Your approach to transposing?

[Fannon]

Hello fellow LinnStrumentalists,

I'm just getting started with my LinnStrument. One thing I immediately liked was jamming and improvising to random music on an online radio station. This is supported very well by the LinnStrument, once you know the scale and set the grid accordingly. But when you do that, a few questions come up and I'm really not sure what the best short-term or long-term approach is.

How do you handle playing other scales? Do you 1) keep the light pattern on C-Major and treat it like a piano keyboard where the layout is always fixed and you use it as a guide which notes you are playing? Or 2) you you transpose the pitch, so that the Accent note adjusts to the scale root note (and maybe even change the scale mode itself?). Or 3) Do you adjust pitch and light transpose at the same time (then notes stay physically where they are, but the light grid moves to where the new scale is)? Or any approach I missed?

Here's my little experience so far: first, I only used pitch transpose, but that unfortunately also moves the note location, so to me it made more sense for me to go with 3) instead. I've written up what negative or positive transposition steps lead to with Major and Minor scales and put it below the grid. For now, this helps me knowing where to play. I can imagine that with more experience with the layout, I wouldn't need to transpose anymore and just play over the default note layout (Approach 1). I've noticed that a custom light pattern does not transpose anyway and maybe I'd want to use this in the future.

Regarding how to find the scale if you don't know it - that might be another thread. But this seems really easy on the LinnStrument once you know your note scale pattern.

And one idea / feature suggestion: I really like how to change scales on the Launchpad, and I think with the LinnStrument you could do this even better: It displays an octave of piano keys and you can pick the root note there directly (also automatically updating the transpose settings). It would be nice if that piano would indicate accent note, scale notes and which notes are not part of the scale. In addition it would be nice to also be able to pick the scale itself (that is currently on global settings > Scale select). This would make it much quicker and easier to switch scales and also understand how the transposition leads to a different scale. In case this is interesting, I could sketch the idea out.

[Dirk Diggler]

Because Linnstrument is an Isomorphic instrument, learn your patterns and transpose them anywhere you like. I leave mine with the standard lighting, I don't expect or want it to tell me where the notes I want to play are.

The auto key lighting thing has been discussed many times, and really requires too much effort for no reward.

And one last thing, diatonic scale notes have their uses, but to me the real magic to this layout is working with the "wrong" notes with expression, and is much more interesting.

Good luck,
Dirk

[Fannon]

Thanks for the reply! I can imagine that this is what most experienced players do. I'll try to go that way sooner than later as well then. You mentioned going with "wrong" notes - if you stick only to highlighted notes, you'll limit yourself quite a lot there.

Btw. I didn't suggest that we should have an auto-key highlighting. The LinnStrument can very well highlight the right scale for you if you use the existing transpose functionality (and for some exotic scales, in addition, the scales select).

[zachaudioguy]

I think this is a question that will get you a unique answer from every musician. Make sure that whatever style you choose works for you and your goals, there's a context behind everyone's recommendation.

I also jam along to the radio/youtube. My mind works best in relative terms, so I will often adjust my pitch so that my root note is in the key of the song. If I look up chord charts, I always convert them to the roman numeral equivalent (e.g. V vi bVII IV). Then it's just the same patterns. Sometimes I adjust octave based on the instrument I'm using to make the pitches more ergonomically accessible.

I don't ever adjust my visuals, I've had mine displaying major pentatonic for some time.

Context is everything though, I'm sitting at home jamming and making some recordings.

Someone else might recommend treating the pitch as fixed like a guitar. But their context might be as a touring musician that doesn't want to change settings between every song in a set OR a 30-year jazz guitarist that wants to recycle the fretboard they already know.

[LarsDaniel]

My best advice would be to ditch transposing the light ASAP. Which will help you learn to “see” the note patterns faster than you thought you would. By “see” I mean visualise the graphic clusters of notes that are scale you are playing, disregarding what notes are lit.
Remember, once your finger have learnt a pattern, your fingers have automaticly learnt it in all 12 keys. Your finger does not need to know “is this pad lit or not?”, it just needs to know where it is in relation to the pattern.

[Roger_Linn]

Hi Fannon,

Thank you for your post. There have been some interesting discussions on the forum about similar topics. I see these as discussions about how and where to place the fuzzy line between human playing skill and computer assistance. You mentioned a good example of this: the small “transpose” keyboard on your Launchpad.

I feel that LinnStrument’s scale lights are helpful, just as a piano key’s white keys are, in allowing you to not only play a major scale, but also relative minor, seventh and other scale modes merely by starting on a different note of the major scale. But the problem arises when you need to modulate keys.

