I never treated minikeys as anything other than a portability trade-off and something used for creating short loops with midi-controller, but recently I got a Yamaha Reface DX and I'm having so much fun with it. After a couple of days however, I've realised that I'm unconsciously using some techniques I never or very rarely use with a regular-sized keyboard, such as:
- I can play 16-semitone intervals with one hand so that I can single-handedly have a sort of bass line.
- I can press (simultaneously or consecutively) two adjacent keys with one finger (something I do more rarely on a big keyboard)
- I more often slide between adjacent keys.
All this makes me rethink minikeys as a slightly different instrument, not to the same extent as electric bass and upright bass, but still different.
My question is - are there any pieces that were composed specifically for playing on minikeys so I can practice and improve techniques that are applicable exclusively/mainly with smaller keyboards.