Further descriptions and diagrams
Musicians have been struggling for a long time with the problem of how to tune musical instruments. The problem is: twelve perfect fifths add up to just a little more than an octave, and three major thirds add up to almost, but not quite, an octave. These discrepancies make it impossible to make instruments that can play perfectly in tune in all the different keys. To explore this, I made some software tools for studying intervals.
Further descriptions and diagrams
The musical interval we call "a perfect fifth" is the second most fundamental one (the most fundamental being the unison or octave). In western music, we have ended up with twelve pitches, all related to one another by the interval of the perfect fifth (more or less). On a piano keyboard, these are arranged in order by frequency. I decided instead to try arranging them so that adjacent pitches were a perfect fifth apart; this arrangement is known to musicians as "the circle of fifths." Then, I applied the color wheel to this circle, so that pitches that were closely related by perfect fifths would be close in color. This turned out to be useful for showing things about tonality. For example, all the notes in a major scale are grouped together; this means that if you're playing a piece that stays in one key, it stays in one area of the circle. If the key changes, the notes are in a new area. Also, notes which are not in the key stand out.
Further descriptions and diagrams
An input device for rhythm, based on the bow and the drum stick.
An input device for musical gestures, "Ski Poles" has many axes of control: up/down, motion in a plane, twist around the axis, pressure.
This is a surface that you mold as you perform; it's like clay, but it reacts to being touched, rubbed, squeezed, etc. Part of performing is building the instrument that allows the kinds of strokes you need to do; for example, you could build a row of four parallel, non-equally-spaced ridges, and then run a finger across them (like fence posts), to create an irregular rhythm that was faster than you could perform otherwise.
In the software program called a "sequencer," the computer performs the music. In the case of a "musician," a human being performs the music. In the "conductor program," the responsibilities of performing are divided up between the computer and the human being: the computer is responsible for the order and pitches of the notes, and the human being is responsible for timing, dynamics, articulation, and other aspects of expression.
Further descriptions and diagrams (part of the M.A.M. history)
The rhythm of the human gait can be used as a foundation from which to develop an unshakeable sense of rhythm and meter. This invention combines walking, sight-reading, and performing -- and teaches how to recover from inevitable sight-reading errors.
Further descriptions and diagrams
A music interface that lets you "hold onto" many parameters of a musical performance.
A harpsichord is like a keyboard guitar, in that it plucks the strings. However, there is very little variation in the type of pluck that is possible. In this new action, plectrum bite depth is controlled by key velocity, to create a plucked keyboard instrument which has a range of expression more like the guitar's.
A guitar is tuned in fourths; this means that when you play scales, you need to use at least two fingers to get from one string to the next (ie: open, fingered, fingered, open). On a harp, all the notes are "open strings." What lies between these two instruments is the "3rds guitar," which has a minimum of one fingered note between open strings. Such an instrument is suitable for Renaissance polyphony, and for jazz.