I wish to develop a new digital musical instrument.
This music input device sits on the palms of your hands controlled by your fingers. You can use it to play live music or control a musical sequence. The Handisks work together with a tablet or an iPod.
=== Midi Circles: The Tablet Interface ===
You
control the music with your fingers and can watch the results on your iPad or tablet app called MidiCircle which has two circles side by side.
Each circle is controlled by your fingers playing on the palm of the other hand. I'll explain that in detail soon.
The circular interface in the MidiCircle app:
There are two types of circles: 1. Chord and Melody Circle, 2. Rhythm and Sequence Circle
By default, the left circle is the chords and tune circle.
It is a clockface with each "hour" representing a note.
The top note, at hour 12, is Re (Middle D). 11 and 1 o'clock are black keys. 10 is Do (middle C) and 2 is Mi (Middle E).
Chords are marked with a triangle going through the three main notes. A minor note has the right angle accented (perhaps blue to show it's sad) and a major has the angle in orange or green to show it is happy).
If there are extra notes in the chord (like in a diminished or seven chord) they are marked with an extra line from the closest note.
The chosen chord names or note names are written in the middle of the circle.
Alongside the chord-name, or note's names, there is a number to the left and to the right, with the distance in tones from the last chord or note, and to the next chord or note.
If we are running a known sequence, it knows the next chord in advance. In live mode, it will try to predict. You can supply information like the scale or chord progression, but after a few notes or chords it will catch on.
The second circle is for the rhythm. It is divided into 12 or 16 depending on the rhythm. Creating a circular piano roll.
You can tap the middle to set the tempo, and you can tap on "buttons" in the inner circle to get different percussion sounds.
You can also sing in to record the beat.
The beat is shown by the symbol of the type of drum and separate color in the "circular piano roll".
Under the rhythm circle you can have four small basic beat circles, and several fills to chose from with several endings.
The rhythm circle can work in percussion mode, guitar strumming, piano arpegiating, or general chord style playing. All with a similar concept.
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The input disks:
Till here we've only been describing the interface on your iPad or tablet. Now we come to the music input and control:
This new digital instrument is made of two thin flat elastic disks that sit in the palm of your hands.
They are held in place either by stickers or by a belt that surrounds the palm of your hand or maybe with rings on your fingers
One octave is set on the circular clockface of each disk corresponding to the circular interface on the tablet. So, for example, Re (D) is set at hour 12 with two black keys on both sides.
In order to play the next octave you play closer to the center.
You can add or remove octaves in the tablet application. By default, there are three octaves, one below the central octave (further out on the circle) and one above (closer to the center).
There is a different texture and feel to white and black "keys" so that by rubbing the disk you feel where the keys are without the need to look. Each key is like a guitar string's width, extending from the center to the circumference, so you can "bend" the tone, do legato and vibrato, and play by the feel of your finger like you would strumming a guitar, or playing notes on a piano.
Each disk is played with 4 fingers. The two hands are held opposite each other (That can be done comfortably, no need to stretch the hands or exert an effort in any way, simply by touching the palm of each hand with the fingers from the opposite one.
You can feel where your fingers are, and also see the music on your tablet (or iPad).
In chord mode, you set the chords with your fingers. There are single finger, two-finger, and three-finger modes.
In melody mode, you control the melody. You could have both hands playing the melody, both hands playing the chords, or both hands playing the rhythm and sequence, or you could have one hand playing this, and the other playing the other.
In advanced mode, you can mix the types of circles and control. For example the rhythm fill-in and main pattern (A B or C) under the main circle which could be chord or melody circles, and not necessarily the rhythm circle.