Keys are so uncool

[Tony Hardie-Bick]

Andrew Tarpinian wrote:
> I was hoping you would answer this.

Cheers dude :)

> It seems very machine though, there is not a lot of connection to  
> expression. Like a hardware piano roll, you would never really want to  
> "play" a piano roll, but yet these type of grid interfaces are  
> commonly used for playing.

It is machine, I don't think you're wrong or prejudiced in saying that. It is 
not a romantic, 19/20th century piano-like instrument, that's for certain, and 
it will not move in those dimensions, it is like concrete. Equally, a piano 
involves the person playing it in a way that suggests certain movements, and 
while these are not limited, I would say that music has moved away from the 
compositional styles suggested by piano, or classical guitar.

But I would not say that makes them redundant. It frames them differently. I 
(personally) would say the framing is more effective, when an interface like the 
2D matrix is used to drive sounds and sequences that are less quotations of 
existing forms (unless this is explicit/ironic, as in rap), like piano and its 
associated music, and more "electronic", in the sense of being self 
reflective/expressive, breaking the ties to the past. An interface like this is 
ideal for making further steps in this direction, IMO.

With this type of divergence, I do think that anyone who finds traditional 
instrument-playing expressive and emotive, will find that the possibilities for 
this will become less ironic, more open, more valued and unique; as the 
separation of the two musical paths becomes clear, so does their relationship 
yield more fruitful results. At the present, there is much blurring, especially 
between composition and playing, because it's not clear where one begins and the 
other ends, whereas, with a tool like this, you are never really playing, always 
composing.

I find typing these words strange. I keep thinking I am typing with 
Stockhausen's words, although he never write about this. I think if you want to 
find your way into composing, read Stockhausen. It doesn't matter where you 
start, none of it will make any sense, but he reaches out into galactic 
understandings of music, just... beyond. Took me years to even connect with any 
of it (and particularly his music), but the few chapters I have read that I am 
beginning to understand, tell me that this is where to go, when you have 
questions of this kind.

> I really have the urge to break away from traditional composing  
> structures, but first I really need to fully understand what makes the  
> traditional style what it is and why it is what it is. So this is  
> helpful.

All interfaces change perspective. If you have one that you feel particularly at 
home on, drop it for a year, then come back to it when you suspect it will be 
useless to you. I dunno. The Galactic Emperor introduced me to a new instrument 
a coupla yrs ago. Not an easy one for us ten-fingered humans, but, really it's 
all just down to determination, practice... and not spending too much time 
writing emails when I should be doing just that... :)

Tony (HB)