AKM-10 - About Key Maps - General Intro v8.4 1405-25

7/31/2019 AKM-10 - About Key Maps - General Intro v8.4 1405-25

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<< Exact centerline of the pianCrack between E and F >

Based on a Piano Keyboard Labeled With The

Rainbow Colors of the 7 Identical Octave Groups,With the 4 End Keys in White

About MIW Key

Maps andDiagrams

From the MIW PianoStudent's Workshop

Low

End

High

End

AKM-10

About Key Maps - Intro AKM-10 v8.4 1

Al l ri ghts reserved: Copyr ight 1998-2014 Music Innovators Workshop LLC



Why Key Maps and Diagrams?

4Twin-

kle

twin-

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lit-

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star,

How

I

won-

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what

you

are;

I have a background in industrial engineering. Industrial

engineers work on how to make or build things. Theywork on figur ing out how to make something in the

shor test time and at the least cost. Then they try to

figure out some easier way to make it in even less time

and at a still lower cost. Then they try to figure outsomthing else to take it's place that will do the same job

in less time and ....

You get the idea. The mentality is " make it BETTER, but

make it easier, make it cheaper, make it faster!" This

mentality has been responsible for much of the wealthand prosperity found in the modern world. It applies to

most of the things that we do at the office, at the factory,

at home, or at p la.... No, not at play. Some of the things

that we love and do have no business going faster, or cheaper , or more simply. What does this have to do with

music? Music is play ... its art ... its p leasure. (But it can

be VERY hard work!) No room for industrial engineering?

Let's talk about the piano. Is the piano music? What a

sill y question. No, the piano is a MACHINE. Do industrial

engineers have anything to do with pianos? You bet theydo. If pianos were made the old way (before industr ial

engineering) they would be so expensive, hardly anyone

could afford one. But this really isn't the point. A pianist

is a machine operator - like it or not . (Of course, he or she could also be a talented virtuoso, able to make

incredibly beautiful music on the piano. But this doesn't

change the fact that the piano is a MACHINE!)

The piano is a very compl icated machine to run. You can

run it the hard way or the smart way. Which way wouldyou choose? Which way is which? Consider this. Let's

say that you want to run a computer (computing

machine) but don' t know how. A few years back, you hadone choice: Learn to use the complicated code that has

been designed to let you communicate with thecomputer. It was called DOS (Disk Operating System).

Only a few genius's learned this complicated codingsystem and were able to run a computer.





Minuet in GJ. S. Bach Al legret to #: 1 3/4

543

Repeat

55

3

1

4

2

1

5

1

Fast forward to today. Even little kids run

computers now. How did this happen? The

simple answer is "windows." It's a graphical

user interface. It lets you point and click atwhat you want. No code to learn. Now anyone

can run a computer. What does th is have to

do with the piano? Just this . The piano is runby knowing a similarly complicated code. It's

called the Grand Staff. This is an abstract

code that bears no similarity to what you seewhen you look at the keyboard. This is the

hard way to do piano.

The smart way is to use a graphical user

interface that basiclly lets you " point andclick" the piano keys that are notated on your

sheet music page. Key maps provide you withsuch a notation. This uni t will help you see

how this "point and click" approach works for

the keyboard.

OK, but what do we do with the "hard way"code that everyone uses? Think of the

complicated code that we formerly used to runcomputing machines. We didn't get rid of it! In

fact it has become much more complicatedthan in the early days of computing because

we now do so very much more with

computers than when they were first used. And that code is essential. That's really how

people communicate with computers and tell

them what to do. What we've done with thegraphical user interface (windows) is that we

found a way for the great majority of people

using computers to avoid these codes. The

experts that make the computers work need touse the code, but the rest of us that just want

to use the computers don't need to know that

code. We just " point and click" to make themdo what we want.





.from THE SOUND OF MUSICRichard Roger Oscar Hammerstein II

Broadly b: 1 4/4

43

The

hillsF

area-live

withthesound

of

mu-E

sic,

with

songsF

theyhavesung

Perhaps the greatest advantage of

key maps over the grand staff is the

ease with wh ich one can play in anykey, whether in many sharps or

many flats. The grand staff gives you

complicated codes for the sharp andflat keys whereas the key maps are

simply "point and click" for all of the

notes, both natural notes and sharps

and flats. The rhythm on maps isnotated on a timeline that takes the

guessing out of knowing how long to

hold a note. By contrast, the rhythmon the grand staff is shown in an

abstract code.

Finally, key maps are designed to bebeautiful! They show the pitch and

rhythm in a true scaled format unlike

the grand staff. They are beautif ied

with the colors of the rainbow.Rhythms and chords have color

coding highlights that add to thebeauty of the music . (Many of the

key maps are interesting and

beautiful to look at in addition to the

beauty in the sounds of the music.Key maps are truly a visual art. This

visual beauty is one of the reasons

we love to play from key maps!)





