Stockholm, Sound is Motion Symposium, 11/02/2010

1. Why?
Keyboards
Woodwinds
Typewriters
And More
Voice
Conjecture
End
Impedance in Music Playing Stockholm, 11/02/2010 1 of 19
The Role of Physical Impedance Matching in
Music Playing
(v.7 2014-02-04)
Nicola Bernardini
nicb@sme-ccppd.org
Conservatorio di Musica “C.Pollini” – Padova
Stockholm, Sound is Motion Symposium, 11/02/2010
Copyright c 2010 Nicola Bernardini <nicb@sme-ccppd.org>
This work comes under the terms of the
Creative Commons c BY-SA 2.5 license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/)

2. Why?
Keyboards
Woodwinds
Typewriters
And More
Voice
Conjecture
End
Impedance in Music Playing Stockholm, 11/02/2010 2 of 19
Dare to be na¨ıve.
R.Buckminster Fuller

3. Why?
Keyboards
Woodwinds
Typewriters
And More
Voice
Conjecture
End
Impedance in Music Playing Stockholm, 11/02/2010 3 of 19
Why some work and some don’t?
Why some musical instruments are successful and others
are not?
How is it that some of them contribute greatly to the
history of music, while others are quickly forgotten as
“interesting experiments”?
Before conjecturing, a few examples. . .

4. Why?
Keyboards
Woodwinds
Typewriters
And More
Voice
Conjecture
End
Impedance in Music Playing Stockholm, 11/02/2010 4 of 19
Piano vs. other keyboards (1)
The piano is the most obvious example: a complicated
technology. . .
CordaSmorzatore
Martelletto
Tasto
Pilota
Scappamento
Arresto

5. Why?
Keyboards
Woodwinds
Typewriters
And More
Voice
Conjecture
End
Impedance in Music Playing Stockholm, 11/02/2010 5 of 19
Piano vs. other keyboards (2)
. . . versus simpler (albeit functional) mechanical structures
of cheaper keyboards. . .

6. Why?
Keyboards
Woodwinds
Typewriters
And More
Voice
Conjecture
End
Impedance in Music Playing Stockholm, 11/02/2010 6 of 19
Piano vs. other keyboards (3)
. . . or, for that matter, of fortepianos and/or clavichords
Corda
Smorzatore
Tasto
Martelletto
Pilota
the success of the piano cannot be solely ascribed to its
better fitting social function

7. Why?
Keyboards
Woodwinds
Typewriters
And More
Voice
Conjecture
End
Impedance in Music Playing Stockholm, 11/02/2010 7 of 19
Saxophone vs. Sarrusophone (1)
Adolphe Sax was convinced that his
invention would be less successful than
that of his friend Sarrus
Single–reed vs. double–reed

8. Why?
Keyboards
Woodwinds
Typewriters
And More
Voice
Conjecture
End
Impedance in Music Playing Stockholm, 11/02/2010 8 of 19
Saxophone vs. Sarrusophone (2)
Little did he know that “jazz”
was about to become one of the
most successful music universes
of the twentieth century, opening
the path of success for the
Saxophone
Again, the success of this instrument cannot be ascribed
solely to purely functional reasons (otherwise the
Sarrusophone would have made it too)

9. Why?
Keyboards
Woodwinds
Typewriters
And More
Voice
Conjecture
End
Impedance in Music Playing Stockholm, 11/02/2010 9 of 19
Alphanumeric Keyboards (1)
Now for a funny (but fitting example): typewriters vs.
computer keyboards

10. Why?
Keyboards
Woodwinds
Typewriters
And More
Voice
Conjecture
End
Impedance in Music Playing Stockholm, 11/02/2010 10 of 19
Alphanumeric Keyboards (2)
Old style mechanical
typewriters have often
been (ab)used by music
composers in many
contemporary music
works (Cornelius Cardew
Scratch Orchestra, for
ex.)
That is: they considered the typewriter playable, and the
emitted sound results musical

11. Why?
Keyboards
Woodwinds
Typewriters
And More
Voice
Conjecture
End
Impedance in Music Playing Stockholm, 11/02/2010 11 of 19
Alphanumeric Keyboards (3)
Today everybody plays in a laptop orchestra. . .
. . . but we all know that the computer keyboard is very
limited in its musical expression

12. Why?
Keyboards
Woodwinds
Typewriters
And More
Voice
Conjecture
End
Impedance in Music Playing Stockholm, 11/02/2010 12 of 19
More funny combinations. . .
Successful Problematic
synthesizer theremin
percussion glass harmo-
nica
turntables tangible in-
terfaces
. . . . . .

13. Why?
Keyboards
Woodwinds
Typewriters
And More
Voice
Conjecture
End
Impedance in Music Playing Stockholm, 11/02/2010 13 of 19
Finally: the voice (1)
Of course, the voice by itself is
known to be a wonderful musical
instrument

14. Why?
Keyboards
Woodwinds
Typewriters
And More
Voice
Conjecture
End
Impedance in Music Playing Stockholm, 11/02/2010 14 of 19
Finally: the voice (2)
But what is so musical in the voice. . .
. . . that cannot be found, say, in
our hands?

15. Why?
Keyboards
Woodwinds
Typewriters
And More
Voice
Conjecture
End
Impedance in Music Playing Stockholm, 11/02/2010 15 of 19
So?
All these examples (and many more can be found), outline
one essential issue:
Haptic interaction per se is not a sufficient
explanation for the musicality of an instrument

16. Why?
Keyboards
Woodwinds
Typewriters
And More
Voice
Conjecture
End
Impedance in Music Playing Stockholm, 11/02/2010 16 of 19
The Conjecture (1)
Proper physical impedance matching is what ac-
tually makes the difference between a successful
musical instrument and a non–successful one.

17. Why?
Keyboards
Woodwinds
Typewriters
And More
Voice
Conjecture
End
Impedance in Music Playing Stockholm, 11/02/2010 17 of 19
The Conjecture (2)
The impedance of the instrument must be tuned to the
capability of the physiology of the specific body part or
parts that are involved in playing it (fingers, lips, arms,
mouth, etc.)
The result is the ability to learn to be extremely fast and
precise in playing by calibrating the exact balance of forces
required by the performance

18. Why?
Keyboards
Woodwinds
Typewriters
And More
Voice
Conjecture
End
Impedance in Music Playing Stockholm, 11/02/2010 18 of 19
The Conjecture (3)
Possibly, these “regions of matching” behave in a more or
less linear way, while their boundaries become
substantially non-linear
And it is precisely this non-linearity that makes up for an
“extra” expressive touch in many cases (think of
“over-blowing” or “flautando” playing, for example)

19. Why?
Keyboards
Woodwinds
Typewriters
And More
Voice
Conjecture
End
Impedance in Music Playing Stockholm, 11/02/2010 19 of 19
Conclusion
Proper impedance matching (which seems to be also a
more general basis for enaction) between local human
physiology and musical instruments is possibly a good
motivation behind the success of musical instruments
How to study these “mapping areas”? Can a
synthesis–from–analysis method be devised?
Please note: in contrast with all the trends in interface
design and HCI, musical instruments are hardly designed
to be “friendly”; rather, they are designed to achieve the
best fit with a highly skilled human physiology