electronic music.
And for what price ? quoting your site : "If commercially available, the keyboard would cost more than $10K USD"
The keyboard doesn't make the sound, software does. This is a MIDI controller. If what you heard wasn't responding to key velocity, the guy must have been using some weird software. Modern DAWs and VSTs have exceptional piano reproduction. As for the keyboard itself, every key is a continuous controller, so it is more expressive than a piano.
Play something on it before claiming that it is better.
You could, y'know, watch the video and then make an argument.
Your accent is hillarious
Talk about trying to reinvent the wheel.
So there's an older, better 31-TET keyboard design?
@@Persun_McPersonson Well, an older, better design anyway, one which I still use (and very well).
@@Discrimination_is_not_a_right
"Anyway" implies that it is better no matter which tuning, especially since you dismiss the Terpstra/Lumatone's use for other tunings entirely, but that's just wrong. It's certainly not better for 31-TET, and whether or not it's better for 12-TET is largely preference.
@@Persun_McPersonson If you can't play Rhapsody in Blue on it, it's not better than what I have.
@@Discrimination_is_not_a_right
That's an incredibly short-sighted strawman argument to make, considering that "what you have", by default, can't accurately play most of the things that a 31-TET layout can. Other than the silliness of such a criterion, name-dropping a piece is also a vague qualifier; what it means for something to count or not count as being "Rhapsody in Blue" is up for debate. Someone could arrange a version of the piece that you could only accurately play on a 31-TET layout, and yet it would undeniably be identifiable as a rendention of the same piece of music.
You let your bias cloud your judgement past the point of narrow-mindedness straight to outright hypocrisy. You're so stuck in one mode of processing the world that you've come to mistaken it for some inherent reality, and see other avenues which contradict this line of thinking as something which must be denied of their undeniable existence, lest break the illusion. You can't hide from reality forever.
Pianos are just fine dude. Chill.
Pianos are archeic trash systems.
Good. Let us try other systems.
@@chrisjones9132 Tell it to Franz Liszt.
turns out squares it was
What if you want to play in a wildly different tuning with more notes?
So many concert techniques wouldn't work on this.
Which ones?
@@Persun_McPersonson Well, glissandos would be kind of tricky. Depending on the layout, chromatic runs would be as well; pianists would have to learn how all over again. Octave leaps would be a pain with smaller targets to hit, alberti bass would put your hands in a cramp until your hands learned to adapt all over again, repeated notes might be a bit easier with more positional options though, I'll give it that. But I really can't see relearning ten thousand hours worth of technique to play it.
Are people really having trouble remembering triads???? You'll know the triad if you know the scale..... if you don't know the scale then your not practicing
Yeah, go ahead and learn the same thing 12 times longer. Work harder not smarter.
@@katrielisrael7262 what
no, but it helps condensate all possible patterns into even less more, and you would still have to learn the steps to get the chords and the position in this configuration
@@EasternEden what’s hard to understand? You learn 12 keys and inversions, arpeggios, scales in the stupid accepted piano layout. That would be called working harder not smarter.
@@katrielisrael7262 what
Чушь собачья! Попытка превратить "клавиши" в такой же шаблонный инструмент как и гитара.
I know right
That doesn't even make sense, this is a hexagonal isomorphic layout keyboard instrument. It's somewhat similar to the Jankó keyboard invented in 1882 (but that didn't have hexagonal keys and was acoustic). And even if what you said was right, so what? Just because one instrument has something in common with another instrument that already exists doesn't mean the former is automatically BS- I think that's called writing something off before watching skilled musicians play good music on it. So I'd recommend the Lumatone channel, which is the modern day version of this keyboard. Lots of great music posted there (warning: a lot of microtonality, since the lumatone is very optimal for playing in microtonal tunings). Mike Battaglia is an absolute beast on the instrument