Example - Openng Bars of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata

Adagio sostenuto #: 4 4/4 MM: 5243214321

#

#. #.

Note Colors - Pink notes indicate theleft hand. Other colors are for the right

hand and highlight rhythmic elements.

White: whole beats. Green: 1/3 beats.Blue: 1/4 and 3/4 beats.





Features of Key Maps

to learn.

of the fingers on the keyboard, making the keyboard much easier

a musical keyboard (piano etc). The map visualizes the movements A key map is a special kind of SHEET MUSIC designed for playing

of the fingers on the keyboard.left/right movements of the notes match the left/right movements

vertical, rather than horizontal. This arrangement makes the

Unlike traditional notation, the time dimension of the music isvisualizing pitch, with a vertical TIMELINE visualizing rhythm.

A key map combines a horizontal DIAGRAM of the keyboard,

of each note is proportional to the length (in time) of each sound.

the movements of the sounds on the keyboard. The vertical length

left/right movements of the notes are proportional (in distance) to

The notes are drawn to scale, just as in an ordinary map. The

fascinating and beautiful visual expression of the musical sounds.proportionalities and elevations in color, the map becomes a

octave, just as in a contour map of the earth. Given these

A key map is colored to show the elevat ions (in sound) of each

(if it is a song) dynamics, fingering, chord symbols, and the like.

such th ings as tempos, key signatures, title, composer, song textThe map also shows other information expected of sheet music -

between the lines are played on white keys.

(straddling) these lines are played on black keys. The notesThe vertical l ines stand for the black keys. The notes on

coded. This relationship is explained on the following pages.

know how the keys on the keyboard are organized and color

between the map and the keyboard, you will o f course need toBefore you will be able fully to understand the visual relationship





About the 7 Octave Groups on the Keyboard

keyboards typically contain 4 or more full 12-key groups.these keyboards usually contain fewer of these groups. These

keyboards are built with the exact same groups, except that

key at the right end on typical piano keyboard.) Electronic(There are additional extensions of 3 keys at the left end and 1

the (folded up) diagram of the keyboard on the previous page.

keys (in groups of 2 and 3) and 7 white keys, as you can see inrepeating patterns. Each pattern consists of 5 raised black

The typical piano keyboard is laid out in 7 groups of 12-key

that we have named an "octave group."

instrument." It is this group of 7 white keys and 5 black keysfrom any other set of white keys. So we call the piano a "C

you have played a C major scale. You can't get a major scale

and play all of the white keys until you get to the next C key,

it's white keys. This means that if you start playing a C keykeyboard is built so that you can play a C major scale with justending with the key named B, an "octave group." The

We call this 12-key pattern starting wi th the key named C and

are designed to take advantage of this fact!)not designed for the keyboard. On the other hand, key maps

(Standard notation completely ignores this fact because it's

the 12 keys of the little piano that you learn on. Think about i t!are all p layed in exactly the same way, as exact duplicates of

one litt le 12-key piano to learn to play! The other 6 litt le pianos

of what this means. Essentially, It means that you have onlyeach other so that you can play all 7 of them as a group. Think

7 identical litt le pianos with 12 keys each, all lined up next to

The amazing thing about this grouping is that it is like having

identify each group by its number.that those who can't distinguish them by color wi ll be able to

octave groups are also numbered from 1 to 7 on key maps so

the 7 main colors of the rainbow, in their natural order. Theby showing each group in a different color. These colors areway of knowing which is which. Our diagrams accomplish this

group looks the same as every other octave group, we need aKey maps are based on the octave group patterns. Since each





Sample

Separate (cut ) Here

Cut Off Here to Fit Cut Off Here to Fit

Fold Back

Blue Octave Group -- 3High GroupLow Group

B A G F E D C

Sample Separate (cut ) Here

Cut Off Here to Fit Cut Off Here to Fit

Fold Back

Green Octave Group -- 4

High GroupLow Group

Home Base

B A G F E D C

Fold Up

Fold Up

POST

POST

Octave Group Locator Labels. Here are samples of the 7 rainbow colored octave

group labels that are available for placing temporarily behind the black keys on the

keyboard. These label the keys with the colors of the octave groups shown on key

maps. The labels also show the names of the white keys. This way one can easily matchthe notes in a key map's blue octave group, for example, with the corresponding keys in

the blue octave group on the keyboard. The labels can be left in place until no longer

needed.





Twinkle, Twinkle, Lit tle Star Twin-

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Notes With Song Text

How Does the Key Map Show What Keys to Play? Now that you know how

the keyboard is organized, you can use this information to read a diagram that

reflects (or maps) the layout of the keyboard. The notes are placed on the diagram,and show which keys to play, and in what order. The above diagram shows how this

is done. The notes start at the top the page and proceed down the page, showing the

sequence in which they are played.

