Keytar

A keytar is a relatively lightweight keyboard or synthesizer that is supported by a strap around the neck and shoulders, similar to the way a guitar is supported by a guitar strap. Keytars allow players a greater range of movement compared to conventional keyboards, which are placed on stands. The instrument has a musical keyboard for triggering musical notes and sounds. Controls for pitch bends, vibrato, portamento, and sustain are placed on the instrument’s “neck".

History

The keytar was developed by Anthony Masakowski and commercially introduced in 1980 as the Moog Liberation. Early users included Spyro Gyra keyboardist Tom Schuman and the band Devo. The word “keytar” is a "portmanteau" of “keyboard” and “guitar”. An early printed use of the term “keytar” was in 1980 in an interview with Jeffrey Abbott by Tom Lounges of "Illianabeat" magazine (now "Midwest BEAT Magazine").Fact|date=March 2008The keytar was made popular in the 1980s by glam metal bands, as well as synthpop and New Wave groups. Changing trends in music diminished the keytar’s popularity shortly thereafter.

The keytar has enjoyed new visibility due in part to software innovations from companies like Musiclab (RealGuitar), UltimateSoundBank (PlugSound).

While Edgar Winter often performed with a keyboard slung around his neck in the early 1970s, it was not a keytar—it was an ARP 2600 keyboard with a shoulder strap added. Wayne Famous of the 1980s band The Producers also strapped on a regular Oberheim synthesizer, which caused him to develop back problems.

No new keytars are currently being mass produced, with Roland ceasing production of its AX-7 model in early 2007.

Types

1980s

The Moog Liberation was released in 1980 by Moog Music. It included two monophonic VCOs and a polyphonic section that could play organ sounds. The neck had spring-loaded wheels for filter cutoff, modulation, and volume as well as a ribbon-controlled pitch bend. The Liberation had a single VCF and two ADS envelope generators.

The Roland SH-101 is a small, 32 key, monophonic analog synthesizer from the early 1980s. It has one oscillator with two waveforms, an 'octave-divided' sub-oscillator, and a low-pass filter/VCF capable of self oscillation. When a shoulder strap is connected to it, and the small handgrip with a pitch bend wheel and a pitch modulation trigger is used, the SH-101 becomes a keytar.

The Yamaha SHS-10 from the late 1980s has a small keyboard with 32 minikeys and a pitch-bend wheel, an internal Frequency modulation (usually referred to as FM) synthesizer offering 25 different voices with 6-note polyphony. Onboard voices include a range of keyboard instruments (pipe organ, piano, electric piano, etc.); strings (violin, guitar, double bass, etc.); and wind and brass (clarinet, flute, trumpet, etc.).

1990s-2000s

The Roland AX-7, which was manufactured from 2001 to 2007, contains many more advanced features than early keytars. It has a 45 velocity sensitive keys (without aftertouch), and a 3-character LED display. Several features aimed towards stage performance are present, such as a pitch bend ribbon, touchpad-like expression bar, sustain switch, and volume control knob, all on the upper neck of the instrument. There is also a proprietary "D-Beam" interface, made up of infrared sensors that detect nearby motion. This interface can be used to trigger and control effects.

Related instruments

While some inexpensive children’s toys are manufactured in the same shape as a keytar, and marketed with the keytar name, these toys have very limited capabilities. They can typically only perform one note at a time (monophonic) or in some cases, two-note polyphony. Professional models allow the performer to play many notes at once (except for older instruments such as the aforementioned Moog or the Roland SH-101). As well, the sound quality for the samples or synthesis is usually very rudimentary.

Instrument builder Vinson Williams developed two instruments which he calls Keytars, the Keytar V-1 (with 12 strings and a 12-note keyboard) and the Keytar V-2 (with 24 strings and a 24-note keyboard). Unlike the synthesizer-based Moog Liberation and the Yamaha and Roland keytars which descended from it, William's keytar combines a guitar body with strummable metal strings and a piano keyboard, instead of a fretboard, for plucking the strings. While William's instrument shares the keytar name, its use of strings and its autoharp (chorded zither) and clavichord-style automated plucking mechanisms puts it in a different category. Like the autoharp, William's instrument uses dampers which, when depressed, mute all the strings other than those which the player wishes to strum. Like the clavichord, the instrument has mechanical tangents which pluck the strings when the player depresses a key on the keyboard.

See also

* Moog Liberation
* List of keytars
* List of keytarists
* Drumitar
* Zendrum
* Guitar/synthesizer
* MIDI

References