While modern music-making technology has made it reasonably easy for just about anyone to get some tunes going – mostly electronica-flavored ones – it still mostly feels like training wheels. Knowledge of theory and harmony, or a well-honed set of musical ears is what separates the men from the boys when it comes to producing music.

Musical education has enjoyed plenty of progress since the days of stern piano teachers beating your fingers with a ruler. Theory books are highly accessible, while technological innovators are integrating its centuries-old rules into cutting-edge products made to democratize music-making. It’s a noble goal and a sensible business pursuit, which is why we commend the guys behind Theoryboard.

A Kickstarter smash hit that broke through its funding goal in less than a month, TheoryBoard is an attractive MIDI controller that aims to simplify playing chords and melody lines in tunes. It lets you directly apply the principles of harmony and melody with the ease of playing a video game. TheoryBoard is also a fun toy by itself, featuring gobs of colorful marshmallow-shaped pads that illustrate the relationship between keys, notes, and structures (chords, scales) via color-coding. Simply select a scale you like and the key you want to play it in, and TheoryBoard does all the harmonizing and “theory” work.

This way, all possible chords in the scale and key can be played immediately on the colorful pads, and the melodies you play always stay in key so you can literally never hit a wrong note. Not the one you want – yes, but it’s guaranteed you will never go out of tune. It’s like a master cheat code for your piano that also adds colored lighting – for a “synesthetic” feel, as the TheoryBoard team likes to put it. In case this particular “-thesia” isn’t in your vocabulary, synesthesia is the ability to see colors while listening to music. It’s a pretty cool ability to have, though not essential for writing banging tunes.

TheoryBoard’s choice of scales is vast, including 860 different scales, or pretty much all note combinations known to mankind for making sense musically. The comprehensive list covers literally all genres, because these scales have been used by musicians all over the world for ages. Wondering why scales are important? They are combinations of up to 8 notes within a given key. From these combinations, chords and melody are derived.

As supporters of the concept that musicians should educate themselves by all means possible – especially by sharing and collaborating – we at Drooble absolutely love the idea of TheoryBoard and would love to see the project come to fruition. Currently, the developers are busy adding software features like an arpeggiator, step sequencer, and MIDI mapping. They also have a prototype ready and in the hands of several producers who can be seen putting it for a spin in the Kickstarter video.

If everything goes smoothly, TheoryBoard will start shipping in May 2018. It’s still available for pre-order at heavily discounted prices on its Kickstarter page, so you may want to look into this. At $799, the TB is more expensive than its closest competitor, the Komplete Kontrol keyboard by Native Instruments, which also includes several gigabytes worth of virtual instruments from the Berlin manufacturer’s Komplete bundle.

Then again, NI is a big corporation with huge negotiating power and the means to pursue an aggressive price point, while the TheoryBoard team is funded by cash out of pocket and donations. Hopefully, the product’s $799 price tag won’t end up being prohibitive for those interested in trying out its novel approach to music-making.