EWI USB Fingerings explained

[@sb.8769]

Thanks, at last, I've been trawling through videos for hours and only you appear to give clear and proper instruction and examples without harping on and filling up the time

[@btrbcomposer]

@@sb.8769 glad this is still being useful after this long, glad to help.

[@btrbcomposer]

Yes, the audio is too low, I am not going to redo this video to correct it.

[@halfabee]

Read the warings turned up volume to max and it was good for me.

[@dallen3000]

lol i love the blunt honesty

[@BigJerr]

dude dont listen to these people theres always people that need to point out flaws i think it some how makes them feel beter about there lack of acomplishments - very helpful video

[@oljobo]

Thank You 🥰 . Absolute beginner.. got my EWI5000 yesterday…. A MIRACLE to find this video ‼️ Thanks again 😃

[@moonants]

thank you, thank you - saved me hours, I appreciate that you took the time to figure this all out.

[@BobHorvath]

Great video… I am finding the top half like a woodwind… the bottom half more like a brass instrument

[@timbremusicstudio2194]

Very Good! Thank you so much!!! I'm Leon, from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

[@kazuki535-j5j]

Thanks for your philosophy

[@lorenzoduenas1268]

Thank you you simplified a lot of issues

[@mustaphakazma407]

Thank you I wonder if we play microtonal (quarter tone) on the EWI5000

[@raptorbandarchive]

Prob not in tandem with all of the notes currently on the EWI, but you could absolutely set your synth to something in-between :)

[@bartsjazzman446]

If you are reading music you need a mental picture of where to find the next note..to some extent that also applies if you play by ear. So I picture a piano keyboard ... the black keys are the non C scale keys - 1 = flat /+1 = sharp relative to the nearest c scale note. There are exceptions such as the high C#. But you need a system that can become instinctive. There are only 5 black keys but perhaps too many ways to play them?

[@btrbcomposer]

This video is only about the way the instrument is programmed. How to use it, fingering sets, is on a way different level. Look for videos by Ewi Den, he has come up with some very efficient ways to navigate fingerings, scales, patterns.

[@btrbcomposer]

Also Ingo Scherzinger, and the Ewi groups on Facebook have lots of helpful stuff

[@bartsjazzman446]

True... but use the reading skill you have painfully learnt and picture the piano keyboard to advantage otherwise you are starting from absolute scratch. The fingering shortcuts are a next step (particularly useful for transitioning the octave breaks smoothly down and up)

[@DigitalWindInstrument]

Very useful ❤

[@halfabee]

Main item I like best regarding the Saxophone is the fingering is the same across the range of saxophones. I have memorised the fingering for the saxophone and will stick to this. If I purchase an EWI.

[@mitchlandy5768]

Thank you! The fingering charts that come with the EWI are not nearly as useful as this logical approach. I owe you!

[@davidmdyer838]

It's fun to hear you talk about this because I also come at the wind controller from the recorder (I have a master's in recorder from Oberlin). To me, a wind controller is a fancy recorder. But as part of the WC community I am so totally surrounded by sax players and sax expectations that they don't even know their own prejudices. Like endlessly referring to wind controllers as MIDI saxes whereas they actually play more like recorders. And the expectation is that they are for playing jazz. Nope, they can play all sorts of music. Theramin players play electronic instruments but mostly play classical music so why aren't they expected to play jazz all the time if they're playing electronic instruments? It's a very fun world full of great, supportive, and helpful people, but it's very one-track-minded. I don't own an EWI yet (I will get a USB as soon as I can afford it), but I do have a Sylphyo which offers EWI fingerings so I know exactly what you're talking about. The Sylphyo link will serve as a MIDI host so I won't need a special computer bridge for plugging an EWI USB directly into synths or computers that don't have a USB port. I even have 3 other Casio MIDI horns which will eventually allow my temporarily disbanded recorder group to play as a MIDI consort because players can take their Casios home to practice with the built-in sounds and come back to my studio to pl ug into my extra rack-mounted units. As a player of recorders, krummhorns and many other Renaissance reeds, it's fun to see someone else besides myself pick up the wind controller from the same direction as me. I'm on Facebook if you want to look me up (in my picture I'm holding a violin, what I actually make my living at), and you can find my one KZbin offering by looking up David Dyer Recorder Leenhouts.

[@henrikgustav2294]

Can u blow it like a recorder? Or does it need special lip technique like a sax?

[@btrbcomposer]

It is a wind instrument, but there is a reed that has a few options for use.

[@CorpseTongji]

its a great instrument , ive been using it to control a bunch of different hardware synths using the saxophone detault fingerings my only gripe with it , coming from an instrument where you really had to mash the keys down , is that there are still a ton of accidental notes that slip through , like going from a C to a D , and then going up and octave to an E simultaneously always triggers an avalanche of unwanted notes , but i'm thinking as i get used to it or experiment with different fingerings ill be able to minimize that lmao

[@vall-ivall-i7109]

THANK YOU. This helped so much. 🫶

[@acarbonbasedlifeform70]

How often do you have to wash the mouthpiece of an EWI?

[@btrbcomposer]

That really depends on how often you play it.

[@acarbonbasedlifeform70]

@@btrbcomposer let's say I'm going to play it 1 hour every day, give or take

[@ScoptOriginal]

It has different fingering options, right? So is it possible to just make every key a +1 or +1/2? That feels more natural to me

[@btrbcomposer]

Doesn't work that way. The different options are for like sax or clarinet fingerings, not a wholesale change in the basic programming. Do you play an acoustic instrument?

