Bell Choir Question

[hugo.4705]

Hi, Something changed this year, I speak about the notes and their locations in the skill-bar, I associated each one to it respective position in the scale: So 1 = DO..... © , 2 = RE, 3 = MI.....

But here comes my problem: That very annoying empty 5! Which is sensed to be Sol (G). And I fail all my tries just due to that, can you simply re-compact all the 8 notes of the scale together, so 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 for me and let that 9 alone empty? Or with tone changer like normally when using instruments? Or, dunno, add D+1.. Thanks.


 

[Astralporing.1957]

use 2 hands, one for 1-4, one for 6-9. It's much easier

[hugo.4705]

That's what I tried, but that's non-sense, I prefer 1-8 keys above letters with two hands just like I'm playing on a real piano. Everything on the same line of keys.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

Pretend it's F#?

[Astralporing.1957]

> @"hugo.4705" said:

> That's what I tried, but that's non-sense, I prefer 1-8 keys above letters with two hands just like I'm playing on a real piano.

is that important? i still keep one finger per one key, and don't move those, so it doesn't really matter for me if the both groups are together on keyboard or not.

 

[hugo.4705]

Mmh simply can't even with keeping my fingers on, the fact that the keys are not grouped loses me.

I'm happy you have no difficulties, I'm not asking for that much just moving those 4 last notes at the left and so making that hole disappearing.

yup finally I can't say that much, have to force myself to ignore that "5" key will be hard.

 

[RoseofGilead.8907]

This is how it's been since the first Wintersday with this activity, I thought. The G/Sol key has always been the 6. And yeah, it was a bit annoying to get used to, but it feels natural to me by now. As was mentioned above, I generally just treat it like I'm playing an actual piano, with 1-4 being my left hand fingers and 6-9 being my right hand fingers.

[Tommo Chocolate.5870]

I'm pretty sure it's always been like this (and the Wiki history page for Bell Choir Ensemble thinks so too). And that gap between Fa and Sol gives you space for your thumbs!

 

If you remap your skill keys, so that healing skill is 5, utility skill 1 is 6, etc. doesn't that remap these skills as well? If so, that should solve your problem.

[TheQuickFox.3826]

Ugh.


 

Body is 6 characters too short.

 

[Ashantara.8731]

> @"hugo.4705" said:

> That's what I tried, but that's non-sense, I prefer 1-8 keys above letters with two hands just like I'm playing on a real piano.

 

And that is exactly what you can do with this design as well. It shouldn't matter whether the right hand is 5-8 or 6-9, it makes no difference once you have placed your fingers on the correct keys.

 

> @"TheQuickFox.3826" said:

> Ugh.

> 

 

Those are great for typing, but nonsense to use for gaming. ;)

[Danikat.8537]

You could always set up special key bindings for Bell Choir. That's what I did.

 

A few years ago I bound my skills to the number pad, because I'm left-handed and find it easier and more comfortable like that. About 9 months ago I finally got rid of the default bindings for skills and used those keys for menu buttons and mounts. Which works great for everything else, but I found Bell Choir absolutely impossible with the number pad.

 

So I set up secondary bindings for 1-4 and 6-9 on the right side of the middle row, from G to #. I picked those keys purely because it's where I had 8 in a straight line I wasn't using for anything else - it doesn't matter where on the keyboard it is. I use them as other people have described - put one hand on each set of 4 and play it like a piano.

[System]

Correcting a mis-merge. This thread is on the topic of key bindings for instruments.

[TheQuickFox.3826]

> @"Ashantara.8731" said:

> > @"hugo.4705" said:

> > That's what I tried, but that's non-sense, I prefer 1-8 keys above letters with two hands just like I'm playing on a real piano.

>

> And that is exactly what you can do with this design as well. It shouldn't matter whether the right hand is 5-8 or 6-9, it makes no difference once you have placed your fingers on the correct keys.

>

> > @"TheQuickFox.3826" said:

> > Ugh.

> > 

>

> Those are great for typing, but nonsense to use for gaming. ;)

 

I'm not going to switch keyboards for every activity.

[Mazreal Blackknight.1564]

This has been the set up since the first of Bell Choir.

[Deimos.4263]

Bell Choir is actually harder for those active in the GW2 music community, because the notes are bizarrely different than all the other instruments...including bells. I'm glad they got rid of the annoying bit at the end this year to speed things up. If they really want to improve bell choir...give us the good Wintersday bell! The one in Bell Choir sounds horrible and I hate hearing it.

[Ashantara.8731]

> @"Deimos.4263" said:

> I'm glad they got rid of the annoying bit at the end this year to speed things up.

