Keyboards, Grids & Other Instruments
Beyond strings, ChordColor supports keyboards (piano, organ), isomorphic grid controllers (LinnStrument, Push, Launchpad), harp with its lever system, accordion with Stradella bass, and kalimba with its alternating left-right layout.
Piano & Organ
The piano keyboard alternates white and black keys, with white keys forming the C major scale. ChordColor displays 3 octaves (C3 to B5). The organ extends this with a 25-key pedalboard below the manual keyboard. The piano layout makes the major scale the easiest thing to play, but intervals are not visually uniform the way they are on grid controllers.
Isomorphic Grid Controllers
Controllers like LinnStrument, Ableton Push, Launchpad, Akai Force, and Synthstrom Deluge arrange notes in a uniform grid. In the "perfect 4ths" layout, moving right = 1 semitone, moving up = 5 semitones. The huge advantage: one pattern per chord type. A major chord shape is the same triangle of pads everywhere on the grid, in every key. No shape changes, no irregularities.
Harp
The Celtic harp (34 strings) is tuned to a diatonic scale — no "black key" strings. To play in other keys, each string has a lever that raises the pitch by one semitone when engaged. Engaging the F lever turns all F strings into F#, putting you in G major.
Accordion
The accordion's Stradella bass system arranges bass notes and chords in a grid organized by the circle of fifths. The I, IV, and V chords of any key are always in adjacent columns, making common progressions playable with minimal hand movement.
Kalimba
The kalimba (thumb piano) alternates notes left and right from a center tine. Scales zigzag naturally between thumbs. ChordColor supports 10-key, 17-key, and 21-key variants.
In ChordColor
All instruments display interval colors on every note. Grid controllers support both perfect-4ths and major-3rds tuning. ChordColor supports 26 instruments in total across all categories.