Thummer keyboard

Origin of jammer and Thummer

The jammer keyboard was invented by Jim Plamondon in September 2003, whereupon he founded Thumtronics to design its "Thummer(tm)-brand jammer" and bring it to market, the trade name was to empathize the unique thumb-control feature. Prototype Thummers were produced, but the effort to commercialize them failed, and Thumtronics was disbanded in mid-2009.

However the concepts developed and publicized by the company are still being developed by alternate-keyboard enthusiasts.

"Jammer" versus the "Thummer" name

Just as Kleenex(tm) is a trademarked brand of facial tissue, and the Stratocaster(tm) is a trademarked brand of electric guitar, the Thummer was intended to be a trademarked brand of "a new kind of musical instrument." The term jammer was introduced to give that "new kind of musical instrument" a generic, non-trademarked name.

Design Goals

Thumtronics' design goals for the Thummer, which continue to influence the independent development of jammers, were the 7 "E"s:

1. Easy: Facilitate the rapid acquisition of a self-sustaining level of musical competence in both composition and performance.
2. Expressive: Offer more expressive potential than most musical instruments.
3. Ergonomic: Place significantly less stress on its player's body than the average traditional musical instrument.
4. Ergonomic: Place the keys and other controls within easy, fast reach.
5. Expansive: Expand the frontiers of music-making, by (a) providing a single interface for the performance of the music of all known past and present human cultures, and (b) enabling the exploration and control of new tonalities (via effects such as Dynamic tonality).
6. Everywhere: Be sufficiently portable to go everywhere, from concert hall to campfire.
7. Everyone: Affordable (once in high-volume production) by people living at the First World's poverty level.

Features

1. At least one 2-dimensional keyboard in a hexagonal array; preferably, one for each hand.
   The keys of the left-hand instrument are mirror-imaged to those on the right, to match the mirroring of one's hands.
2. Notes assigned to the array using the Wicki/Hayden note-layout.
3. At least one thumb-operated expressive control (such as the thumb-operated joysticks found on seventh-generation video game controllers).
4. Optionally, other expressive controls, such as internal motion-sensors (such as those found in the Wii Remote video game controller), foot-pedals, breath controllers, etc.

Advantages over a standard keyboard

The Thummer was intended to have these advantages over a piano-style keyboard

Limitations and disadvantages over a standard keyboard

Design Rationale

Of the large number of isomorphic note assignments possible, the Thummer's Wicki-Hayden format was chosen since all notes of the major and minor scales fall under the fingers and the relative simplicity of relating it to conventional music notation.

All chords found in conventional chord progressions (I, ii, iii, IV, V, vi and viii, as well as others), in most inversions, can be easily played in the jammer arrangement with minimal hand movement.

This layout also places the octaves ascending vertically, increasing the notes playable at once, easing chord inversions and greatly reducing the time needed to move to a new note.

Ergonomic Factors

No one became expert on a Thummer, however Fitts law {link} predicts that the jammer will be very significantly faster to play that a conventional keyboard. The expected playing speed is (log base 2 (30% smaller key / ~1000% distance decrease), or about 75% less to time find and press an average key.

Commercially available

Some isomorphic keyboards are commercially available, including:

Software