Foot-Chording Chords

April 7th, 2022
jammer, music, tech
As part of my rhythm stage setup, I have four pedals which I primarily use for heel-toe drumming. When playing mandolin, or holding a baby, however, I can instead use these pedals to play bass notes or chords. I tell it what key and mode I'm in, and then can choose one of the four chords I'm most likely to want. For example, if I'm playing in C Major I have:

Am (vi)      G (V)

 C (I)      F (IV)

In showing this to Ruthie, however, we realized that more options are possible if you use multiple simultaneous pedals. I am unreasonably excited to be "chording" to play chords.

Rough demo, since I only just figured this out:

If you use all the combinations this gives you eleven more options, but for now I've just added two: the left pair and the right pair. In major I've set these as ii and iii, so C Major is:

Am (vi)     G (V)
Dm (ii)     Em (iii)
C (I)       F (IV)

Here are the three other modes I currently have configured, with C as an example key:

Minor:

G (V)       Cm (i)
F (IV)      E (III)
A (VI)      Bb (VII)

Alternate minor:

Bb (VII)   F (IV)
Ab (VI)    G (V)
C (i)      E (III)

Mixolydian:

Bb (VII)   G (V)
Ab (VI)    E (III)
C (I)      F (IV)

In each of these, I'm using the two "chorded" options to bring in extra options I would use occasionally.

At some point I may use some of the other combinations, probably starting with the two toes and the two heels, but for now this is confusing enough. I will probably also change around what the pedals do, since I feel like I don't have a great system right now: it works, but there isn't that much logic to it so it's hard to remember and extend.

Referenced in:

Comment via: facebook, lesswrong

Recent posts on blogs I like:

Inner dialogue, walking down the sidewalk

A discussion I have with myself a lot The post Inner dialogue, walking down the sidewalk appeared first on Otherwise.

via Otherwise October 10, 2024

Contra Emile Torres On Unethical Jobs

Thinking about replacability is hard

via Thing of Things October 3, 2024

Startup advice targeting low and middle income countries

This post was inspired by a week of working from Ambitious Impact’s office in London, and chatting with several of the startup charities there. While my experience is in the for-profit world, I think it’s applicable to entrepreneurs working on impact-driv…

via Home September 27, 2024

more     (via openring)