Janco keyboard

ed440 at mindspring.com ed440 at mindspring.com
Sun Dec 24 12:56:42 MST 2006


Edwin Good devotes about 8 pages to the Janko keyboard in _Giraffes, Black Dragons and Other Pianos_.  It was an attempt to "rationalize" the keyboard.  For example, on a Janko keyboard all major scales are played with the same fingering, and they all feel the same to the hand. 

What Janko did not consider is that the topography of a traditional keyboard has a lot to do with expression and musical understanding in playing the piano. And by making every key and chord feel the same to the hands, it required a lot more looking to find your way around the "easier to play" keyboard, making sight reading more difficult!

If this were an original Janko keyboard, it would be a collector's item, maybe a museum piece.  As a 20th Century retrofit, it's value is hard to imagine.

EBay is a remarkable educational resource....and it's free...as long as you don't bid.

Ed Sutton
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>Whoa, check this out!  I've never seen anything like this before!  I know
>that typewriter keyboards have been reinvented for faster speed and yet no
>one uses them because everybody's in a rut.  
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>Now I know how they feel.
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>Item number: 140067612730
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>Tom Sivak
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