Tag Cleanup: keyboard / piano

We have the tags computer_keyboard and keyboard - the latter of which globs the (electronic) musical instrument and computer keyboards together, leaving us with two tags that describe the same thing.

I was thinking of using keyboard_(instrument) for the musical variety, and using computer_keyboard for the HID-type of keyboard, as they would be consistent with the *_(instrument) and computer_mouse tags, respectively. But, I'm not what we would do with the keyboard tag.

Or, another scheme could be to use keyboard_(instrument) for the instrument, but use keyboard to refer to the HID-type of keyboard, with computer_keyboard aliased to it. This might potentially solve the ambiguity problem with the keyboard tag, but we'd have to assume that most people think a "keyboard" refers to the perhipheral device.

Any suggestions on how to clean this up?

forum #15770 I guess everyone kind of forgot about it though.

I love how my own language has a different word for each of these ("klawerbord" as opposed to "sleutelbord").

Anyway, I would support keyboard_(instrument), but isn't a computer keyboard also an instrument in a sense? How about musical_keyboard or perhaps keyboard_(music) if we need something to group musical instruments by?

I think clavier would also work.

Hmmm. I had thought "clavier" referred to a specific kind of musical keyboard. I don't hear that word a lot.

It's usually used for older instruments (clavichord, harpsichord, etc.) but it refers to any type of musical keyboard.

It's nice and short so it's convenient to use as a tag, though as you said, I'm not sure if native English speakers are familiar enough with it.

Hmm, clavier sounds archaic to me, using it to describe modern electronic synthesizers sounds somewhat off. I guess I'll +1 keyboard_(instrument).

I see no reason not to go with keyboard_(instrument) and use the base tag for the thing we are all using to communicate at this very moment.

Although there are about 3-4 times as many musical keyboards tagged as computer keyboards, it wouldn't make sense to give the base case to the minority. If mixing them up is a problem, we ought to just have two specified cases.

I have a serious background in piano (a few decades' worth) and can see benefits to either keyboard_(instrument) or keyboard_(music). The latter IMHO is both more specific and shorter...

And then there's also the issue of people globbing electric keyboards with pianos (which I am tempted to jestfully refer to as "analog pianos", since electric keyboards are sometimes called "digital pianos") using the piano tag: post #645136.

I take it we'd want to differentiate between bona fide pianos and electric keyboards, right?

Bapabooiee said:
I take it we'd want to differentiate between bona fide pianos and electric keyboards, right?

I would say definitely.

Definately, if it's between a Yamaha synthesizer and a grand piano.

Whether or not we'd differentiate between an upright electric piano and a upright manual piano though, I'm not so sure.

So then, as far as pianos are concerned, would the following alias layout sound decent?

electric_keyboard -> keyboard_(instrument)
electric_piano -> keyboard_(instrument)
digital_piano -> keyboard_(instrument)

accoustic_piano -> piano
analog_piano -> piano (for completeness)
grand_piano -> piano
manual_piano -> piano

digital_piano is unused, and I'd alias electric_piano to piano as I mentioned above. They don't have the same form factor of typical keyboards and are usually mostly indistinguishable from traditional pianos. Also the tag is only being used on two parent-childed images.

I can go for having keyboard_(instrument) and computer_keyboard and leaving keyboard ambiguous and the wiki updated to note this.

Also agree on electric_piano -> piano rather than keyboard. Would prefer not aliasing digital to keyboard() since it'll give people the idea that electric must be the same.

So aliases:
electric_keyboard -> keyboard_(instrument)
electric_piano -> piano
acoustic_piano -> piano
analog_piano -> piano
manual_piano -> piano

As for:
grand_piano -> piano - isn't this a specifically distinguishable type of piano, or am I off? I could see this being an implication if I'm right, otherwise I'll alias.

Then keyboard needs a cleanup, if anyone would be so kind.

Bapabooiee said:
electric_keyboard -> keyboard_(instrument)
electric_piano -> keyboard_(instrument)
digital_piano -> keyboard_(instrument)

I'm not sure about these aliases. You can have one of these instruments without the actual keyboard being visible (e.g. post #549997)

The way I see it, keyboard_(instrument) (or whatever we decide to call it) should be used only when an actual keyboard is visible, even if there's no piano, synthesizer, or other similar instrument depicted (e.g. post #454560)

Fred1515 said:
I'm not sure about these aliases. You can have one of these instruments without the actual keyboard being visible (e.g. post #549997)

To my knowledge, "keyboard", when used in the context of an instrument, refers to the instrument as a whole - not just its keys.

If we were to go by your logic, post #437173 should not be tagged with piano because the keys aren't directly visible.

jxh2154 said:
grand_piano -> piano - isn't this a specifically distinguishable type of piano, or am I off? I could see this being an implication if I'm right, otherwise I'll alias.

I'm not completely sure, but I'm willing to bet people use 'piano' and 'grand piano' synonymously. Or, even if they were distincly different, it'd be too granular to tag IMO.

Then keyboard needs a cleanup, if anyone would be so kind.

I'll go and give it a quick run-through.

Bapabooiee said: To my knowledge, "keyboard", when used in the context of an instrument, refers to the instrument as a whole - not just its keys.

This is how I see it as well.