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An All-White-Key Piano, For No Apparent Reason


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[video:youtube]https://youtu.be/tB8ITQGp-is

 

"The instrument has the same number of strings as a normal piano, but with the black key hammer action removed. So, you can literally only play in C major.

 

With no 24 major and minor keys â let alone so many rich colours â any change in tone can only be achieved by playing the white keys. And with no separation of black and white keys, you must have to relearn all your note references."

 

Article here

Now out! "Mind the Gap," a 24-song album of new material.
www.joshweinstein.com

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Well, you can play in A minor and D minor at least. Also, G major pentatonic and Em pentatonic.That's 5 keys more of less so their math is off a bit.

 

We played a gig long ago and there was a fellow there who ran to the piano and started jamming all cool with us when we kicked off C'est La Vie in C.

There was a house piano and he only could play in C. That said, he could really play in C.

 

We would have had him play on everything if he knew other keys.

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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That is strange. You can play in D Dorian, G Mixolydian, and E Phrygian, and also the C pelog (C E F G B C) and C slèndro (C D E G A C) scales.

Don"t forget F Lydian and B Locrian though.

Yamaha MX49, Casio SK1/WK-7600, Korg Minilogue, Alesis SR-16, Casio CT-X3000, FL Studio, many VSTs, percussion, woodwinds, strings, and sound effects.
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That looks like a nightmare a concert pianist would have before a big recital.

Or any player. Even the start of the video is like a dream/nightmare where she's wearing the smock, walks behind the wall and is dressed up.

"I'm so crazy, I don't know this is impossible! Hoo hoo!" - Daffy Duck

 

"The good news is that once you start piano you never have to worry about getting laid again. More time to practice!" - MOI

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Simplifies technique a great deal. You only have to practice one scale shape, whatever other keys are possible are also structured as all white keys. Reduces the number of shapes necessary to master for chord voicing as well. If digital - transposition can be done electronically changing the note value of keys.

 

There"s no visual difference between anything so like a guitar it"s probably a good idea to mark off some keys with a dot to or two dots to show where a few pitches actually are - especially for beginners. And the number of keys you can play in are too limited.

 

As usually it"s silly because so many great players have shown that mastery of the black and white key system is possible. The pedagogy for it is well established. And the benefits aren"t potent enough to outweigh what you lose.

Yamaha CP88, Casio PX-560

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Now they need a matching all black keys piano! At least with black keys you can't really make a mistake :)

Chuck gets it. You can buy little harps that have seven strings and are tuned to a pentatonic scale. And he"s right. You literally can"t play a wrong note. Great for musical children of all ages.

 

This piano is diatonic, so OMG! you can play an occasional wrong note. How inconsiderate of the musically inept.

 

I appreciate the marketing blurb that notes that this special piano has the same number of strings as a normal piano. Since you can"t play them they can only be heard when the damper is raised. But since they only sound the 'bad" notes, I think they are the 'unsympathetic strings".

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The thing is, I happen to agree that the piano represents terrible industrial design. The entire western system is based on a "default to C" that hasn't been relevant since at least the days of 12th-root-of-2 equal temperament. Any instructor of piano or music theory in general struggles to explain logically why the 'black notes' aren't "less than" the white notes, or some alteration of them, instead of completely the same as them in every way except for their outdated naming and the completely (now) arbitrary design of the instrument.

 

So an ergonomic version of the piano that recognizes 12 equal octave-divisions, would be kind of interesting to me.

 

But this one's dumb.

Now out! "Mind the Gap," a 24-song album of new material.
www.joshweinstein.com

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I was immediately reminded of some old horror flick where people suddenly have no faces. The black keys were my enemies as a kid, so this would have seemed like a real problem solver. Now, its a mix of creepy & hilarious. :eek::laugh: She did a beautiful job of showing it off, but its NOT likely to become the alternate controller of choice.

 "I want to be an intellectual, but I don't have the brainpower.
  The absent-mindedness, I've got that licked."
        ~ John Cleese

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