Universally Programmable Key Arrays for Optimum Musical Expression
From PDI
The arrangement of notes on guitar fretboards and piano keyboards both present severe obstacles to musical key, scale, pattern, and chord learning. Thus, both systems for accessing notes ultimately impede the quality of musical expression that the average musician is able to achieve. For instance, in order to fully learn a piano keyboard the player must adapt to playing each scale twelve different ways, for scales and modes in each of the twelve keys have their own pattern of naturals and sharps. Given the challenges involved, very few pianists learn how to play every mode in every musical key. Guitarists are also severely hindered, although in a somewhat different fashion.
However, with present-day music technology there is a way around all these difficulties, and it is presented here.
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Prior Art Alternative Keyboards and Tuning Systems
First, some preliminaries. Patenting specific arrangements of musical notes to improve our ability to interact with music has a long history. There are two main considerations in this field, the geometry of the relative placement of buttons or keys used to activate notes and the notes that are assigned to them. The most popular geometries have been hexagonal arrays and grid arrays. A famous hexagonal array keyboard based on two interlocking whole-tone progressions was patented in 1882, and it is a definite improvement over the piano keyboard. Many other designs have been patented over the years, under both geometries. However, because of current readily-available technology, the idea of patenting an arrangement of musical notes is obsolete since notes can easily be reassigned once the MIDI signal a playing surface generates is processed by a computer.
What is Claimed
Of course, this PDI idea does not mention any specific arrangement of notes. Instead, it introduces the idea of combining several identical ultra-thin keyboards into one playing surface to enable anyone to create a fully reprogrammable key array in either a grid or hexagonal configuration. (Hexagonal arrays can be achieved by uniformly offsetting every other layer by half a key width.) With such a set-up, very natural note arrangements which sidestep all the limitations of both guitar fretboards and piano keyboards are easily attained. Whether or not any given note arrangement has been patented is irrelevant, for any note arrangement in either geometry is easily achieved and this detail is up to the end-user.
Implementation
To create the invention, begin with several 25-key USB piano keyboards that have recently been released by a major international music technology company. These particular keyboards are the most suitable choice as they are a mere 6/10th of an inch thick. In addition to this, they have velocity-sensitive keys and are relatively inexpensive (only $50 each). These units are to be stacked upon each other in a stepped arrangement so that all the accidental keys of one keyboard are entirely covered by the keyboard immediately above it, while all the natural keys and keyboard function buttons are left easily accessible. Each keyboard thus contributes only 15 of its adjacent natural keys to the overall key array grid (or hexagonal key array). Of course, the top keyboard will still have all accidental keys exposed, but otherwise what one ends up with is a grid array of 15 by n keys, where n is the number of mini USB keyboards used. (Ideally, sufficiently thin keyboards of 49 or 64 keys will be released, as the only significant physical limitation is the number of keys available per row.)
With software it is possible to assign each keyboard to a different MIDI channel (which is stored in each keyboard’s flash memory). After you have individually assigned each keyboard to a different MIDI channel, connect them all to a computer with the USB hub (a powered hub is recommended if you are using more than seven keyboards together). Now it is possible to route the entire array surface through a (freely available) MIDI utility program to execute a custom key remapping. Among many other functions, such programs allow users to individually take any note that has been sent into the computer on any MIDI channel and remap it to the desired note to be sent back out of the computer on the desired MIDI channel. Hundreds of such MIDI input-output remapping instructions can be added, thus allowing the whole array to be entirely remapped by simply loading a file. The resultant signal can be used to control virtual instruments in another computer, sent into a sequencer for recording, or used to drive a hardware synthesizer or sampler during a live performance.
Part of the invention is a jig for securing several mini USB keyboards in the proper stepped arrangement. One could call this item a “key array jig.” Since this entire concept is now in the public domain, no company can patent any size or style of key array jig in order to prevent others from freely producing them and promoting the concept of re-purposing multiple keyboards into a single array of keys by use of key array jigs and key remapping software. In other words, anyone can now freely produce and sell key array jigs and instruction booklets detailing implementation and application examples.
Intent of this PDI Idea
This invention is meant for everyone to share, innovate upon, and enjoy. Many discoveries await musicians who free themselves from the limitations of traditional musical instruments. Music is a vast and still mostly-unexplored territory. May you find new bliss on your travels to share with all.