 

Agreed. :+1:

 

 

[Konig Des Todes.2086]

> @"hugo.4705" said:

> That's what I tried, but that's non-sense, I prefer 1-8 keys above letters with two hands just like I'm playing on a real piano. Everything on the same line of keys.

 

Honestly, that set up would put my hands too close together that it'd feel crunched.

[Leablo.2651]

On the contrary, I rebound the right-hand keys to 7-0 to create even more of a gap in the middle. As there is no good reason to use these keys ordinarily, it doesn't interfere with normal gameplay. They are dedicated as instrument keys.

 

Mainly, though, I think the idea was to balance the visual presentation of having 4 keys on either side of the health orb. If they compact the keys then there will be 5 on one side and 3 on the other.

[Dreamy Lu.3865]

I put fingers from left hand on 1 - 4 and fingers from right hand on 6-9. I don't move anymore and "type" like if the colors coming would be the letters of a message streaming on my screen. It reminds me a lot of the software I was using to learn typing without watching my fingers on keyboard. Same exercise. Side note: I tend to turn sound off that distracts me more than it helps... :3

[Danikat.8537]

> @"Deimos.4263" said:

> Bell Choir is actually harder for those active in the GW2 music community, because the notes are bizarrely different than all the other instruments...including bells. I'm glad they got rid of the annoying bit at the end this year to speed things up. If they really want to improve bell choir...give us the good Wintersday bell! The one in Bell Choir sounds horrible and I hate hearing it.

 

I find it easier to play with the sound turned off, so I'm just focusing on matching up the colours/lanes to the buttons and not worrying about what sounds right.

 

Incidentally I've heard the same about musicians trying to play things like Guitar Hero - it's just similar enough that the differences are really jarring and make the entire thing seem weird. Apparently drummers tend to be better at Guitar Hero than guitarists - because it's all about timing.

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

> @"Danikat.8537" said:

> > @"Deimos.4263" said:

> > Bell Choir is actually harder for those active in the GW2 music community, because the notes are bizarrely different than all the other instruments...including bells. I'm glad they got rid of the annoying bit at the end this year to speed things up. If they really want to improve bell choir...give us the good Wintersday bell! The one in Bell Choir sounds horrible and I hate hearing it.

>

> I find it easier to play with the sound turned off, so I'm just focusing on matching up the colours/lanes to the buttons and not worrying about what sounds right.

>

> Incidentally I've heard the same about musicians trying to play things like Guitar Hero - it's just similar enough that the differences are really jarring and make the entire thing seem weird. Apparently drummers tend to be better at Guitar Hero than guitarists - because it's all about timing.

 

What @"Danikat.8537" wrote. The timing is easier for me without the sound.

 

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

I play without other player sound, as well. I have all player's instrument sounds muted; I'm not sure if it affects that. Regardless, I've found no sounds works well for me there.

[hugo.4705]

Yeah, after reading all the comments, I think it's an habit to take. It's just that I'm not a fan of holes between skills.

[Khisanth.2948]

> @"Danikat.8537" said:

> You could always set up special key bindings for Bell Choir. That's what I did.

>

> A few years ago I bound my skills to the number pad, because I'm left-handed and find it easier and more comfortable like that. About 9 months ago I finally got rid of the default bindings for skills and used those keys for menu buttons and mounts. Which works great for everything else, but I found Bell Choir absolutely impossible with the number pad.

>

> So I set up secondary bindings for 1-4 and 6-9 on the right side of the middle row, from G to #. I picked those keys purely because it's where I had 8 in a straight line I wasn't using for anything else - it doesn't matter where on the keyboard it is. I use them as other people have described - put one hand on each set of 4 and play it like a piano.

 

If I needed that I would use AHK to remap instead. Much easier to turn on and off rather than having to redo the keybindings.

 

> @"Inculpatus cedo.9234" said:

> I play without other player sound, as well. I have all player's instrument sounds muted; I'm not sure if it affects that. Regardless, I've found no sounds works well for me there.

 

It does. I was wondering why Bell Choir was silent this year then I remembered i turned player instrument volume down to 0.

[Gaile Gray.6029]

> @"Leablo.2651" said:

> On the contrary, I rebound the right-hand keys to 7-0 to create even more of a gap in the middle. As there is no good reason to use these keys ordinarily, it doesn't interfere with normal gameplay. They are dedicated as instrument keys.

>

> Mainly, though, I think the idea was to balance the visual presentation of having 4 keys on either side of the health orb. If they compact the keys then there will be 5 on one side and 3 on the other.

 

I play a lot of Bell Choir and I agree, the 1, 2, 3, 4, and then 7, 8, 9, 0 is a very nice setup for the hands. It seems more instinctive than the default, but I work with the default just fine, too. Rebinding is a good suggestion, though -- thank you!