[sdiy] Where to get special white keys?

[David G. Dixon]

Ingo,

Here's another idea from a jazz perspective.  In modern jazz, in addition to
major scales and their modes, we tend to use the (ascending) melodic minor
scale and its modes a lot.  Indeed, the seventh mode of melodic minor, the
"altered" mode (H-W-H-W-W-W-W in intervals, or "Spanish tetrachord + Lydian
tetrachord" if you prefer) and the fourth mode of melodic minor, the "Lydian
dominant" mode (W-W-W-H-W-H-W in invervals, or "Lydian tetrachord + Dorian
tetrachord") are probably the two most important scales in jazz after major
(Ionian), Dorian (second mode of major), and Mixolydian (fifth mode of
major).

The reason I mention this is that it is possible to make a "melodic minor"
keyboard by grouping the black keys in alternating groups of 1 and 4, rather
than the standard 2 and 3.  With this configuration, the white keys would
give melodic minor and its modes.  Just think, if the keyboard had looked
like this from the beginning, then Bach would probably have composed modern
jazz 300 years ago!

(Funny how one almost never hears melodic minor tonality in new-age,
synth-saturated noodling music.)

David G. Dixon
Professor
Department of Materials Engineering
University of British Columbia
309-6350 Stores Road
Vancouver, B.C. V6T 1Z4
Canada
 
Tel 1-604-822-3679
Fax 1-604-822-3619
 
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: synth-diy-bounces at dropmix.xs4all.nl [mailto:synth-diy-
> bounces at dropmix.xs4all.nl] On Behalf Of Ingo Debus
> Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2009 9:16 AM
> To: Synth DIY
> Subject: Re: [sdiy] Where to get special white keys?
> 
> 
> Am 25.02.2009 um 20:32 schrieb cheater cheater:
> 
> > I'm slowly thinking of building my own keyboard. It would not have the
> > usual octave pattern/layout, and instead have alternating white and
> > black keys.
> 
> Hey, that's an idea I had decades ago! It seemed quite appealing to
> me: learn two major scales, one starting on a black, one on a white
> key and you can play them all. Also, the player isn't as affixed to
> traditional western scales as with the piano-type keyboard.
> There are alternative notation systems that would reflect that type
> of keyboard pretty well. See here:
> http://musicnotation.org/
> 
> 
> > Now the black key is not a problem... where would I get a white key
> > shaped like that, though?
> 
> Do you want to keep the width of the white keys, with a smaller width
> of an octave, or do you want to keep the width of an octave, with
> wider white keys? In the former case the distance between the black
> keys would decrease, and using traditionally sized black keys would
> make it difficult to place a finger on a white key between black
> keys. But in the latter case I don't see any alternative to making
> keys from scatch.
> 
> Please keep us posted!
> 
> Ingo
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