LinnStrument: Playing without looking at hands (Sightreading)

[Reckon104]

Well, for the record, I certainly did not suggest that there is (or ever will be) only one way to play a LinnStrument, or any given instrument for that matter.

However, should the LinnStrument's design be widely-adopted and further developed as a standard — if it's to survive as a instrument, like the piano or the violin — a methodology will absolutely emerge, as has been the case with every now-traditional instrument in history. But that's not to say there won't be different schools of thought.

The very definition of methodology is "a system of methods (plural) used in a particular area of study or activity."

Philosophically speaking, if every generation endeavoured to completely reinvent the proverbial wheel, humanity would get nowhere. A method must be developed if a method is to be taught. That's a good thing, and not at all conducive of "myopic artistic ideologies". In fact, it could be argued, cynically, that always striving to do something differently for the sake thereof is a pretentious myopic artistic ideology in-and-of-itself.

Just making discussion here; not picking a fight.

Cheers!

Can't disagree with anything in this post, other than to say that I don't think "a methodology" will emerge but rather my guess is that there will be multiple methodologies that gradually coalesce over time that may look quite different from each other. And my guess is they won't ignore didactic approaches used for other instruments or comparisons with them, because as you suggest, reinventing the wheel doesn't make sense. Of course they will be unique to the linnstrument, but I think the development of these methodologies may look a bit different even than the historical precedents we have because I am not aware of any instrument that has evolved to maturity without a specific sound or set of sounds associated with it. And in fact that is one of its amazing strengths.

[wldmr]

… Fleeesch (are you German, by the way?) …

How'd you know, my English that awkward?

Ha! No, not at all. But your username reminded me of a Berliner saying „Fleisch“ (made me smile). Plus: It's properly capitalized.

Yeah, I keep forgetting that I can just order a replacement sheet. That certainly lowers my inhibitions to experiment. dang!

[wldmr]

John & Reckon, just from casual observation it seems to me that at least two different methodologies will emerge: One of playing it like a zither / pedal steel / piano, and the other more like a touch guitar (Chapman Stick, Warr Guitar). It only makes sense that they should pick up cues from their respective counterparts and adapt them.

One slight disadvantage to not being a physical instrument is that it's harder to invent new interactions with it. An accoustic guitar can be struck for rhythmic accompaniment, or the whole neck bent, on a piano you can put stuff on piano strings to alter the sound, that sort of thing. Those are incidental affordances which an instrument “constrained” by MIDI makes less accessible. Our version of that will probably be alterations to the firmware (which I'm happy to see is aleady going on).

I'm excited to see the first video where we collectively go “Huh, so you can play it like that?”.

[ebinary]

Hand position...

My technique is evolving to have my right hand mostly perpendicular (piano style) to the surface, but my left hand is turned about at 45 degrees and works in the left-hand third of the surface mostly. The left-hand orientation lets me get my thumb solidly in on octave bass parts and also allows a lot of range while only using a small number of frets (handy when splitting).

It also keeps the two hands from physically interfering with each other.

So far I don't find any negatives... while the right and left hand fingering would differ for the same part, the two hands are reversed anyway, so nothing is really lost. And nothing precludes you from changing position to play a parallel part where symmetry is a plus, but those are rare for me.

(As you mentioned in my thread, I agree that locating keys could benefit from some change to the surface - experimenting ).

[wldmr]

Weird how just mentioning the simple concept of “turning your hands” could seem like a revelation, but here we are. I've gotten used to a piano-style hand position (both hands vertically aligned), but now you reminded me of the Kazantsev style of touch typing. Going to explore that some more, esp. since “thumb bass” is something that I'm very interested in mastering.

[John the Savage]

Most of the better two-handed LinnStrument players are already doing this. Unless you're playing chords on a single row, or using spread chord voicings, it's pretty much unavoidable.

Cheers!

[ebinary]

Most of the better two-handed LinnStrument players are already doing this. Unless you're playing chords on a single row, or using spread chord voicings, it's pretty much unavoidable.

Cheers!

Cool... it felt more natural, or even advantageous for me. Nice to know it's not unique to me

[peter.antoniou]

This is interesting, but I'm having a hard time figuring it out. Are there any videos showing this?

[wldmr]

This is interesting, but I'm having a hard time figuring it out. Are there any videos showing this?

Figure what out, exactly? Holding your arms at an angle? Hadn't given it much thought, I don't think there's a specific technique yet. I simply figured I'd tilt my hands/wrists inward at two 45° angles (making roughly a right angle between my forearms).

Or do you mean thumb bass? I haven't explicitly seen this anywhere yet. It just seems like a very obvious thing to try, given that's where the thumbs tend to end up naturally. It's going to take me years of practice yet to get there, though. If there's video around, I'm just as interested.

[Rimwolf]

Or do you mean thumb bass? [...] If there's video around, I'm just as interested.

 

There's a good video by Stephen Barnard that talks some about this:
Two Handed Chord concepts for LinnStrument. In the first part of the video, he recommends playing root+octave, then root+octave+10th, in the left hand with the thumb playing the root. The video is screen shots including a representation of the LS; you can see him playing these shapes (and others he talks about in later sections of the video) in his video Kind of Bill Evans on LinnStrument. (You can also see that he mostly plays with his hands at an angle to the LS.)
 

[peter.antoniou]

Thank you, that's exactly what I was looking for. From the description I was having a hard time understanding, that did it

[ebinary]

The key is really root with left thumb and everything else works its way out. I really like a solid thumb bass - something I never had when working as a keyboardist cause my thumb is on the wrong side of my hand for some reason

[Tj Shredder]

There's a good video by Stephen Barnard that talks some about this:
Two Handed Chord concepts for LinnStrument. In the first part of the video, he recommends playing root+octave, then root+octave+10th, in the left hand with the thumb playing the root.

Actually if you do that octave + 10th playing in the tritone tuning you will understand why I really prefer it over the 4th tuning. Its way, way easier in terms of the right hand position. The octaves are above each other, no twisting of the hand required, it falls naturally into place... But that's also a matter of taste of course...

[slburson]

I am learning to play both the piano and the LinnStrument. (What prior instrument experience I have is mostly on woodwinds, so I'm starting from pretty close to scratch on both.) I'm trying to play both of them by feel, and finding this takes several times more practice on the LS, for reasons that have already been mentioned: the 2-D surface and the lack of tactile feedback.

I had an idea for improving the feedback. Not sure it could be made to work, but here it is: mount small magnets at the pad corners, all with the same pole facing up, and then make a set of magnetic rings for the fingers and thumb with that pole facing down. The magnets will repel each other, and I would think, make it possible to feel where the pads are without touching them.

Just a thought but maybe someone will like it enough to try prototyping it. (I don't have time at the moment.)

[Dirk Diggler]

I would be concerned with major EMF interference using magnets on the surface.

Wouldn't the magnets get in the way of sliding and playing?

So you want feedback without physically touching the playing surface? That's going to be a challenge.

Feeling the pad and spaces in between are what I use to feel where I am.

Interesting concept though, I applaud your out of the box thinking.
I think you'll have to be the one to make the time if you want to make it happen.

Good luck,
Dirk