My attempt at a solution for this problem is a new planned feature: a new “Transpose” option for the Low Row, performing the same function as “Transpose Pitch” in the Octave/Transpose screen but doing it instantly during play by touching a pad in the Low Row. With no transposition, a single lit pad in the center would appear in the Low Row. Touching any other pad in the Low Row would instantly transpose up or down, lighting the touched pad and all other pads between it and the center pad.

This way, you can instantly transpose in mid-song, but it also allows you to change musical mode as well as transposition. For example, let’s say you wish to change from C major to C minor. You would transpose up by 3 semitones—to light the Eb major scale— then play in the relative minor of the Eb major scale, which is C minor.

I see this is a good compromise between computer assistance and developing human skill. It allows you to have the assistance of the scale lights when modulating, but still requires you to develop a little human skill in learning about musical modes.

[John the Savage]

For example, let’s say you wish to change from C major to C minor. You would transpose up by 3 semitones—to light the Eb major scale— then play in the relative minor of the Eb major scale, which is C minor.

It seems to me that by the time someone comes to understand the concept of modes and why that even works, they would no longer need the transpose function. Any one pattern of lights should be more than enough to go on. Like the white keys on a piano or the fret markers on a guitar, they only stand as reference points. The rest falls on the player.

Learn. Practice. Play.

The paint-by-numbers approach will only hold you back in the long run.

Cheers!

[DarkenedMonastery]

I've found it helpful to turn off most of the lights, having C major lit up was distracting when playing in other keys. I've settled on just lighting C and A as a nice compromise

[Fannon]

Thanks for all the helpful answers and insights!

You did convince me that I better not learn to use the transpose feature for guidance to much. But I do see the dilemma here - Roger put it very well: How to balance computer assistance and human skill? If you rely too much on computer assistance, it might limit deeper understanding and freedom to go beyond the "rules" / structures of modes. On the other hand, some things that seems to be human skill might just be unnecessary complications we just got used to because we had to learn it (and now everyone else should have to do so, too!).

I also know how to work with a fixed layout as I'm also playing guitar and a little bit of keyboard. But having the ability to change the visual layout brings up the question on whether and how to use it.

My attempt at a solution for this problem is a new planned feature: a new “Transpose” option for the Low Row, performing the same function as “Transpose Pitch” in the Octave/Transpose screen but doing it instantly during play by touching a pad in the Low Row. With no transposition, a single lit pad in the center would appear in the Low Row. Touching any other pad in the Low Row would instantly transpose up or down, lighting the touched pad and all other pads between it and the center pad.

This way, you can instantly transpose in mid-song, but it also allows you to change musical mode as well as transposition. For example, let’s say you wish to change from C major to C minor. You would transpose up by 3 semitones—to light the Eb major scale— then play in the relative minor of the Eb major scale, which is C minor.

I see this is a good compromise between computer assistance and developing human skill. It allows you to have the assistance of the scale lights when modulating, but still requires you to develop a little human skill in learning about musical modes.

This sounds like a really interesting feature and is essentially what I was doing via the Octave/Transpose button. However, I was a bit surprised that the transpose lights feature not only moves the light but also transposes the pitch. For me personally, it felt a better compromise to not change the pitch of the notes behind the pads, but only move the light pattern. Then you can at least still get used to where a particular note is physically located on the LinnStrument and only the lights move with the scale. But this is also easy, just always set transpose pitch and transpose lights together to the same setting.

But I can see that this is very subjective. Would it be possible to choose between those two or three approaches?

[Roger_Linn]

Thanks for all the helpful answers and insights!

You did convince me that I better not learn to use the transpose feature for guidance to much. But I do see the dilemma here - Roger put it very well: How to balance computer assistance and human skill? If you rely too much on computer assistance, it might limit deeper understanding and freedom to go beyond the "rules" / structures of modes. On the other hand, some things that seems to be human skill might just be unnecessary complications we just got used to because we had to learn it (and now everyone else should have to do so, too!).

I also know how to work with a fixed layout as I'm also playing guitar and a little bit of keyboard. But having the ability to change the visual layout brings up the question on whether and how to use it.

My attempt at a solution for this problem is a new planned feature: a new “Transpose” option for the Low Row, performing the same function as “Transpose Pitch” in the Octave/Transpose screen but doing it instantly during play by touching a pad in the Low Row. With no transposition, a single lit pad in the center would appear in the Low Row. Touching any other pad in the Low Row would instantly transpose up or down, lighting the touched pad and all other pads between it and the center pad.

This way, you can instantly transpose in mid-song, but it also allows you to change musical mode as well as transposition. For example, let’s say you wish to change from C major to C minor. You would transpose up by 3 semitones—to light the Eb major scale— then play in the relative minor of the Eb major scale, which is C minor.

