Flat keys vs. domed keys

[Frank Edgley]

Thank you all for your thoughts. Ardie suggests that I pose the following expansion to the topic "why most concertina buttons after 150 years still have uncomfortable 5mm diam while other pressbuttons (phones, computers, calculators,accordions..)  have ideal 10-13(15)mm flat ( or even concave) ones".

Ardie is forever banging away at this idea that somehow playing a concertina is the same as using a telephone etc. It's a keyboard so it works exactly the same as all others? Yeah, right. (as they say in NZ)

 

For you, Jim, not Ardie, who knows I disagree with him violently on this point as he has already tried in a rather high and mighty way to tell me what the truth is in a PM exchange, I offer an explanation and perhaps an answer to your question; one that suits me anyway. The domed buttons are a big help for any sort of advanced play involving rocking fingers on buttons to pick up second buttons, sliding fingers across from one to another in desperate situations where that is the 'best' fingering solution and personally I would also say for comfort and a nice feel. Corners are just unfriendly. Furthermore keeping the key-size down to make space between them makes the keyboard more tolerant of inaccurate finger placement than if the buttons were wide enough to touch and on the same centres, if you think about it. Finally, that dead space between the keys also makes it easier to play pairs of notes with one finger cleanly without getting unwanted adjacent notes.

 

I'd suggest the domed button might have come in as a direct result of the early virtuosi pushing the limits of what was perceived as possible on the instrument to include the sort of shenanagins mentioned above.

Absolutely!

[Rod]

Thank you all for your thoughts. Ardie suggests that I pose the following expansion to the topic "why most concertina buttons after 150 years still have uncomfortable 5mm diam while other pressbuttons (phones, computers, calculators,accordions..)  have ideal 10-13(15)mm flat ( or even concave) ones".

Ardie is forever banging away at this idea that somehow playing a concertina is the same as using a telephone etc. It's a keyboard so it works exactly the same as all others? Yeah, right. (as they say in NZ)

 

For you, Jim, not Ardie, who knows I disagree with him violently on this point as he has already tried in a rather high and mighty way to tell me what the truth is in a PM exchange, I offer an explanation and perhaps an answer to your question; one that suits me anyway. The domed buttons are a big help for any sort of advanced play involving rocking fingers on buttons to pick up second buttons, sliding fingers across from one to another in desperate situations where that is the 'best' fingering solution and personally I would also say for comfort and a nice feel. Corners are just unfriendly. Furthermore keeping the key-size down to make space between them makes the keyboard more tolerant of inaccurate finger placement than if the buttons were wide enough to touch and on the same centres, if you think about it. Finally, that dead space between the keys also makes it easier to play pairs of notes with one finger cleanly without getting unwanted adjacent notes.

 

I'd suggest the domed button might have come in as a direct result of the early virtuosi pushing the limits of what was perceived as possible on the instrument to include the sort of shenanagins mentioned above.

Absolutely!

 

How about 'semi-domed' buttons. I would describe the Nickel Silver buttons on my Anglo as flat-topped with rounded edges....quite possibly the very best of both worlds.

[Peter Laban]

Meanwhile in a paralel universe

[spindizzy]

A certain sense of deju vu!

Might get interesting .... they are far less polite and restrained on mudcat than we are

[Steve Mansfield]

Meanwhile in a paralel universe

 

Yes, Howard has got stuck in there already.

 

As they say in Eastenders, Leave It Howard! E ain't worth it!