Piano Keyboard

Who knows a Keyboard driver that operates via the Midi input port and can be used as a conventional OS-wide KB-replacement?

Motivation:

as a product that evolved over some hundred years, it's more comfortable and ergonomic than a conventional QWERTY PC keyboard.
all you need is software, there are lots of low cost touchsensitive MIDI Kbs for use with PC
it is touch- and timesensitive for faster input alternatives (emphasized "a" becomes "A", not to mention more sophisticated options)
it is a handy mouse replacement for navigation (with relative position, touch and aftertouch)
it allows chords as names for macros
writing text trains your pianistic capabilities and vice versa (especially if it is user-programmable)
less mess on your desktop, when you can reduce two kbs to one.
it has a better accoustic feedback (helpful not only for the blind)
more fun, making your work more playful and social
another nice tool for PairProgramming (e.g. with the kb-split option or even without it)
it is an innovation with potential (here in Germany alone, there are five million piano/organ players.)
it is a good starting point for a special purpose Wiki community.

Disadvantages:

writing programs in which identifiers use no letter after G is really hard.

Joke aside; of course you are free to associate the whole ASCII-alphabet (and more) to arbitrary keys and chord key-combinations. For initial lazy people of course, it comes handy to step up from the subset of one octave {A-H,S} onwards.. ;-) -- fp [Don't know about you, but my definition of an octave is {ABCDEFGA}, no H, no S :o) - A classically-trained AnonymousCoward]

In the German musical notation system we have indeed an "H", that corresponds to the American "B" , wheras the German "B" corresponds to the American "B flat". German "S"="ES"= American "E flat". -- FridemarPache

From ErgonomicKeyboard

-- FridemarPache

Interesting idea. I have to disagree with the ergonomics. Pianos have not been designed with 20th century ergonomics in mind. My ergonomic MS Natural Keyboard follows the natural position of my hands coming straight off my arm. Traditional computer keyboards and piano keyboards both require me to bend my hands 'outward' at the wrist to line up perpendicular to the board. IMO, as a jazz pianist, the piano is harder on my hands/wrists than even a traditional keyboard.

The rest of the ideas get an A+ for creativity ...

-- ChrisMorris

Chris, yes I know the problem. I use an ergonomic Lexmark Kb for PC oriented work and I play some hours per day on a Technics KN5000 (DataMusic oriented Jazz). I used the Lexmark a bit different than the manufacturer provided it. I took the two parts A,B apart by such a distance, that each arm can comfortably rest on an armrest. Of course I needed having tinkered a special cable for that. The mouse M is positioned in the gap between A and B.

     A         B     
   |---|     |---|
    \|/       \|/
     |    M    | 
     |         |
  left-arm   right-arm          (Hey, I'm not a Robot or an Alien, it's a simplification :-)

I'm considering now to buy two touch sensible mini Midi-Kbs, that can be positioned in a comfortable 3D angle. Anybody, who knows an appropriate vendor?

-- Fridemar

Pianists are very much at risk for RSI, and have to be trained to avoid it.