Okay, strictly speaking this has nothing to do with designing typefaces. However it does involve playing around with letters, so I consider it worthwhile! 
As a Mac user, I’ve had GarageBand for awhile, but never really used it. I thought it was high time for some musical action!
Musical typing in GarageBand
Here are the keystrokes I used to play the basic melody of ‘The Entertainer’ (a ragtime classic from Scott Joplin, c.1902):
sed k d k d k klp; kl; jlk
sed k d k d k hgt hk; lkl
sed k d k d k klp; kl; jlk
kl; kl; klk; kl; klk; kl; jlk
You will probably recognise the tune instantly once you have a listen:
GarageBand is a great way to experiment with sound and music, even if music isn’t your strong point. Unfortunately I only have one and a half songs in my repertoire. Maybe I should start learning piano again. 
One of the really cool features of GarageBand is the ability to turn your keystrokes into sheet music. You don’t need to know anything about music theory to do this (unless you want to play it again on an actual piano!)
Sheet music sample from 'The Entertainer'
4 Comments
November 23, 2009 at 9:29 pm
Hey Megan, that’s really cool. You’ve certainly been experimenting with unusual ways to use typography!
November 23, 2009 at 9:48 pm
Thanks Fiona, it was fun to record, if a little time consuming because I kept making mistakes!
November 23, 2009 at 9:31 pm
funny, and good effort
can you give Mission Impossible a go?
November 23, 2009 at 9:50 pm
haha! good idea, maybe in the holidays because that’s how long it’ll take me to get it right!