LinnStrument: Playing without looking at hands (Sightreading)

[wldmr]

First time poster. I've had LinnStrument for about two months now, and I'm really enjoying it! It's like a perfect blend of a piano (which I've always wanted to play ) and a guitar (which I've never managed to play very well ).

I'm currently going through a Piano course to learn it (Faber's Adult Piano Adventures), because that's what seems most exciting to me: two-handed polyphonic play. Where I'd like to end up (someday …) is to sight read/play. Now from watching some videos, I'm not entirely sure how widespread that is yet (most videos don't seem to show the player's head).

So I'm interested: Have you managed to play longer, intricate passages without looking at your hands? I'm about a third into the first Faber book, and currently I can get by OK playing those very simple short pieces without staring down. But I fear the more complex the pieces get, the more the rather uniform tactile feedback of the surface could lead to “loss of alignment” when repositioning.

So how about we collect some inspiring success stories and tips? Or else (perhaps it's too early in LinnStrument's life) maybe we can start by collecting common problems und start figuring out a learning path to a polyphonic playing technique.

[mijiti]

Single data point... I just tried to play one of the first 2-handed pieces I learned (an ABRSM grade 1 piano piece, so nothing vastly challenging , which I still play once most days to "keep it in my fingers". I could play it about 85% right without looking down... (I am a woodwind player since childhood, not a pianist, so I still find 2-handed playing really hard

[Roger_Linn]

It's an interesting question. I'd say piano is easier to find the notes by touch because it's easy to feel the 2- and 3-key groups of black keys. But LinnStrument's 4th string layout has the advantage of isomorphism, multiple instances of each pitch, pitch slides and 3D expression. Guitar has strummng, and winds have continuous breath expression independent of note selection. Ultimately each interface has pros and cons, and the instruments of the orchestra of the future may be differentiated more by interface advantages than sound. LinnStrument's Fourths String Layout is my best guess for an all-around most useful music interface, but only time will judge me right or wrong.

FYI, my solution for reducing visual dependence is the tactile Braille bumps on all "C" note pads, but in videos I'm not yet seeing much evidence of its effectiveness.

[John the Savage]

For what it's worth, I rarely look at my LinnStrument while playing anymore. In fact, after a couple years of playing with only the 'E' notes lit (which, as a guitarist, was the closest I could get to "fret markers"), I finally endeavored to just turned all of the lights off (about a year ago now). I found them distracting and somewhat blinding onstage in the dark, and realized that I was growing less-and-less dependent on them anyway.

Typically, most accomplished instrumentalist, regardless of what instrument they play, don't really need to look at their instrument while performing; but that's not to say they never look or otherwise play without any reference points whatsoever. It's different, of course, from one instrument to the next, but we all depend on various cues to know where we are; and that includes sneaking a peak, even if it's just keeping the instrument in your peripheral vision (with the exception of the legitimately blind of course, who tend to find other clever ways to orient themselves; hence why the LinnStrument has Braille dots for starters).

In the end, it comes down to a number of techniques: i.e. how you hold it; where you sit; where you anker your hands, wrists, or forearms; learning to triangulate your position using quick visual cues, be it from the lights or (as in my case) simply the markings on the LinnStrument itself, etc.

Anyway, the answer to your question is — yes, it is absolutely possible to play the LinnStrument like any other instrument: that is to say, without looking at it... Much.

The real trick is to simply stop looking at it. Seriously, like learning to swim or ride a bike, at some point you just have to knock the training wheels off and dive in, sink or swim… You’ll adapt, I promise you, and probably faster than you might think; you’d be surprised.

Cheers!

[wldmr]

Funny, right after hitting submit on the original post, I heard this voice in my head that said, "dude, you're jumping the gun, it'll be fine". I guess I'm just paranoid about picking up bad habits that'll be hard to undo later.

mijity, 85 percent while not having practiced the piece very much does sound encouraging. Then again, in software development there's the old aphorism "The first 90 percent take 90 percent of the time. The remaining 10 percent take the other 90 percent of the time".

Roger, the bumps are probably the best tool to achieve more tactility (you've obviously thought about this), but only for pieces that actually contain that note frequently enough. I've decided that I don't want to retune/transpose the pads based on the piece I'm playing, so for some pieces: no bumps. I feel the surface would need quite a few more of them to give reliable enough feedback. Again, I may be overthinking this, but how feasable would it be to make custom rubber sheets with more bumps? (I'm obviously not asking you to start offering custom sheets. But I was thinking that maybe I could have a custom sheet made by a reasonably local manufacturer. Because I'm stupid with money that way. )

John, funny that you should mention turning off the lights; I've been tempted to do that myself, but couldn't quite bring myself there just yet. I still need that crutch. Also, while I do force myself to not look down I bump into the next problem: I can't tell the exact size of the interval just based on the notation. Diatonic music notation doesn't distinguish between major and minor intervals, so I have to make an additional translation step between notes and fingers. I know, I know, so does every other instrumentalist. I'll get over it. But you better believe I keep telling myself that chromatic notation systems would solve everything.

