Thread: Freestyling (keymap layout and first tune)

LOTRO's musical system is unique in the MMO universe. Not only can you play back ABC files, you can actually perform live tunes. The initial keymapping setup leaves something to be desired, though. Using 1-8 with shift and ctrl is not an easy interface.

I've played for years on the harp and hammered dulcimer. Using these two instruments has given me two important insights into keymapping in lotro:

From the harp: Much music is diatonic, meaning no sharps and flats. You can play it on the white keys of the piano. This is especially true for traditional and ancient music.

From the hammered dulcimer: Using rows of fifths, you can make chord shapes that move around, yet maintain the same chord type.

So for a LOTRO keymapping, I have combined a bit from both of these instruments to produce the following keymap:



This works out to the following keymap:
C2 - Z
D2 - X
E2 - C
F2 - CAPS LOCK, V
G2 - A, B
A2 - N, S
B2 - D, M
C3 - Tab, F
D3 - Q, G
E3 - W, H
F3 - E, J
G3 - R, K
A3 - L, T
B3 - Y, semicolon
C4 - single quote (by the semicolon), U
D4 - I, Enter (Many will not map the enter key...)
E4 - O
F4 - P
G4 - [
A4 - ], 7
B4 - = (this may vary according to your keyboard layout)
C5 - BACKSPACE (This may vary according to your keyboard layout)

With this layout, we can make very natural chord shapes for open chords. This is a chord with a root, a fifth, and an octave. It sounds very medieval and is my preferred chord shape on the harp. For some quick chords here's the letters:

C chord: zaTAB
D chord: xsq
E chord: cdw
F chord: vfe
G chord: bgr
A chord: nht

You'll notice that there is redundancy in the keymapping. That is, there are more than one key mapped to a particular note. This is something I've borrowed from the Hammered Dulcimer tuning. Redundant notes means you can make multiple chord shapes. So I could also have a G chord like so:
G chord: aqr
This is useful if I want to keep my chords on the left hand side of the keyboard, while the right hand plays melody. This is the way it is done on the harp.

Finally, lets say that you want to play in a different key than C... This is quite easy if we borrow a concept from the lever harp. Simply "sharpen" or "flatten" the notes required for the new key. So for instance, the key of G has one sharp, F#. Simply clear all your F natural key mappings and reassign those keys to F#. At that point, the entire keyboard layout plays in G. This also works with flats, but you have to keep in mind that A# = Bb.

Well I wish you all the best of luck. And I'll leave you with a short tune, Brian Boru's march. This is the first tune that nearly every harper learns.

chord melody
first part
xsq ljhgg
xsq ljhgg
zaTAB khgff
zaTAB khgff
xsq ljhgg
xsq ljhgg
xsq ghjk
zaTAB l
xsq ljhgg

2nd part
xsq ghjljljlj
zaTAB fghkhkhkh
xsq ghjljljlj
xsq ghjk
zaTAB l
xsq ljhgg

You can hear a clip of brian boru's march here:
Brian Boru's March

Oh, and IC, I always refer to this song as "Lord Brand's March" to bring it a bit more into LOTR universe.

EDIT: Here are some extra tips...

In options,
Make sure the "Quantize Player Music" box is unchecked
Make sure the "Low Latency mode" box is checked

Bump for posterity. /sign for a sticky...

/signed for a sticky
I currently don't key in real time, but I might like to in the future.

Awesome layout mate thanks for your work!

I prefered hand playing since day 1.. but sad thing is that I always sucked at it since day one :P

Your layout made it a bit easier, but im still having trouble getting rythm in.

Anyway, more song would be so awesome!

Originally Posted by CaRaMeL

Your layout made it a bit easier, but im still having trouble getting rythm in.

Anyway, more song would be so awesome!

Glad its working out better for you. Make sure to remove the "Quantize player music" checkbox. And also make sure to check "low latency mode." These are two big sources of problems for freestyling.

--Harperella

Originally Posted by Harperelle

Glad its working out better for you. Make sure to remove the "Quantize player music" checkbox. And also make sure to check "low latency mode." These are two big sources of problems for freestyling.

