[sdiy] user interfaces, was Radio Shack catalogs

[Paul Cunningham]

the difference is that you are often resting your fingers on the keys  
and can tell where you are by your position in front of the piano and  
the black keys.

for me, when i play keyboards in the dark, i really don't have too  
much trouble after hitting the first key and getting some sonic  
feedback. my fingers already know the distance between relative keys  
and find them without too much trouble. when i miss, the physical key  
channels them back in the right direction. i even found early on that  
playing without being able to look made me a better player.

i also suspect good mallet players -- and drummers -- get very  
familiar with where their strike points are independent of vision.  
ever watch neil peart play? he's not looking behind him when he hits  
stuff there.

i don't expect this kind of thing is easy to learn with something  
like an ipad, but you can probably learn it with the right gui layout  
(good instrument design). haptic feedback is an important part of  
touch screen development in my opinion. feedback is important in any  
kind of gui, but it doesn't only have to be visual. fortunately, most  
musical instruments provide very specific auditory feedback if  
nothing else. if you do the wrong thing it's quite obvious to  
everyone. -pc


On May 14, 2010, at 5:23 PM, Rainer Buchty wrote:

> On Fri, 14 May 2010, Ingo Debus wrote:
>
>> Thinking of it, a mallet instrument (vibraphone, marimba) hardly  
>> provides a "physical frame of reference", does it? Of course you  
>> get into touch with the keys while playing, but once you have hit  
>> the wrong one, it's too late. And there are many mallet virtuosos.
>
> And where's the difference to e.g. a piano?
>
> You hit the wrong key, you lose.
>
> Rainer
>
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