Kevin Kelly has an interesting writeup on a new kind of keyboard interface using hexagonal keys and a more spatial, geometric relationship between intervals. It’s used on a MIDI Controller called the AXiS and Kelly’s post links to a video of Dream Theater keyboardist Jordan Rudess noodling around on it. Rudess points out the piano keyboard proper has only been with us 200 years or so. Is this what’s next? I’m not convinced yet. The AXiS certainly compresses the layout of the keyboard and standardizes fingering for scales, both very useful additions, but I have yet to really see anyone play the thing. Every video reminds me of a two-year old at the piano, all glissandos and simple Chopsticks intervals. The best explanation and demo probably comes from Peter Davies, the AXiS’s inventor, but even he seems to struggle with some of the simpler tunes he tries to play as he strays from the basics of the scale. Maybe it’s a new kind of tool for a new kind of music, waiting to be invented.