Anyway To Reverse A Digital Piano For Left Hand?

[nitekattz2007]

Has anyone ever heard of a piano, acoustic or digital that is reverse of the original design after centuries of development? In other words, the high C would be on the left and the bass on the right, like a left handed guitar Jimi Hendrix played or left handed golf clubs

 

Sounds bizarre doesn't it, but if there is a way to "reverse" a piano keyboard, I would like to try it out for experimental purposes. Is there ever been such a thing as an actual piano developed for left handers. I watched Liberace play one of the few double keyboard acoustic grand pianos on the old Merv Griffin or tonight show years back and it sounded amazing.

 

Thanx katt;)

[orangefunk]

 

Has anyone ever heard of a piano, acoustic or digital that is reverse of the original design after centuries of development? In other words, the high C would be on the left and the bass on the right, like a left handed guitar Jimi Hendrix played or left handed golf clubs Sounds bizarre doesn't it, but if there is a way to "reverse" a piano keyboard, I would like to try it out for experimental purposes. Is there ever been such a thing as an actual piano developed for left handers. I watched Liberace play one of the few double keyboard acoustic grand pianos on the old Merv Griffin or tonight show years back and it sounded amazing. Thanx katt;)

 

 

There was a piano made exactly like that... with the long strings at the right hand side.

 

http://www.lefthandedpiano.co.uk/

 

About doing this on a digital.. well I could imagine this can be done using software... perhaps if the piano has local off you could use some MIDI transformation software to change the note and then feed the MIDI signal back to the piano...

 

not sure many digitals have local off though..

[Roald]

didn't Joe Zawinul do this with his ARP2600 on Weather Report shows? I recall a video where you see him doing opposite things...

[RichardHK]

There was a piano made exactly like that... with the long strings at the right hand side. http://www.lefthandedpiano.co.uk/ About doing this on a digital.. well I could imagine this can be done using software... perhaps if the piano has local off you could use some MIDI transformation software to change the note and then feed the MIDI signal back to the piano... not sure many digitals have local off though..

 

The same guy has exactly what you need - he calls it the "Keyboard Mirror Midi Module". Just look a little further down the page.

[nitekattz2007]

Wow, orange, I can't believe it, a real left handed acoustic piano, the first of its kind developed and actually used in performance by Christopher Seed. Amazing! Would love to try it out, but can't believe there is only one. Why wouldn't Kawai, Yamaha, Steinway, experiment and try producing a prototype, bet it would be a hit and would definitely create a new way of looking at composing uniqueness and the possibilities of performance endless

 

Have to at least find a way to mirror the digital keyboard. If anyway has a workaround to figure this out on how to modify a digital keyboard to reverse the 88s, please let us know

 

katt

[orangefunk]

could just look for some note transformation software (i.e. it takes a low C and changes it to a high C, a low D becomes a Bb and so on) and perhaps use a weighted master keyboarda and piano module...

 

I'm just wondering if such transformations can be done in hardware?

[Roald]

you might be able to program this in a Nord Modular G2 as that also does midi processing

[Dejavoodoo]

An easier way...

[TechEverlasting]

It would take you a while since you'd have to specify and tune every single one of the 88 notes in the piano keymap , but you would have no problems doing this on a Kurzweil K2500X or K2600X.

[Tony Scharf]

on some synthesizers, you can set the oscillator tracking to -100%. This will effectively reverse-transpose the entire keyboard. but there are other issues with this that would require training to play - the arrangements of sharps and flats would get all messed up - just look at middle C on the keyboard. normally a half step up is a black key, but if you reveresed the tuning order, c# would be down one half step and become a white key. This assumes you use middle C as the pivot point for the transpose. choosing the pivot point would have a huge effect on the layout of the notes. there similar transpositions going all down the keyboard.

 

now, that I think about it, you *could* get things to line up above if you did the pivot on middle C but then transposed the whole keyboard up 4 steps so C fell on what was normally E. then everything should line up going up and down.

 

Ultimately, though, i dont think just having a reverse-scale piano would really make things easier for a lefty. it would only make it so they could only play the piano they had at home..

[MarkF786]

Yup, Tony's on the right track. Many synths will allow you to set pitch tracking to a negative value. You can than transpose the sound +4 so that the E above middle C becomes to the new middle C (so it's a mirror image).

 

I've tried it before and it's not very easy to play, as you can imagine.

 

Mark

[pogo97]

If you're using a softsynth as a sound source, you could insert a midi utility in the signal path. (On a mac, Midi Pipe would be the ticket.) Don't know what the algorithm would look like exactly, but the main bit would be very simple. Something like:

 

note out = (128 - note in) + an offset

[nitekattz2007]

See, this it what is cool about trying to play a LH piano for most of us, whether we were lefties or not. I see it as a way to come up with a whole new direction of creativity, maybe the form of a whole unique style, development of musical composition.

 

What a practical joke to play sometime. Sabatoge the ole keyboard egoed out ahole. Set his rig up in reverse when he is on stage, but keep it 'normal" on the rehearsal or sound check, "ok boys, blues in G, keyboard dude, LH bass, haha. Just a way to play the ultimate nasty trick on his debut.