--Harperella

And remember to switch them around again for playing abc files in a group.

Originally Posted by Laurefinde

And remember to switch them around again for playing abc files in a group.

I've never had a problem with this when playing in a group... my understanding is they only affect freestyle music.

--Harperella

Originally Posted by Harperelle

I've never had a problem with this when playing in a group... my understanding is they only affect freestyle music.

--Harperella

Those setting affect client side playing. ABC grouping is all done server side (has to be for synchronization).

Originally Posted by Harperelle

Glad its working out better for you. Make sure to remove the "Quantize player music" checkbox. And also make sure to check "low latency mode." These are two big sources of problems for freestyling.

--Harperella

Well it depends. If you're playing freestyle solo, low latency mode is great. When trying to play with others though, I generally turn it off. Yeah it's a bit harder to play, but it means you hear your notes a lot closer to when others would hear them. With low latency mode, your client is playing the note immediately as you press the key, as it sends the note to the server. With it off, it sends the note to the server, and you hear it when the server sends that note back to your client to be played. So you do have to compensate in your playing but it generally syncs up with others a lot better. I also do this if I'm freestyling to someone else's ABC.

A bump for all freestylers

Another bump for freestyle music. My 8 year old daughter puts out pretty good tunes on this layout...

thanks I was looking for how to do free style. I may not be very good but I enjoy doing it myself.

Today I came across something called a Wicki-Hayden layout, which is an alternate layout for a keyboard on a hexagonal grid. I was reminded of Harperella's freestyle layout, because it also stacks 5ths together so its easy to play chords. Apparently this was invented back at the turn of the century and never caught on, but its used on some concertinas.

What I like best about Wicki-Hayden is it also includes all the accidentals (black keys). I like to play using a MIDI keyboard, so having all the notes mapped is nice. Below is my attempt at making a Wicki-Hayden layout for LOTRO. I photoshopped your key layout, Harperella, I hope you don't mind!

Pros:
* Contains every chromatic key in 3 octaves.
* Wicki-Hayden lets you transpose easily by shifting the pattern of notes up down left or right on the grid.
Cons:
* The bottom octave got smushed off to the side, and isn't part of the Wiki-Hayden pattern. This will make playing basslines harder.
Neither:
*Since its not tuned to any one key, its easy to produce weird experimental sounding whole-tone scales, stacked 4ths, and progressions that don't have a clear root. (could be pro or con, depending how you like your music)




Key map:

Code:

C 2 - Z
C#2 - E
D 2 - X
D#2 - 1
E 2 - 2
F 2 - A
F#2 - 3
G 2 - S
G#2 - C
A 2 - Q
A#2 - V
B 2 - W
C 3 - B
C#3 - D
D 3 - N
D#3 - F
E 3 - M
F 3 - G
F#3 - ,
G 3 - H
G#3 - . R
A 3 - J
A#3 - / T
B 3 - K
C 4 - Y
C#4 - L 4
D 4 - U
D#4 - ; 5
E 4 - I
F 4 - ' 6
F#4 - O
G 4 - 7
G#4 - P
A 4 - 8
A#4 - [
B 4 - 9
C 5 - 0

I'm discovering a weird problem with my layout. Seems like there are a lot of key combinations that you can't press, due to limitations in the electronics or something. For example, try (J + L + M) for an A major chord. It will only let me press two keys and the third gets ignored, and then the computer starts beeping at me. This is really weird. Anyone else seen this happen?

Originally Posted by Astleigh

I'm discovering a weird problem with my layout. Seems like there are a lot of key combinations that you can't press, due to limitations in the electronics or something. For example, try (J + L + M) for an A major chord. It will only let me press two keys and the third gets ignored, and then the computer starts beeping at me. This is really weird. Anyone else seen this happen?

