[userbinator]

notes could map to letters and chords involving those letters could map to common patterns with the letters as mnemonics

This is the basic working principle of the stenotype, which enables extremely fast typing (200wpm+) but needs a lot of practice to learn. A MIDI keyboard does seem like an ideal input device for this, if anyone wants to take this idea further they could try to make it work with Plover (http://stenoknight.com/wiki/Main_Page )

[sqrt17]

Actually, a midi keyboard has a longer way from keyup to keydown because you need to express differences in the velocities.

Then again, many more people have midi keyboards than steno machines, so it might be worth the try to adapt it for plover.

An even more awesome idea would be to use something like the EWI or the Eigenharp pico as a steno device, since those are more portable than either a midi keyboard or a normal keyboard. Not sure about the Eigenharp, but for the EWI you'd have to use another firmware (than the current one which translates fingerings into single midi notes and doesn't support chording), which sadly puts it out of the frame.