The Tri-color Keyboard (My Latest Invention)

[outstretchedarm]

{this is just a test of file hosting capabilites.  please disregard}

[outstretchedarm]

okay.  thank you all for reading this and putting in your thoughts; you have encouraged me.

I came up with a different color scheme, which is easier on the eyes.  Look:


Also...I drew up a mock keyboard to demonstrate how this might looked couched within a 61 key keyboard, taking up the lower two octaves.  (I chose the lower two because that is where most of our "chord thinking" takes place.)

Behold, the Soriano TC-61...


I know you want one!

okay, @Tblock:

I got one question though, will u still keep the same names for the keys?

Yes, we can keep our beloved note and chord names.  Though, knowing people of color, if we ever got used to playing with this kind of keyboard, we'd probably come up new names for stuff, because we creative like that.

now have 3 different techniques to combine togerther when learning the keyboard:  letters, numbers, colors

All in all, this isn't a completely bad system, it just looks like it takes more work to learn than a normal keyboard.

Not necessarily.  In fact, this system was developed to reduce counting.  Instead, you'd begin to see color patterns.

Let me create an analogy:

You know when you were in drivers ed, they explained traffic lights to you?  They said, "if the traffic light is horizontal, then red is the first on the left, the yellow is the middle, and the green is on the right.  But if the traffic light is vertical, the red is first one on the top, the yellow is the second one (in the middle), and the green is the lowest, the third."

Now, that sounds complicated!  Fortunately, no one thinks that way!  They see red, they know to stop.  They see yellow, they know to be careful and look out for 5-0h.  *Noone* sees a red light and say "hmmm. okay, is is horizontal or vertical?  Okay, it vertical.  Which light is shining?  The third one down.  Okay, that must mean 'go'".

Noone thinks this way, because once you learn the colors, and what they mean, counting becomes irrelevant!  This is what I want to do with this keyboard: allow people to think and act in terms of color patterns, and perhaps count up and down less.

Pedagogy 101: Color stimulates the brain.  And colors are easier to remember than numbers.

@flojo

So, switching from the color keyboard to the conventional keyboard would take a lot of processing and would eventually be counterproductive...

There need be no switching.  A student could use this side by side with a traditionally colored keyboard.

In other words, it is not like teaching a child to ride with training wheels, then taking off the training wheels, only to have them fall all over the place again.  Its more like teaching a young woman to drive with her mother in the passenger seat, advising her, preparing her for the day when she will have to drive alone.

Think of the tri-colors as an advisor, not a crutch.

Enjoy!

[sjonathan02]

In other words, it is not like teaching a child to ride with training wheels, then taking off the training wheels, only to have them fall all over the place again.  Its more like teaching a young woman to drive with her mother in the passenger seat, advising her, preparing her for the day when she will have to drive alone.

Think of the tri-colors as an advisor, not a crutch.

Enjoy!

First, when a child learns to ride without the training wheels, they learn to BALANCE THEMSELVES! It's one of life's greatest metaphors for children and parents. 

So, you're thinking that folks will be able to remember colors instead of numbers or positions on the keyboard? I can't view your new keyboard until I get home. 

[outstretchedarm]

So, you're thinking that folks will be able to remember colors instead of numbers or positions on the keyboard? I can't view your new keyboard until I get home. 

perhaps both:  perhaps, they'll do the counting at first, and then see visual shapes later.

I try to concetrate and analyze myself, asking:

"What is really going on in my brain when I recognize a chord and I play it"

I figured this out during my first year of playing:



I figured out that, once I learned to play a chord the first time(perhaps by counting intervals), I rarely played it that way again.  why?  Because once my brain recognized the visible shape, all I had to do was create that shape with my hand, put my first finger in the right place, and the rest of the chord I'd play the right way. (inversions come later though)

Now, we could get into multiple intelligences, (how everybody learns differently), but, even though I consider myself a mathematical and analytical thinker, I still recognize that the concept of a "shape" made a bigger dent in my thinking than did numbers.  Not that numbers are bad. We need them.  But why not engage all the senses.

My point is this: We already, for the most part, see music in terms of shapes (don't get guitarists talking about "shapes" on a fretboard).  Why not make those shapes easier to see?

[outstretchedarm]

okay, since y'all have been nice.  I thought I'd hit you off with the new Silver Edition.

Strictly for those neo-soul sets...too phat for Sunday Mornings...



even threw in some padded buttons to lay down drum beats with   

[outstretchedarm]

okay I'm seeing that these pics didn't come out. (why aint noone tell me?)

Here is the subtle new Tri-Colors


Here is the black 61 key keyboard, the TC-61


Here is the Silver Edition of the TC-61


and here is the illustration I used in an above post


enjoy