Lumatone Artist Spotlight | MIKE BATTAGLIA
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 มิ.ย. 2023
- LUMATONE PROUDLY PRESENTS: A brand new series of "Artist Spotlight" films, featuring inspiring artists making all kinds of magic with Lumatone. This one's all about our one-of-a-kind friend Mike Battaglia. This was captured over a couple days at South Street Sounds in his hometown of Philadelphia, PA. In this short film, Mike recounts how he got into music, explores a myriad of remarkable ideas about microtonality, and digs deep into his Lumatone in a way only he can.
We're grateful for Mike's time and passion in sharing all of this with us! He's one of the very first Lumatone owners ever, a true pioneer, and we're thrilled to have teamed up with him on this.
CHECK OUT MIKE'S FULL PERFORMANCES FROM THIS FILM:
• Mike Battaglia - "Word... (Wordless Prayer/Blues)
• Mike Battaglia - "Hous... (House of the Rising Sun)
• Mike Battaglia - "Scar... (Scarborough Fair)
FOLLOW MIKE ON SOCIAL MEDIA:
TH-cam: @MikeBattagliaMusic
Instagram: / mikebattagliamusic
TikTok: / mikebattagliamusic
LEARN MORE ABOUT LUMATONE:
Website: www.lumatone.io
Instagram: / lumatone.keyboard
TikTok: / lumatone
Many thanks to South Street Sounds in Philly for sharing their space with us as we captured this piece of film. We're very grateful. Many thanks also go to Tivon Pennicott for allowing the use of some of the footage found in this film.
Don't forget to follow us and subscribe to this TH-cam Channel to catch everything in our artist series, and more. - เพลง
Hi everyone! Thrilled to be able to do this. Thanks to Matt and Dylan for having me. Glad you all enjoyed and if there's anything else you'd like me to talk about leave some notes in the comments!
Aye my guy Mike you sound amazing!!!! We gotta duet a tune together on two of the most unique instruments on the planet!!!!
oh please release more videos!
Awesome video - the rich warm harmonic tones and overtones you get out of the Wurly patch are awesome! Pianoteq? Where can I listen to more of your music, Mike? Of course I'd love a Lumatone, but right now I REALLY want to hear more of your music, man. WOW! ❤
You have the potential to go big places, if you play your cards right. Find someone you trust who can handle the business side. You have real talent.
H, Mike. I have always had an association with colors to notes, and even shapes to specific notes. And after many years of sonic observations I am convinced that our hearing, to a significant degree, is spectral, with Middle C beginning that "rainbow" of textures;: C being very weighty and robust, whereas, say, A-flat is very thin, cold and distant. I have designed a color-shape keyboard template (a painting) using the original Terpstra layout of honey-comb keys. I think you may find my work extremelly interesting on the issue if key choice and psychological/thematic elements in our CHOICE of root keys. I perform on my piano or guitar my _visually_ following this color-keyboard, my Musicolor Matrix.
My work is here at _The Acoustic Rabbit Hole_ and I would love hear your reaction to my claims of a basic Theory of Pitch Psychology. // All viewers are invited to take a peek as well.
Your, _Acoustic Rabbit Hole_
Wow, this has got to be my favourite interview on the topic of microtonality because it's so grounded, organic and connected to the act of music making! I really appreciate this and honestly would show this to people as a way to introduce them to *why* microtonality is worth considering. Because the math angle certainly doesn't appeal to most musicians I've spoken to throughout my life
This is the very first time I've heard someone playing this keyboard and thought "yeah, I can listen to this. This pleases me."
Waaaay awesome, Mike! You’re a gloriously inspirational musician. Thanks for everything!
I first got going with Microtonality back in 1977, but I’ve had to subjugate it to my career. In a couple years, I’ll retire, and dang, am I going to ”get even” with lost time! 🎉 Lumatone will be a huge part of that; to say the least!
