Samchillian,
the oddly-named, circuit-bended (and spray painted) ergonomic QWERTY
keyboard that New Yorker Leon Gruenbaum invented is more than a wierd
name: it could be a chance for keyboardists to finally cure themselves
of guitar envy, AND look nerdy while doing it! Since QWERTY keys are
mapped to pitch change, not specific pitches (stay with me, here),
simple key patterns can generate wild, screaming solos. One key press
can equal 'one pitch higher' in a scale. Suddenly a scale is just a
repetition of two keys. Scale too boring? Create a microtonal flurry of
notes that sounds like Hendrix and Cecil Taylor had a love child.
Samchillians may be hard to pick up, though the creator says he hopes
others will start playing the instrument. Never fear: there's a free standalone PC version, plus a non-working Mac version (woo-hoo!). Don't miss the video demo.
Carpal tunnel never sounded so good. (Seriously, the only disadvantage
of this thing is that, as the creator warns, the repetitive key
sequences could cause injury! Thanks to musicthing for picking this up! Since I'm in NYC, so maybe I can go snag the creator!