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Hi,

I've started creating some of these and posted them here: http://eigenzone.org/

If there's anything in particular you want to learn, feel free to leave me a message at Eigenzone on one of the posts. I'll try to take this into account for future videos.

Hope this helps,

Geert

Hi Arnd,

It depends on what kind of existing sheet music you're talking about. With the limited amount of keys on the Pico, it's not possible to play most of the piano pieces for instance, certainly not when you're using the chromatic scale since you're essentially limited to one octave. There's only so much that can be done with 18 keys. I don't think anyone is switching scales on the fly in the middle of a musical phrase and switching back, this simply takes too much time.

However, there are some developments underway at Eigenlabs to allow you to play more notes in the future by combining keys. This will make it more difficult to play though since you need to coordinate better and playing chords in that mode feels like it would be almost impossible. Actually, I'm treating the Pico as a monophonic instrument and consider every polyphonic arrangement that I'm able to play on it as a nice plus.

Just as every instrument, the Pico has its limitations and in time appropriate sheet music will come out. I'm going to start looking for songs that are playable on it for additional tutorials. A lot of them will probably rely on some capabilities of virtual instruments (like strumming and auto chord selection in Strum Acoustic GS-1).

Personally, I have no problems with this limitation since I mostly create and play original music and I find that boundaries make me more creative since I have to rely on feeling more than on theory. So I've been mostly composing songs on the Pico. That doesn't mean that I'm not longing for an Alpha though ;-)

Take care,

Geert

Hi Tony,

The exact same software is used for all Eigenharps, so what you get with the Pico will be there with the Alpha, the Alpha just allows you to do more and have additional features like the step sequencer.

Read this link and the last sentence, maybe it gets you dreaming even more :-)
http://www.slipperybrick.com/2009/12/eigenharp-to-make-official-us-debut/

Take care,

Geert

The key layout of the alpha is totally awesome. I played it for about an hour and I can't stop thinking about it :-)

What I like about it is that just as with a guitar, the notes repeat themselves across the rows, so you get duplicate notes on the fingerboard, but you can use the most appropriate fingering based on where you are and what you want to play. You can also split the keyboard easily in different independent parts that have their own mode keys and octave keys. IIRC the split can be 1, 2, 3, 4 by default with larger and smaller areas depending on which instrument you find the most important.

The hardware is imho also better suited for the actual keys and fingerboard since you're typically playing it to the side of your head/torso, so you can glance at it easily even while blowing the breathpipe. The latter is something that's not that comfortable with the Pico.

What I also liked is that since it has a spike, it rests on the floor and you have no weight at all pulling down on your body. I wasn't able to try out the strap since the final version wasn't ready yet.

Hope this helps you, probably not, but you never know :-)

Hi
l Love my Harp!!
I also have a PC W7 machine.
I know that you get a lot of whiny e-PLEASES about platforms. I simply have 2 questions.
1. Will PC catch up - soon? I know you are busting hump to get it to parity with MAC. Thank You all!!!
2. How about a Mac Emulator? Pretty sure that has been tried . . ?????
Bless you all!
Greatest instrument I have ever heard!!!!
Kudos!!