The White Keys Axis-49

An original composition performed on my jammer that continuously rotates through all of the diatonic modes with a never ending 2-5-2-5-2-5... chord progression. It is a GREAT exorcise for getting my fingers around playing every seventh chord as well as playing in every diatonic mode. Funny thing is, because this only uses the diatonic scale, this is the only song in existence that is actually EASIER to play on the piano than on the axis-49 remapped to a Wicki/Hayden Layout! Of course, try transposing it out of the C Major diatonic scale on the piano and that's another story...
This is an imitation Thummer ( http://thummer.com/easier.asp ) or "Jammer".
The layout is described here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicki-Hayden_note_layout

Category:

Music

Tags:

• keyboard
• axis-49
• axis-64
• jazz
• thummer
• jammer
• wicki
• hayden
• isomorphic
• c-thru
• music
• piano
• the
• white
• keys
• john
• lank
• moriarty
• generalized
• Thumtronics
• MIDI

[noisebender]

Why, if its possible, a person cant make each key on the keyboard play any sound instead of being constrained to a layout?

[JLMoriart]

@noisebender Not sure about your question but if you mean "Why learn one layout if there are so many?", then my answer would this:

One's mastery of just one layout would probably payoff more than one's less rigorous familiarization many layouts, even when taking advantage of each different layout's advantages. Also, certain layouts have deeper links into theory and application than others, and so are more powerful.

[JLMoriart]

@noisebender And if you mean "Why use an isomorphic note layout when you could just put any note you want anywhere on the instrument", my answer would be this:

Using a consistent, isomorphic layout that has the same fingering in every key allows you to move past basics much faster than an irregular layout. On a layout where you just decide to put notes where they might seem convenient at the time, it would take much more time to learn how to play each key.

[iLoveLucid]

This sounds great man! AND this is getting me amped, mine arrives at my doorstep in 3 days. Question, is it easier to play 4 note 7th chords and more colorful chords in general with this Wiki/Hayden Layout? Also, how come one axis has a complete column of every other blue notes, and the other is axis has 3 blue notes on each side?

Keep it up, your fun to listen to

[JLMoriart]

@iLoveLucid Thanks, the seventh chords in root position on the original HT layout are slightly more compact, but IMO are too compact to be comfortable, which voids that advantage. In any inversion, chords are WAY easier to finger in WH because the octaves repeat vertically. Inversions are hard on the HT whose octaves repeat in two awkward directions. My color scheme is a compromise of having to remap the layout, so the blue notes are the enharmonic equivalents.

[iLoveLucid]

@JLMoriart Ah, I get it! I'm definitely going to try this WH layout. I definitely can't afford two axis', but I can definitely use Logic's Environment window to split the axis and have the bottom half an octave or two lower.

Actually, i'm going to split it 1/3 of the way up, and not even bother to rearrange the notes until i can sound like Bill Evans on my axis 49. Thanks a lot for the explanation.

[JLMoriart]

@iLoveLucid That's cool man, glad you're going to give it a whirl. I hope you find it to be as intuitive and fun as I've found it to be =)

You might run into some problems splitting thekeyboard if you don't have it in selfless mode though, be sure to go that route.

[Tausifownsz]

grooooveeeeeeeyyyy as fk man

[JLMoriart]

@MetaRinka

sure, I'll send you them in a PM =)

Though the process of rearranging the keytops hasn't been officially documented, it's pretty easy and I can walk you through it.

[MetaRinka]

@JLMoriart

got any links for that. I'm thinking of buying two and doing just this, I just haven't had any luck finding tutorials and such on rearranging the layout