First, a bit of background
I'm a retired "computer systems analyst": I analyzed old computer systems and tried to improve them.
Musical instruments, learning them, and all associated processes are, to me, a system. I chanced across a proposed musical instrument that has many good features and built some. But construction is, in my experience, less than half what's needed. All systems, musical or computer, need a way to operate them and a way to learn to use them. Since no-one else has volunteered, I'm figuring out what I can about this new musical system and hope to help you learn it, should you want to.
I'm not, by any stretch of the imagination, a musician. Instead, I am a geeky nerd with a combination of mild Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and a middling - but unexceptional knowledge of the science behind music. I do sing with three choruses and take a part-time college music program, so I'm not wholly non-musical.
I fell in love with instruments that didn't actually exist
A decade ago I was smitten by the concept of the "Thummer", a prototype alternative music keyboard that, alas, never got off the ground. That didn't stop me (note the term "mild Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder" above). With the support of a small online community, I started building these keyboards myself, refining the design into the "jammer keyboard", Then a miracle: we found the Axis-49, a newly-introduced keyboard convertible into good jammers.
The real fun begins
Once built (I built 5, others built some as well), the jammers had to be played. That's when inflated expectations and great hopes met poor ability.
These good-enough instruments reveal the limitations of this wannabe musician. Although I passed Music Theory both at Simon Fraser University and Douglas College, my musical ear is not very good. My hand coordination on keyboards is mediocre-to-lousy. Worse, my sense of rhythm is somewhere in Mexico, sipping margaritas with Jimmy Buffet. With these limitations, I cannot demonstrate directly the jammer.
Somebody has to do it
But, I can tell you what I've found in a "systems analysis" kind of way. I hope that you will find these following articles interesting and useful.
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The next article: Jammer vs Piano - part 3: Methodology: comparing apples and oranges? [under development]
Next: Jammer vs Piano - part 4 - Piano Lessons
Back: Jammer vs Piano - part 1B: What is a Jammer; highlights & discoveries
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