I see this is a good compromise between computer assistance and developing human skill. It allows you to have the assistance of the scale lights when modulating, but still requires you to develop a little human skill in learning about musical modes.

This sounds like a really interesting feature and is essentially what I was doing via the Octave/Transpose button. However, I was a bit surprised that the transpose lights feature not only moves the light but also transposes the pitch. For me personally, it felt a better compromise to not change the pitch of the notes behind the pads, but only move the light pattern. Then you can at least still get used to where a particular note is physically located on the LinnStrument and only the lights move with the scale. But this is also easy, just always set transpose pitch and transpose lights together to the same setting.

But I can see that this is very subjective. Would it be possible to choose between those two or three approaches?

Hi Fannon,

This is an interesting topic. As you can well understand, LinnStrument's flexibility often inspires people to want every personally desired feature, which I don't have the resources to do and which isn't practical with LinnStrument's lack of an alphanumeric display or complex UI. If you'd like to see my guiding principal for adding features, see the LinnStrument FAQ page, "General" tab, FAQ: "Can you add this feature?". The good news is that with the extensive MIDI implementation, User Firmware mode, and open source code, anyone can add their desired features to LinnStrument.

Regarding your preference for LinnStrument's Transpose Lights feature to not change pitch, the intent for the Transpose Lights feature is to allow someone to shift the pitches and lights left or right, for example if someone has a preference to place "C" in the lower left corner. For this need, it would seem to make sense that if you play a "C", you hear a "C", and to not need to print "Tranpose Lights and Pitches" on the panel. But if you prefer to move the light positions while also hearing a different pitch than the lights indicate, you need only to set the Transpose Pitch feature to compensate for the pitch change in your Transpose Lights setting.

Or if you're a coder, it shouldn't be difficult to change the function of Transpose Lights to fit your preference.

[Fannon]

Hello Roger,

no I totally understand your position on it and have no expectation that you would go right after some personal preferences of one person That would end up in a very cluttered and inconsistent experience after a short time of chasing such ideas. Just wanted to throw in my first experiences and thoughts. After all, I'm now anyway not sure how much I would like to rely on the transpose feature anyway.

But yes, I'm a coder. Getting into the Arduino ecosystem however doesn't look trivial and right now I'm rather happy with what possibilities and flexibility the Firmware already provides! As a software developer, I can appreciate it really that here not only the hardware was done well but also the software!

Edit: Now that I think of it, maybe I also assumed that changing lights should not change the fixed positioning because of the "bumps" on the pads which indicate a physical location of a note and therefore cannot be moved. But I understand the feature as you implemented and the rationale behind it.

[Roger_Linn]

Hi Fannon,

The Arduino system is actually very simple, intended for hobbyists. It's essentially C code with a big library of useful functions. All you need to do it download the free IDE, select "Arduino Due" as the hardware, download my source code, edit it, then click the "Compile and upload" button. It's all explained on the Source Code page, accessed from the LinnStrument Support page. As a software dev, I'm sure it would be easy for you.

Regarding the Braille bumps, they're so small that unless you're looking for them, it's easy to not notice them by touch. So it doesn't impede playing if you're not using the default tuning and transposition.

[BobDog]

It seems to me that by the time someone comes to understand the concept of modes and why that even works, they would no longer need the transpose function. Any one pattern of lights should be more than enough to go on. Like the white keys on a piano or the fret markers on a guitar, they only stand as reference points. The rest falls on the player.

Learn. Practice. Play.

The paint-by-numbers approach will only hold you back in the long run.

Cheers!

I just play in C major or A minor, problem solved.

[John the Savage]

'C' is the people's key...

Cheers!

[John the Savage]

How to balance computer assistance and human skill?

Let's be real for second...

We're not talking about flying a fighter jet, or navigating deep space; we're talking about harmonizing the major scale. To put that in perspective, by the time you learn "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star", you're more than halfway there.

Now, does that make you Herbie Hancock? No.

However, no matter which school of thought you choose to base your studies on (from classical notation to the Nashville Number System), everything in music is relative to a root position. So, the sooner you pick a reference point, and learn to orbit around that; the sooner you'll be on your way, and the better off you'll be.

I say this to encourage people; not to deter them. It's amazing how much energy some people are willing to spend, in an effort to avoid simply learning something, no matter how basic. This new age of alternative controllers seems to have exacerbated that, by creating the illusion that if one could just pick the "right" layout, colours, and push-button shortcuts, they might somehow sidestep the work. But all roads, as they say, lead to Rome.

Don't get me wrong, being able to customize a musical interface to your liking is a godsend. But transposing the visual cues, every time you want to change scales or keys, is inefficient; never mind a dependency that will ultimately impede your progress as a player.

Ambition bites the nails of success.

Cheers!