New to Linnstrument, confused by chords & bassline

[rustyrazorblade]

Hello! I'm brand new to the Linnstrument. I was drawn to it after spending about 6 months trying to learn piano and finding myself struggling with all the different possible hand contortions I needed to learn to play chords.

One thing I'm trying to wrap my head around with the Linnstrument is how people play two handed, chords plus bassline. Looking at minor or major scales it looks like it's going to be easiest to play these chords with my left hand since the angle of the notes lines up so that it's a lot easier to play with my left than my right. I guess that would mean my right hand plays the bassline?

Is it reasonable to assume I shouldn't carry over any of the assumptions and conventions I picked up on the piano? Are there conventions or best practices I should be learning, or does everyone figure out what works best for them?

[FranklyFlawless]

I guess that would mean my right hand plays the bassline?

By your process of elimination, yes.

Is it reasonable to assume I shouldn't carry over any of the assumptions and conventions I picked up on the piano?

Potentially, although I still generally play seventh and/or extended chords with my left hand and melodies with my right hand at the moment.

Are there conventions or best practices I should be learning, or does everyone figure out what works best for them?

The latter. However, I make it a high priority to clip my fingernails before interacting with the LinnStrument.

[Rune_7s]

The Linnstrument is much more like a guitar in layout than a piano. I find if a bit strnage that you are looking at the the Linnstrument because the piano has you contorting your fingers too much. The chord shapes you play on the Linnstrument (and guitar) require quite a bit more contortionist than I have ever done on a keyboard.

That said, stretching to the same note on the Linnstrument is MUCH easier than stretching to the same note on piano, since there's so many note options on the Linnstrument and there's always one close enough to be comfortable. But when it comes to static chord shapes, keyboard is a lot easier, in my opinion. However, you have to learn a new shape for a large percentages of the chords on the piano, so transposing is a heck of a lot easier on the Linnstrument, so there's less mechanical motion that needs to be learned in order to be able to play equally well in every key. Doing that on keys takes significantly more time.

[rustyrazorblade]

I don't mind the shapes of chords on either (mostly), it's more about the sheer volume of trying to learn so many different ones.

One of the things I hadn't tried yet is using the split keyboard in order to play the bassline with my right hand while playing chords with my left. I set that up today and I think I like it so far.

[FranklyFlawless]

I don't mind the shapes of chords on either (mostly), it's more about the sheer volume of trying to learn so many different ones.

I dealt with those issues by writing chord shape documents specific to my preferred layout, choosing which voicings resonates with me the most, then incorporating them into my playing style. Usually the lowest note is the root note for simplicity, but due to ergonomics, the chords themselves are often inversions. The situation is more challenging now that I am slowly practicing with chords on my right hand as well.

One of the things I hadn't tried yet is using the split keyboard in order to play the bassline with my right hand while playing chords with my left.

I spent a lot of time trying to use the splits, but I encountered a lot of "edge" cases that limited my hand movements, among other issues, so after tons of back-and-forth experimentation, I went back to using the whole playing surface.

[Dirk Diggler]

Also remember one of the great advantages of an iso-morphic design, you learn a pattern, it works all over the Linnstrument. So actually it saves huge amount of time learning chords/modes and arpeggios.
For me splits are not in play. But if I'm playing 2 hands, my left is the bass, the right is the rest.
Good luck, take your time, you'll get where you need to be.

[Roger_Linn]

Great discussion. The piano’s pitch arrangement is certainly an excellent one, as proven by its popularity. But there have been many other interfaces, each compelling in its own way: Janko, harmonic table, accordion B and C, thummer, etc. I think there’s no pitch arrangement that excels in every category. Unfortunately, humans take a long time to learn a particular arrangement so picking one and sticking with it seems to produce the best results. I think that choice comes down to each person’s personal preference and musical values. LinnStrument’s pitch arrangement is my best guess at the optimum interface, but given the ubiquity of piano keyboard players, I’m certainly in the minority.

[FranklyFlawless]

Right, when I had the MicroMonsta 2, I learned that the 4ths String Layout (offset +5) was not a great fit for me, so I experimented with the various offsets and discovered the tritone layout (offset +6) aligned better with my understanding of music theory. The LinnStrument has plenty of customization potential to accomodate your needs as one becomes familiar with its various intricacies.

[John the Savage]

I don't mind the shapes of chords on either (mostly), it's more about the sheer volume of trying to learn so many different ones.

I often get asked, by aspiring musicians, how many scales and chords I know. It's an earnest question, to be sure, but it betrays a certain lack of perspective and understanding.

I also hear people refer to some scales and chords as "advanced"; however, in practice, there's no such thing.

Learning scales and chords is not about memorizing a thousand shapes, but rather it's about learning to see and ultimately understand the intervallic relationship between the notes of the chromatic scale, starting with the root (tonic).

All scales and chords are built (and named) by simply stacking these intervals. So, if you know what the intervals are called, what color each one brings to the sonic landscape, and how it relates (or not) to the parent key, then you're laughing.

You will start seeing shapes, of course, but they are arbitrary; especially on instruments like the guitar or LinnStrument, wherein every note appears in multiple instances across the playing surface.

The goal is to be able to see, identify, and play each note pair, in your tuning scheme of choice:

• root/tonic/perfect unison (P1)

• minor second (m2)

• major second (M2)

• minor third (m3)

• major third (M3)

• perfect fourth (P4)

• augmented fourth (A4 or +4) or diminished fifth (dim5, d5, or o5)

• perfect fifth (P5)

• minor sixth (m6)

• major sixth (M6)

• minor seventh (m7)

• major seventh (M7)

• perfect octave (P8)

And on the LinnStrument, at the outset, you only need to learn each of these intervals in a single position, in a single fingering, and you're good to go.

Want a major chord? In its most rudimentary form, you could just play the root plus the major third. For a basic triad, just add the fifth... Etc.

So, how many scales and chords do I know? Well... All of them.

Cheers!

P.S. chord extentions are just repeats of the same intervals, above the octave: i.e. a 9th is just a repeat of the 2nd, 11th the 4th, 13th the 6th, and so on.

[FranklyFlawless]

Sure, I still need to address compound intervals in my Finger Diagrams document, then republish it later, so thank you for the reminder.

[D3sertDog]

Yes. I had the same problem as you. How to play the Linnstrument with two hands. I wanted to be able to play blues songs and improvise without having to use jam tracks or join a band. In short I just wanted to play music and have some fun with it. To do that I realized I had to combine 3 core elements of songs: rhythm, harmony and melody. This would require two handed playing. Like you I looked to the piano for inspiration, but I realized that to play just beginning piano blues music would require all sorts of hand contortions. So eventually I hit on fingerstyle guitar as my source of ideas. My left hand would be the right thumb of the fingerstyle guitar technique. It would be the basic rhythm and harmony. My right hand would be the right fingers of the fingersytle guitar technique. It would be responsible for playing the melody. The first song I translated to the Linnstrument tuning is “Baby Please Don’t Go,” from
https://acousticfingerpicking.com/archives/42
This uses a steady bass backing that is as basic as it gets. There is a ton of material on fingerstyle guitar using steady bass, to alternating bass to walking bass lines. Genres run from blues to jazz to rock and pop. I don’t think I’ll ever run out of material!

Another guitar technique I experimented with is chord melody. I might eventually go back to this, but the fingerstyle approach was more in tune with blues music I’m interested in. Jeff Moen has a course on chord melody playing for the Linnstrument that I’m tempted to check out:
http://www.jeffmoen.com