Your “House of the Rising Sun” performance was fantastic, but here’s a hopefully even-more-fruitful request: Do a collaboration with the David Bennett Piano Channel, or possibly Adam Neely. They have _big_ TH-cam followings, and have shown a curiousity for Microtonality. I bet, with a man of your talent introducing them and their TH-cam followers to Lumatone, a whole lot of promising musicians will “get it” instantly, and will want to try Lumatone for themselves!
Ooh yeah seconded on David Bennett or Adam Neely!
Another … more exotic? … but perhaps even more appropriate, might be David Bruce Composer.
@@mr88cet Yeah! He comes from more of a classical background but he's talked about Kendrick Lamar and other contemporary leading lights :)
@@Merlincat007, David certainly writes more “Classical” than other styles, but as you alluded, he’s interested in all kinds. His channel’s watchers are interested in Composition and Theory, and DB himself has shown some interest in Microtonality.
That reminder to focus on feel, not just theory, is something I needed.
It means a lot coming from such an accomplished musician and core contributor to the Xenharmonic Wiki!
I’m quite surprised that TH-cam decided to put this video on my Home Screen, but then I’ve also watched it, liked it, and shared it 😂 good job algorithm. Thank you for the really interesting video!
Obviously it doesn't explain everything else that's going on with the blues, but one little thing I've noticed is that many of the extra notes that show up in the blues are all connected to the 11th harmonic. You have the neutral third 11/9, and then a perfect fifth above that, the neutral seventh 11/6, and then up another perfect fifth gets you to 11/4, which is the octave equivalent of the 11/8 superfourth or the 11th harmonic itself. Those are three of the most popular things to bend up to from the minor third, minor seventh and perfect fourth. There's not only dissonance in those intermediate notes, but additional harmony hiding within them. Of course there's traditionally a whole range of pitches that are acceptable for those bent notes, for obvious reasons, but I think that extra harmony is something that is felt and contributes to their power, even if it's usually not understood on an intellectual level.
Some of the special intonational characteristics of the blues, such as the neither-major-nor-minor thirds and sevenths, may actually be remnants of the influence of traditional West African tunings of 7 more or less equal divisions of the octave (i.e., equiheptatonic) rather than the overtone series.
@@dbadagna That's interesting! Indeed, 2^(2/7) is only 4 cents flat of the 11/9 neutral third, though 2^(6/7) is a better approximation of 9/5 (11 cents sharp) than of 11/6 (21 cents flat), and the 11th harmonic directly would not be well represented in such a scale (nearest approximation is 37 cents off).
When we're singing or bending strings and using our ears to hit pitches (on instruments of basically harmonic timbre), I tend to think that nobody is really singing an equal temperament, and what we're feeling when we use our ears relates to how the partials are aligned (or not). But the presence of equally-tempered instruments is definitely going to play into what notes we're aiming at, and what sorts of things we think to try to sing in the first place.
For example, even if an 11/6 neutral seventh isn't quite on an equiheptatonic instrument, it'll be something felt in the ears of people who are singing along with one (because of the neutral third that's already present, and it's what you get when you nail a 3/2 ratio above that).
Finally got around to watching this and I'm so glad I did. Excellent stuff gang
awesome! Please keep making these spotlight videos, well done
We ain't slowin' down!
I love this, please keep the videos coming!!
Very Nice...so rich sounds
Magnificent.
excellent job, keep doing your thing
Amazing
what a musician! great admiration from a colorist
Yeah, my first thought seeing the Lumatone was that it'd be great for Blues and straight away found this guy playing house of the rising sun with a heavy blues spin... Blew my expectations out of the water honestly
If you love this, check out his other video playing “wordless prayer” - he actually set up the mod wheel to adjust the nature of the “blue note” and it just absolutely proves the magic of what can be done on this instrument. 🙏⚡️❤️
@@lumatone thanks, I'll check it out!
Anyone know what he's playing at 10:33? Spine-tingling haunting.
