Vector Keyboard

An experimental instrument that renders harmonic relationships as you play. Any combination of notes draws live interval vectors across the chromatic circle, revealing the exact classes of consonance and dissonance present in the voicing.

Interval Classes

Interval theory groups the twelve chromatic distances into six symmetrical classes — each pairing an interval with its inversion. A minor second and major seventh are both class 1; a perfect fourth and fifth share class 5. The circle colors each active interval by class.

1st · m2 / M7

2nd · M2 / m7

3rd · m3 / M6

4th · M3 / m6

5th · P4 / P5

6th · Tritone

Detected Key & Gravity

As you play, the system continuously fits your note collection against every known scale (84 candidates across both diatonic tiers). The strongest match becomes the Detected Key. Gravity is the note your playing keeps returning to — it can match the detected tonic ("centered") or pull elsewhere, suggesting an alternate modal feel within the same pitch collection.

Color State — what each axis means

The ambient room glow is built from four independent musical signals layered into one color. Each maps to a dimension of the color cube — hue, saturation, value, and presence — so the room's color reads as the literal sum of how you're playing.

The Four Axes

Commit — how decisively you've committed to a real mode vs. noodling inside its parent pentatonic. Pure pentatonic = washed muted hint; the disambiguating notes (b2 → Phrygian, M6 → Dorian, etc.) bloom the color into full saturation.
Lean — how the playing tilts within the detected mode. Bright notes (M3, M6, M7) push the hue toward the warm side; dark notes (b2, b3, b6, TT) pull it toward cool. Dorian swings most dramatically; Aeolian/Ionian shift subtly from their anchor.
Register — average pitch across active notes. Low register dims the room (warm dark bottom) and sinks the glow; high register brightens it (luminous top) and lifts it.
IC focus — which interval class is dominating the voicing. Squared weighting means a dominant interval (Phrygian's b2 stack, a tritone hammer, perfect-fifth pads) bites through the family color as a recognizable hue accent rather than averaging into mud.