[@ScoptOriginal]

@@btrbcomposer not much wind, although I used to play the Tuba in school I don't remember much of how to play it. I play guitar, bass, keyboard, harmonica and pan pipes, but they all have a system where each note is either a full or half step above the previous

[@tswvlor9877]

Aare the keys the same as that of traditional saxophone or are they the same as that of the recorder? Thanks!

[@btrbcomposer]

the keys are touch plates, basically modeled after sax, but more like reorder in that you do not rest your fingers on the keys.

[@DynaSample]

Hi David, very nice! ... but you're making it a bit too complicated at the beginning. Most new people would be confused at this point and assume that these fingerings are full of unpredictable exceptions - which is not the case. That's because you're starting right out with one of the exceptions! It's much simpler to be explain: Each key has a fixed interval. All keys add up - with only two exceptions: 1) k1,k2 and k3 (B, Bb bis and A) ALWAYS act as a group. 2) k8 (F) becomes a semitone when k4 (G) is lifted up (for sax Bb = Bb major chord arpeggio connecting F - Bb - F). Both exceptions were made to be compliant to the saxophone fingerings. :-) On an acoustic sax k8 (F) closes the Bb bis key. The Bb bis key is used a lot by sax players, BTW. I wouldn't play a wind controller that doesn't have it. It allows playing in keys with flats just like playing in C - without forked fingerings or side keys. Play an F major scale once with the Bb bis and once with the side Bb. ;-) (On a sax playing Bb in a scale without the bis key usually requires coordinating two hands instead of just one which is much more prone to unclean note connections.)

[@BigJerr]

im not sure your expanation was better

[@reyrey003]

Thanks...you're awesome!

[@Taupac]

Thx for the info, man !

[@tunairaiol]

Thank you.

[@defendthefaith]

David: can you set it to a penny whistle fingering? (diatonic). I realize there are many more note possibilities. But I play the penny whistle exclusively.

[@bob-rogers]

It doesn't have pennywhistle fingering, but it's close. You have to play xxo oxo instead of xxx ooo. All the other notes are the same.

[@selmer1971]

What is the link to the page for the fingerings? I went on there and it’s hard to navigate.

[@miguelarango208]

Interesting! But it does make sense acoustically and I’ll tell you why. I’m whistle player and that’s about as basic as flute acoustics gets. So when you play all open (assuming you’re in the key of C) you hit that !B then coming down you can cover half of the first hole or skip the first hole and cover the second one completely in order to get the Bb. Covering the second hole on a basic flute type instrument (a cylinder with holes in a line) is the equivalent of covering half of the first hole. It’s all about how much air escapes.

[@btrbcomposer]

I do play recorders and whistles as well so understand that very well. The fun with this instrument comes in the ways you can manipulate the fingerings that are impossible on an acoustic instrument.

[@F-Andre]

would you say, the ewi is easy to learn? im playing just keyboard and guitar.. was playing recorder back in school :D

[@chavadiec]

btrbcomposer do you actually can manipulate the pitches in the way you explain in the video in any of the setting fingerings ( sax flute oboe evi) or this logic in only for the setting EWI 1?? Thank you I really intrerested in your answer. Excelent video!

[@guadalupeantoniadelafuente3236]

Is posible to change the f# in the oboe set configuration? Noneone of the f #s of the 9 Pages doc is correct or a real f# in the oboe...

[@btrbcomposer]

Guadalupe Antonia De la Fuente y Fernandez de Lara I do not know if the other fingering sets are changeable, but I doubt it. With so many possibilities in the full set it is counterintuitive to want to limit your options. It is not an oboe, but is only trying to emulate one. I approach it as it's own instrument.

[@guadalupeantoniadelafuente3236]

btrbcomposer it’s not a sax but the fingerings are correct for the sax I mean you don,t have to think f# when you want to play a F natural. Why let just one fingering out of the real oboe fingering with this bunch of information in this machine. Definitly i don,t Get it. Thanks any way

[@chavadiec]

This logic of fingerings patterns is able in any set of preset configuration ( sax flute oboe evi ) or just works for EWI 1 set? Thanks

[@btrbcomposer]

I do not know the other presets, just the full set.

[@123holyhuman]

Thank you very much. I just picked up the USB model a couple of days ago. I have looked all over patchman's site and saw the evi fingering page but not this 9 page document pdf that you reference. Would you be kind as to provide a link. Much appreciated.

[@btrbcomposer]

It is hard to find, not sure why. Easier would be to send me email at [e-mail] and I will send a copy

[@123holyhuman]

btrbcomposer thanks a bunch again. Actually a couple of hours ago I found it. Joined the forum and did a search.

[@arrhythmicjones4069]

I think the team that did the Fishman TriplePlay also programmed the EWI-USB.....

[@erniencinas71]

Nice video. Were you by any chance a Navy Musician? You look like a chief of mine I served with.

[@btrbcomposer]

unitas33 Yes I was, got out in 97.

[@erniencinas71]

btrbcomposer hey Dave. Small KZbin world! I see you are in Oregon. Very cool!

[@zenobibonsai]

There is a Akai "Reference Manual" for the EWI4000s that does go into detail about the different fingering modes and shows a detailed graph for each note ;)

[@GenePavlovsky]

I checked out that manual, and (for each fingering mode) it seems to show only one fingering for each note. The EWI mode is generally recommended, unless you already play a specific instrument like a sax, in which case you might want to use a mode closer to that instrument. And the point made in this video, that there are multiple fingerings (in the same fingering mode) that can produce a particular note. The Akai manual doesn't cover the alternative fingerings.

[@indigoskywalker]

audio is waaaaay quite :-/

[@julesbarry2081]

stand closer to your mike sir!!!