 

Anyway, my purpose is not to play tricks and jokes , but I am anxious to give it this reversal keyboard technique if I can figure out how to possibly "tune" my Korg X5Dr (?) MIDI mod to see if it would work. There are a variety of weird tuning options on this module.

 

katt

 

BTW, it's hard as hell to play the piano/keyboard the old fashion way, that we have all struggled with for several hundred years.

[pharmboyjoe]

BTW, it's hard as hell to play the piano/keyboard the old fashion way

 

yep, that's enough challenge for me

[PintoMusic]

 

See, this it what is cool about trying to play a LH piano for most of us, whether we were lefties or not. I see it as a way to come up with a whole new direction of creativity, maybe the form of a whole unique style, development of musical composition.

 

 

Very true, I had a friend who was a left-handed drummer who always used right-handed kits.

 

His limitations were almost innovations - if you know what I mean.

[ramkeys]

Can it be possible that you have mastered all the possibilities of the piano?

Could you teach Bach, Beethoven, Lizst, et al, a thing or two about ANYTHING????? You must be scary good. Keith Jarrett and Chick Corea beware.

[pharmboyjoe]

Ever try to find a left handed screwdriver when you need one?

[nitekattz2007]

 

Can it be possible that you have mastered all the possibilities of the piano? Could you teach Bach, Beethoven, Lizst, et al, a thing or two about ANYTHING????? You must be scary good. Keith Jarrett and Chick Corea beware.

 

 

Absolutely. I can play/mastered Bach's WTC Book 1 and 11 in all 12 keys at 300 BPM, transcribed everything Chick ever did, play all Chopin Etudes in all 12 keys and give my best student, jazz pianist virtuoso Gonzalo Rubalcaba lessons when he is not on tour. I do in fact know everything on the piano that's ever been done and have predicted and play all music that will be written in the future. Yeah right! HA ha, just kidding, not being mean

 

BTW, I wonder if there are any pianists in the world who could sit down a and play Bach in all 12 keys spontainously, in real time. I have often wondered about that, hell I struggle with WTC in the org keys and will study them the rest of my life, but I'm not a classical player per say, only love to listen and "play at" Bach. Now I imagine Mozart and Bach could probably spend 10 minutes with a LH piano and play and or write something amazing. Maybe in Heaven, that what those dudes are learning now for eternity, LH piano, or at least for the next 300 years

 

No seriously, the LH piano thing is only an experiment. As I said B4, it is one hell of a struggle to learn the piano the old fashion way, we have all struggled with for several hundred years. In fact Keyboard Magazine did a story of people who had invented different types of keyboards, nothing like our standard design. No one has yet to come up with a better design than what our current design is. Just look at all the synths, digital pianos, etc, they all come with the same white keys and black keys. I have seen keyboards with white sharp keys and the white keys black, but of course the pitch, sound was the same, just color reversal

 

Isn't it ok to experiment like Jan Hammer did with first bending notes on his Rhodes, Alan Holdsworth SynthAxe, the same about experimenting with a LH piano?

 

katt:D

[nitekattz2007]

 

Very true, I had a friend who was a left-handed drummer who always used right-handed kits. His limitations were almost innovations - if you know what I mean.

 

 

Never really though about left handed or footed drum kits, but is there such a thing?

[PintoMusic]

 

Never really though about left handed or footed drum kits, but is there such a thing?

 

 

Yeah, a left handed kit is reversed where the snare/hats are now on the players' right-hand side and the toms increase in the other direction.

[greaseenvelope]

 

didn't Joe Zawinul do this with his ARP2600 on Weather Report shows? I recall a video where you see him doing opposite things...

 

 

He reversed the keyboard voltage on one of them to attain some kind of weird inverted chords that he wrote some pieces around apparently. There are details in that vintage synthesizers book by Mark Vail but I can't find my copy right now, annoyingly enough.

[jchas]

With the ARP gear, if you plugged in a cable to the CV input but didn't plug in the other end it would reverse the keyboard - at least that's how I remember it - those old days are pretty foggy to me now

 

And I am a left handed drummer, have been since I was a kid, and that's a long, long time. I can manage pretty well on a standard kit from years of assimilating. But it's fun to watch a drummer sit down to my reversed electronic kit and start banging around. Almost as fun as watching a guitar player try to play something on my left handed acoustic.

[Leandrusi]

 

on some synthesizers, you can set the oscillator tracking to -100%. This will effectively reverse-transpose the entire keyboard. but there are other issues with this that would require training to play - the arrangements of sharps and flats would get all messed up - just look at middle C on the keyboard. normally a half step up is a black key, but if you reveresed the tuning order, c# would be down one half step and become a white key. This assumes you use middle C as the pivot point for the transpose. choosing the pivot point would have a huge effect on the layout of the notes. there similar transpositions going all down the keyboard. now, that I think about it, you *could* get things to line up above if you did the pivot on middle C but then transposed the whole keyboard up 4 steps so C fell on what was normally E. then everything should line up going up and down. Ultimately, though, i dont think just having a reverse-scale piano would really make things easier for a lefty. it would only make it so they could only play the piano they had at home..

 

 

Just pivot on G. Duh!

[suitandtieguy]

be a man: don't remap.