This diagram is used to show beginners how to play a song. It's easy to

understand, even for young children. This diagram demonstrates how a diagram

can show what keys to play, but it's not quite yet in a format that can be used as

sheet music . It needs to be modi fied before it becomes a key map. The followingpages show how it is modif ied to become the key map that can easily be read and

understood.

The diagram below is a picture of a cutout that is placed directly on the keyboard,

standing up behind the black keys. The student places the cutout so that the images of the black keys at the bottom of the diagram exactly match the black keys of the green

octave group on the keyboard.

About Key Maps - Int ro AKM-10 v8.4 11




Step 1. The main modi fication transforms the image of each black key into a single

black line. The line between E and F, which stood for a crack and not a black key, is

removed. The green stripe is retained to identify this group as the green octave group.

Every vertical line on a key map stands for a black key. (The border on this d iagram is

not part of a key map.) The vertical lines retain for each octave group, the spacing of

the black keys in groups of 2 and 3. The spaces between these lines then become thelocations of the white keys. With th is format, there are spaces 1 key wide (D, G, and

A), and spaces 2 keys wide (E/F and B/C).

Observe that this diagram retains its direct visual relationship to the keyboard. Note

that that on the keyboard, the way to determine the identity of a white key is to see

which black keys are nearby. The (visual) identities of all white keys on the keyboard -and on the maps - depend entirely on the locations of the black keys nearby.

The 5 vertical lines remaining in each octave group form the music staff that is the

basis of all key maps. We identify each black line with an " address." The black keysare referred to as keys 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.

C B AGFED

Twin-

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how

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1 2 3 4 5





4Twin-

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twin-

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lit-

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star,

How

I

won-

der

what

you

are.

Step 2. The next step reduces the width of the

staff and notes so that more music can be shown

on a page. A colored header is added to helpidentify the octave group, in th is case, the green

octave group (number 4). The words no longer fit

inside of the notes, so they are moved to the rightside of the melody, in sync with the notes.

Step 3. The timeline is built in to show the

rhythm. The vertical lines standing for the blackkeys form the timeline. The horizontal lines

running across the page, which are an essential

part of the timeline, are added to show the beats. A double horizontal line at the end of each groupof beats (4 beats in this song) identifies each

measure. The notes are stretched to f it in to the

spaces between the beat and bar lines accordingto the lengths of their sounds, thus completing

the visualization of the rhythm. The white notes

are 1 beat long and the yellow notes are 1/2 beat

long.

The diagram is now transformed into a tiny key

map that shows the basis of this visualizednotation.





Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star

French folk tuneJane Taylor

Moderately b/#: 0 4/4

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2nd time – End Here

Go back to the Beginnin

Key Map for "Twinkle." Here is a fin ished

key map for Twinkle, Twink le, Little Star.

Changes from the Keyboard SizedDiagram.

Size--The map is more compact. The spaces

between the 5 vertical lines standing for the

black keys are much smaller.

Colored Stripe in the G and A Spaces --This

stripe is omitted from key maps. The coloredstripe in the D space remains - along with the

colored stripe across the top of the map.

Spacing and Line Between E and F --Thevertical line showing the crack between the E

and F keys is gone. The notes on the left side

of the remaining wide space are E's and on theright side are F's. The width of this space is

reduced to reflect that the E and F are only 1/2

step (semitone) apart This maintains the

proportionality of the pitch spacing. (Each 1/2step across the entire staff is half the width of

a note.)

Vertical Lines--Exclusively for the Black Keys .

The only vertical lines in the map are the 5

lines standing for the 5 black keys of eachoctave group. (Lines for the cracks between

keys B/C and E/F are never shown on maps.)

Song Text --The words and syllables for thesongs appear at the right of the notes.

Rhythm--Maps show musical time graphically;the diagrams do not. Maps have horizontal

lines showing measures and beats. Notes are

stretched to show rhythm in direct proportion

to the time that each note takes.





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Here's a Map of the Full Keyboard -- It shows a note for every key on the piano.

Notice the patterns that the notes form. They're spaced horizontally just l ike the keys

on the piano.

The Full Map Expanded, Showing the Time Lines -- The horizontal dimension of the

map below shows pitch, with the vertical dimension showing time.

A Puzzle for You -- Five familiar melodies (separated by black stripes - not part of the

map) are shown below. This page uses an alternate color scheme in the notes. In this

color scheme the pink notes are played by the left hand and the white notes by the righthand. Can you play the melodies and guess which one is which? The melodies are (in

alphabetical order) Brother John, Jingle Bells, Mary Had a Little Lamb, Ode to Joy (by

Beethoven), and Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.


AKM-10 - About Key Maps - General Intro v8.4 1405-25

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