Anyway, thanks for the viewpoints. I'll keep my eyes peeled for more evidence of people playing “blind” and keep tabs on my own progress. I'm pumped!

[Roger_Linn]

Hi wldmr,

The reason I put the bumps only on the "C" note pads is that in my tests, more bumps meant players didn't know if a bump is a C bump or other note’s bump, so one bump per octave seems most effective.

And for those who don't wish to use the bumps--or play in a different row tuning or transposition--they are small enough to be ignored, and small enough to not impede pitch slides. They are actually regulation Braille-size bumps, which seems to have worked out well for blind people.

Some LinnStrument players have attached tactile bumps above and below specific rows in order to help find desired notes quickly. I guess we're all figuring this out together, but I honestly believe that the Fourths String Layout is a very good, possibly the best, new note interface for the post-acoustic era. And Ableton, Roli, GeoShred and some others seem to feel the same say.

[Fleeesch]

You could attach thin sheets of electrical tape or office tape to the silicone surface, in my experience they won't budge if do a good job applying them. It's also only temporary, so no need to worry if things won't work out for you. Might not be the ultimate solution, but it definitely helps (I even do this with qwerty keyboards when there is no division between the function keys or the layout is just awkward).

I'm using the +6 semitones tuning on my Linnstrument, with only every 'C' highlighted. But I have to say that this choice was more out of necessity since I'm somewhat sensible to light, especially anything artificial that involves PWM.

Took me a while to get used to it, but after 1-2 months of jamming I got the hang of it. As John the Savage mentoined, adaptation is kinda the key. I play a 'new' chord or scale, like what I'm hearing, play around it and see if I can somehow find other fingerings and the next day I realize some of the stuff has been stored straight into muscle memory.

[John the Savage]

Diatonic music notation doesn't distinguish between major and minor intervals, so I have to make an additional translation step between notes and fingers. I know, I know, so does every other instrumentalist. I'll get over it. But you better believe I keep telling myself that chromatic notation systems would solve everything.

Sounds like you're destined to be an improv player. Ditch that clumsy classical notation, start thinking in numbers, and work on your ear... Problem solved.

Cheers!

[Reckon104]

Thought I'd throw my two cents in, for what they're worth.

I actually find this general issue to be one of the bigger challenges with the Linnstrument, in particular when playing two-handed "piano style". I never site read when playing the linnstrument (being self taught to begin with, I didn't learn how to read music at all for years after I began playing piano as a teenager), so I can't speak to that issue specifically.

Compared to the piano, there are several challenges. Firstly, there's less forgiveness in terms of landing just off the mark (i.e, piano keys are simply larger than linnstrument pads). Secondly, as Roger indicates above, you can't feel where you are as easily (i.e., no black keys). Third, similar to guitar, on the linnstrument you are dealing with vertical as well as hortizontal placement of the fingers, as opposed to mostly only horizontal differences with the piano (although granted, there can be subtle vertical adjustments due to black keys, but they are negligible). Fourth, your fingers can look as though you have some kind of severe arthritic condition due to how physically tight some chords can be to play and this can simply feel awkward.

When I am playing two handed style, and doing at least moderately complex voicings in my left hand, I believe it is that second dimension to account for that is the most challenging for me. It's almost like a third thing to have to remember or internally visualize when you are also playing a melody, as opposed to two things on piano, if that makes sense.

For all these reasons, I have certainly notice that I tend to look down more at my hands when playing the Linnstrument. This really became clear to me when I watched the videos that Roger has on his channel of Jeremy and I playing. Nether of us really looked up or around once when we were playing.

I have worked on this issue specifically by closing my eyes for stretches of time when I play after I have some familiarity with basic chords or patterns I will be using on a given jam, . This has helped considerably. I still have to look if I am playing two handed style comping and I want to improvise with the chords I'm using. I find I have to "look", say if I want to flat a ninth or add some other extension on the fly, much more than I would on piano where it's easier still for me to do that by "feel". With the linnstrument I still find myself a little locked into specific chords shapes that are in my muscle memory, which is one of the reasons I gravitate to playing stacked fourths and fifths because you can move them around on the fly quite easily.

All of these concerns of course, are essentially non-issues when it comes to primarily one-handed, or even two-handed, melodic playing.

That all being said, I agree with Roger above, that taking everything into consideration, the Linnstrument's layout is probably the happiest medium, even for two-handed piano style playing. And not just for the advantages of the isomorphic layout, which are considerable. Once you get familiar with it, the economy of motion that it affords is incredible. When the pandemic hit, I found that I was almost exclusively playing guitar, because with a small child at home my physical presence was almost always needed. But as I've gotten a bit more time with the linnstrument recently I have been experimenting with playing five finger style, which has really transformed my playing. This is particularly the case horizontally, but also vertically. It takes a bit of getting used to, but once you do I find it to be very natural and easy and very advantageous in a number of ways.

Anyway, when all is said and done, I bet you find the time you put into the linnstrument to be extremely rewarding, even though it has its own unique challenges, like every other serious instrument.