It's great that Mike can get around to playing stuff like this, but I need something that can play in 159edo in order for me to have the same breakthrough I feel. Even then, I suspect that I'll still need a lot of the math stuff- just so I can get to where I want to go in composing.
Never heard of 159edo, does it have exceptionally good approximations? Maybe the h-pi tonal plexus is better suited for your endeavors (I know it can at least play 205edo)
@@romeolz It has the exceptionally good 5-limit of 53edo plus a very good 11 and 17. The 7 and 13 of 159edo are only just good enough for single instances of use- that is, you can't stack them more than once without accumulating too much error, but they are still at least useable.
@@dawsonberry5284 neat, i wonder how 171edo and 183edo stack up?
@@romeolz 171edo has a bad 11, but you do at least get a strong 7-limit, and consistency to the 13-odd-limit. Both 159edo and 183edo are consistent to the 17-odd-limit, but of the two, 159edo has the better 3, while 189 has the better 7 and 13. All three have a bad 19, but then again, good 19's are hard to come by anyway- at least for EDOs with reasonable step sizes.
@@dawsonberry5284 thank you for the insight! Have you tried composing in big edos? If so, how? It seems hard to work with big edos in daws and basically all instruments
I really REALLY want to hear the Star Wars Mos Isley cantina song on this can someone perlease do it...
altogether now "Do do do do dodoodoo dooddly do do do doo do
16:46
Now that you've been playing it awhile, how do you find the layout and action, playing-wise, compared to a more conventional keyboard?
Admittedly, historically, my instrumental background has been more on woodwind and strings, but Lumatone has “taken over”!
For whatever it’s worth, with that background, my personal impressions:
It feels nothing like a piano nor a harpsichord. It’s more like an organ. Pretty light touch. However, aftertouch is a huge part of what Lumatone is all about. It feels fantastic! Neither too hard nor too mushy, and the amount of depth is about right. I might have wanted a little more aftertouch depth, but it’s pretty much right.
As for layouts, they’re superbly flexible, and intuitive to create layouts. The usual major/minor scale layout (Bosanquet-Wilson) feels excellent. My hands are larger than average, FWIW. The length of an octave span is slightly narrower than on a piano - just slightly. That works great with the fact that thumbs have slightly more-restricted usability on Lumatone.
The action has a very similar feel to the semi-weighted Nord Electro, if you've played one of those. The layout is very similar to that of a Harpejji, but rotated, so if you've ever played one of those you'll get this right away. Relative to the piano, it's just different: certain things are easier and certain things are harder. For instance, something like a closed-position major 9 voicing is somewhat difficult to play with one hand, as there's less surface area for each key. So, you get used to just bringing in the other hand for it. But then, you can also do crazy voicings that would be very difficult on a piano, like play a #11 with the left hand in every key. You get used to these things pretty quickly: once you're in the flow state and just playing music, you just naturally tend to gravitate toward a different set of chord voicings on Lumatone than on piano, and it all sort of settles into equilibrium.
@@MikeBattagliaMusic That's all really helpful, thanks!
@@MikeBattagliaMusic, interesting comparisons, thanks, Mike! (Since I have a Lumatone, they tell me more about Nord Electro, for example, but that’s good too!)
Admittedly, I’m a little puzzled by your comparison of Lumatone layouts being similar with a Harpejji turned sideways, though. I’ve never played one, but my understanding is Harpejji is laid out somewhat like a very-wide, very-short guitar neck. That makes it fundamentally a square matrix whereas the Lumatone’s is hexagonal.
So Lumatone layouts seem to me to be more about the diagonals than the horizontal and vertical position. The Bosanquet-Wilson layouts, I at least perceive, are more a generalization and regularization of the traditional keyboard layout. Those are my impressions anyway, FWIW.
Of course, the great thing about the Lumatone is that its layouts are very-flexibly redefinable to whatever you want (within the confines of its hexagonal matrix).