LUMATONE | Quick Answers | "Is Lumatone Harder to Play Than a Piano?"
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 มิ.ย. 2023
- The second question answered in our "Quick Answers" series, where Dave works to answer the most commonly asked questions in a minute or two. 🌈 So... is Lumatone Harder to Play Than a Piano?
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As for me, it's not harder, not easier, it's just different. For people who are not familiar with piano it may be slightly easier to learn, but in the long run, they will be the same level of difficulty
The fact that Lumatone is not only isomorphic across all keys, but also mostly so across 12, 19, and 31TET tunings, is a heeeyuge advantage for Microtonalists!
That is, not only do the same fingerings work across all keys, but also (for the most part) across several families of tunings.
The future of music
Heck yeah!
Its so expensive tho ;-;
Only if you value ease of use over expressiveness
Man, Im so into the microtonal sound. It never gets old!
Great question, and right answer!
However, there are nuances too. The most obvious is that thumbs are shorter than the other fingers. That is less of a concern for the traditional long, slender keys of the traditional keyboard, than on the very-specific “button” locations of Lumatone keys.
So, I at least find that thumbs are less-routinely usable on Lumatone. Both that fact, and Isomorphism, modify fingerings considerably.
Now, thumbs are certainly still usable by all means, and depending upon what tuning you’re playing, Lumatone key mappings can also provide _more possibilities_ for alternate fingerings too. So, “it depends,” as they say.
Now, for me at least, somewhat-less-usable thumbs, are _clearly, a far lesser downside than the huge benefits of Isomorphism_ ! I’d expect almost anybody who plays a Lumatone for even a couple hours would agree.
I have yet to play one in person, but as a pianist/keyboardist, from the videos it looks like the horizontal width of chords is reduced somewhat. If so, then what I think of as one of the most important roles of the thumbs on piano, stretching to play larger chords, may also be somewhat less important - at least up to an octave or so. Does that match your experience with the instrument?
@@FGCLovesYou, an octave’s span on a Lumatone (using Bosanquet-Wilson keyboard layout) looks to be about 14.9cm, compared to 16.3cm on a traditional keyboard, so yes, a little narrower. So, a bit over a centimeter narrower. That’s reasonable considering exactly what you mentioned.
i think it is much easier than a regular piano keyboard.
any interval is the same 'shape', unlike a piano keyboard.
i would welcome a cheaper version of the Lumatone geared for people who are into the isomorphism aspect more than into microtonality.
this 'honeycomb' design is the future of musical keyboards, i think.
It’s possibly easier for harmonic work and intuitive play, however I don’t want to try playing liszt on this 😅
It’s interesting how different from piano lumatone feels. Definitely the best way to play with a keyboard feel with reasonable equal temperaments though. I wonder how it stacks up to the Tonal Plexus.
Anyone tried to play like some difficult virtuosic classical piano pieces on this keyboard? Because as i see it can make things way more easier to play, but i want like a point of view of classical pianist and what were the advantages of this instrument, and dose this keyboard have good dynamic range?
That's a great question, and now one I also wish I knew the answer to. Dynamic range is certainly important. I know it *does* have support for aftertouch, which is cool.
Mark Warren and myself
Big fan of these vids
Let's put it simple: Lumatone is a great (though not new) idea. It's problem is price and its crazy marketing for microtonalist that are a niche. The other problem is that you cannot try it in a music shop. Distribution is a key point for such a new instrument.
Any thoughts on a pedal Lumatone? If you're trying to put together something to emulate a pipe organ, you can get multiple manuals in 1 Lumatone if your notes per octave is small enough or (expensively) in 2 Lumatones if it isn't, but right now the provision for a pedalboard is missing (just tried a Google search and nothing turned up).
I'm more of a pianist/keyboardist more than an organist, but from what experience I do have playing B3, I would think the foot placement would be a good deal more difficult. Rocking your feet back and forth to play the pedals is such a big part of the existing technique, and with a hexagonal pedalboard, the pedals would be a lot smaller and require more precision. I would think that it might be playable with the heel angled down or maybe the tip of the foot, but you'd be playing by feel now in a full two dimensions rather than slightly more than one dimension (the offset of the naturals and accidentals on standard organ pedalboard). That's a lot of movement forward and back, all done without really being able to see the pedals or orient yourself by touch the same way. Maybe some new markings for orientation could be added, with little nubs protruding from certain rows of keys? I suspect it's doable, but suspect only a few rows of hexagonal pedals would be practical. And the pedals might not be full hexagons, just as organ pedals often have much more space in between them than piano keys.
That said, I'd be very interested to see any progress on this front.
Honestly, I also wonder if it would be easier to break up the mappings on a single Lumatone keyboard, so that part of the keyboard is serving exclusively as the pedals (presumably going to a different VST or MIDI channel than the rest of the keyboard), and then route sustain pedals to the individual VSTs / MIDI channels accordingly to be able to sustain the pedals without sustaining the upper keys, and vice versa. Also, probably a good idea to make sure the "pedal" notes are set up like a mono synth, so that you're only ever getting one super-low note at a time. (I've used similar setups when using multiple patches on my own keyboards, and it can work quite well.) That'd also avoid the potentially incredible expense of Giant Foot Lumatone.
@@FGCLovesYou Nice idea for some purposes, but it wouldn't work for something like a Buxtehude/Bach/Krebs /Disenha(*) fugue in which you really need to have both hands and feet working independently.
(*) Current time period, and on TH-cam -- I have recently been pleasantly surprised to find that people having such ability still exist.
I think that ones ability to learn on a lumatone vs a standard piano is going to be heavily dictated by that individual's knowledge of music theory in general prior to trying to play either instrument. As someone who loves music, but has no natural musical talent with any instrument nor much of the basic education in music beyond high school choir. This thing looks way harder for a novice to approach. I still would have fun playing with it...but it's usefulness would be lost upon someone like me beyond a fun toy to play with.
I never understood why pianos are not like this.... makes no sense at all.
It's as if the piano was only designed to play at the scale of C
the first keyboards only had 7 white keys.
then they added one black key.
years passed and they added another one, etc...
if all the 12 chromatic tones had been invented at the same time, the piano keyboard would look much different today.
@moontan91 But it seems that the piano didn't evolve after they started tuning in equal temperament.
Before that, you could only play in the scale of C anyway. But after the change to equal temperament, you could start playing at any key, thus it would have made sense to make it so that every musical key looks the same (since all keys are identical musicaly speaking). This is how it is in all other string instruments (like guitar, bass, violin and so on....).
They are much easier to play (and it's more fun) because their layout makes sense.
@@tomerbrosilow5402 here is a short video about how the piano keyboard looks the way it does.
quite interesting i think:
th-cam.com/video/MHfG20HvPHA/w-d-xo.html
as to why the keyboard did not evolve after the whole chromatic scale was completed:
people love the status quo, and laziness is one of the strongest forces in the universe. lol