This is a normal, inherent limitation in most keyboards' design:

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

Key jamming and ghosting

Key ghosting occurs on matrix keyboards for certain combinations of 3 keys. When these three keys are pressed simultaneously a fourth keypress is erronously registered by the keyboard controller. [4] Modern keyboards detect ghosting and instead of registering a fourth key will ignore the third key, which is known as jamming. Which keys jam when pressed together differs between brands and models of keyboards.
Key jamming is most often noticed when using a keyboard to play action-oriented computer games. The original Star Control game included a utility to test for key jamming and help the player determine the best key mapping for his/her keyboard, since during gameplay it was common for each of the two players to be pressing three or four keys at the same time.
Most modern action-oriented computer games and console emulators use the control, alt, and shift keys by default, since they are always designed to be pressed in combination with other keys, and thus usually circumvent key jamming.

You would need a high end keyboard with higher rollover to get around this, but at that point someone could just head for a low-end MIDI keyboard.

Originally Posted by Astleigh

I'm discovering a weird problem with my layout. Seems like there are a lot of key combinations that you can't press, due to limitations in the electronics or something. For example, try (J + L + M) for an A major chord. It will only let me press two keys and the third gets ignored, and then the computer starts beeping at me. This is really weird. Anyone else seen this happen?

I had this same problem on my old laptop keyboard. I got around it by using arpeggiated and rolled chords. None of my USB keyboards seem to have this problem though. Some seem to have a 3 key limit. I bought an older Logitech G15 keyboard (the old one with 18 macro keys!) and it works like a charm. I rarely use my G13 macros for chords anymore--Its all keyboard now and no macros.

I use an IBM model M that I found secondhand. So the hardware is quite old. Perhaps its time I bought an actual gaming keyboard. I just hate the squishy keys though, and it seems they don't make gaming keyboards with clicky keys.

/signed for Sticky and giving it a bump for usefulness

Thank you, Harp!!!!!!

Here's a link to another freestyling keymap by Diamond:

http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.p...estyle-playing

Bumpity bump

Hoping to inspire a new generation of freestyle musicians!

--Harp

Bumping back up for posterity

Nice thread this!

Personally I feel very uncomfortable playing on the PC keyboard, if I really felt a great urge to do so I'd probably bite the bullet and learn to play the chromatic accordion. You can fit 3 or 4 rows neatly on a standard keyboard.

Chromatic Button Accordion

This vid has probably been seen by folks who've been around awhile; but I was pretty impressed when I first discovered it recently. It's someone freestyling on their keyboard, and aside form a few lag issues, it's sounds terrific.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XP9sI5Q-m8s

Maybe that's Harper in the vid? o.O

A bump for freestylers everywhere!

Only been playing since the end of August. I love the music system and thought the only way to play was through using ABC files. I just created a minstrel and accidentally discovered for myself that you can freestyle when I bumped a key! I just sat there for about an hour just jamming. So much fun.

I don't have much of a musical background. I played a bit way back in school (clarinet). Hopefully with some practice I'll become a decent freestyler. Thanks for this very useful thread!

Originally Posted by druidofbreeland

Only been playing since the end of August. I love the music system and thought the only way to play was through using ABC files. I just created a minstrel and accidentally discovered for myself that you can freestyle when I bumped a key! I just sat there for about an hour just jamming. So much fun.

I don't have much of a musical background. I played a bit way back in school (clarinet). Hopefully with some practice I'll become a decent freestyler. Thanks for this very useful thread!

So glad to hear there is another freestyler in the making! Good luck to you!

--Harper

Originally Posted by Harperelle

So glad to hear there is another freestyler in the making! Good luck to you!

--Harper

Thank you! It's a lot of fun. I'm still working on it and slowly getting better (not quite where I'd play in front of others or at an A&T show). I've been looking for, but it seems there isn't one out there, a plugin that could record what notes you played when freestyling. This would help me tremendously when I get a catchy beat going but then I forget what it was the next time I go to play it.

Originally Posted by druidofbreeland

Thank you! It's a lot of fun. I'm still working on it and slowly getting better (not quite where I'd play in front of others or at an A&T show). I've been looking for, but it seems there isn't one out there, a plugin that could record what notes you played when freestyling. This would help me tremendously when I get a catchy beat going but then I forget what it was the next time I go to play it.

Have you tried using fraps?

Thanks for this! This layout's really easy to use, my timing is somewhat off but here's a recording of the first song I've made:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5MV6...ature=youtu.be