[wldmr]

Lemme be clear, I have no beef with the note layout. Like, at all. It is in fact the reason I prefer LinnStrument over any of the other expressive MIDI devices. I've drooled over the Haaken Continuum, Soundplane, all the ROLI Squishboards, …, but none seemed as exciting in terms of breadth of usage. The LinnStrument is the only one that isn't simply a “Piano++”.

Which is probably why this thread is a bit off the mark. Like posting “having trouble playing chords” on a trombone forum. It is fully my intention to play to the obvious strengths of LinnStrument first and foremost. Let's consider this some “side exploration”.

Recon104, the challenges re: verticality are the same on the guitar. But that's also their great strength: You can readjust the fingering so it fits your hand (and your feeling of the piece) better. I actually find great joy in figuring out fingerings for specific lines and chords; it often turns out that there is sweet spot where I have to only minimally readjust my hand positions while playing, and it then feels quite natural to skip vertically. The same holds for many chord shapes (I've turned on the „same note“ highligths, which both looks nice and can suggest alternate fingerings).

BTW, what do you mean by “five finger style”?

John, I definitely find more joy and flow in noodl—cough, improvising. When I'm tired of rote learning piano music, I often find myself following the Youtube channel, which I find very inspiring (and relaxing).

Roger & Fleeesch (are you German, by the way?), you both mention attaching things to the Linnstrument. I guess you don't mean on the pads themselves? More around them, or on the metal surface, right? I might consider that, see how it feels. Do you happen to have any sources/pictures? I'm not super keen on possibly borking my shiny new kit on a hunch .

[Roger_Linn]

Hi wldmr,

I meant that some LinnStrumentalists have attached small pieces of tape or removable adhesive dots to specific locations on the metal panel. It would be difficult to get anything to stick to the polyurethane coating of the playing surface. However, if you did choose to experiment with, for example, more bumps by adding drops of super glue with a toothpick (a wild guess that probably wouldnt work) and then don’t like it, you can buy a replacement touch surface for only $60 from my online store.

[John the Savage]

Which is probably why this thread is a bit off the mark. Like posting “having trouble playing chords” on a trombone forum. It is fully my intention to play to the obvious strengths of LinnStrument first and foremost.

[...]

John, I definitely find more joy and flow in noodl—cough, improvising.

I think these two statements demonstrate that you've got the right perspective anyway.

Indeed, the LinnStrument is a LinnStrument — not a piano, guitar, violin, trombone, or what have you — and not to be compared. That said, to be fair, as a new instrument with no real precedent set for playing it, such comparisons are inevitable at first, and probably necessary; ultimately, however, such comparisons must be abandoned going forward, if a proper methodology is ever to be developed.

To that end, my guess as to why improvising on the LinnStrument feels more natural or fluid, is because you're not otherwise burdening yourself with notes written for other instruments; and instead, as you stated above, simply playing to the LinnStrument's strengths. A well-designed instrument will inform its own method.

As a guitar player myself, for instance, while I do use the guitar tuning scheme, I don't get hung-up on guitar techniques that don't translate well to the LinnStrument.

It also doesn't help that people tend to use the LinnStrument to play modelled sounds of other instruments. I mean, how could that not lead to frustration and disillusionment?

Cheers!

[Reckon104]

I tend to take a both/and approach to the linnstrument (in every way), understanding that comparisons of the relative merits of instruments have been made in every historical era, for both enlightening and silly reasons. Totally appropriate to do so, as is playing to the many and varied unique strengths that the linnstrument alone has. I for one don't think there is every going to be one "proper methodology" developed, just as there are many different methodologies for instruments that have been around hundreds of years. I think, if the linnstrument or something similar becomes widely used, there will be many different legitimate approaches to it, even more so that traditional instruments. And that is a great strength of the design. I don't think it yields to myopic artistic ideologies...thank God!

[John the Savage]

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!

[Fleeesch]

Roger & Fleeesch (are you German, by the way?), you both mention attaching things to the Linnstrument. I guess you don't mean on the pads themselves? More around them, or on the metal surface, right? I might consider that, see how it feels. Do you happen to have any sources/pictures? I'm not super keen on possibly borking my shiny new kit on a hunch .

How'd you know, my English that awkward?

All the MIDI controllers I own have rather rough silicone surfaces, so whenever I need to mark something (for gigs with changing mappings, etc.) I tend to put some tape onto them that has no gorilla glue capabilities. Electricians tape, masking tape, mixing console marking tape, etc. Some decent pressure and clean cuts (no rolling edges) tend to make a lot of tapes stick very well, while still being easily removable. Just don't get near the silicone with sharp objects, use soft-edge utensils.

I don't know if the glue layer of most tapes is capable of degrading the silicone over time through some kind of chemical reaction. Happens with some synthetic rubber flooring in apartments, apparently some microphone stands with soft feet have the tendency to cause discoloration of rubber floors. Probably just cosmetic issues, but I'm also a sucker when it comes to chemistry. If you can afford it you should order a replacement silicone sheet and use the old one for experimentation.