sebastiaan wrote:
the current model has a very nice design. i haven't played it yet, but i would love to sometime...
http://www.kelstone.beHi Sebastiaan,
I really like the "look" of it, too, and the demos sound really nice to me.
I've experimented with horizontal tapping (a natural instinct for any keyboard-playing Stickist, which I think is where the Kelstone got it's start, as a horizontal Stick). It was fun to get the thumbs more involved, but what I missed compared with the Free Hands approach was the correspondence of the sequence of finger to the sequence of notes.
What I mean is, as the fingers ascend on a string (1,2,3, 4) the notes also ascend on the string. (A, B, C, D)
On a tapping instrument where both hands come at the board from the same side the relationship is reversed (as on the piano). So the left hand has the pinky as the low finger on a string. This isn't a "bad thing" I just think it makes it harder to relate the same patterns of notes to each hand.
Since Free Hands is in large part about equality of opportunity for the hands, this is an important element of how it feels to play instruments this way.
A cool instrument, in any case. And I hope they have good success.