Janco keyboard

[ed440 at mindspring.com]

Surely someone has written a book on the history of failed "rational" inventions.

If you think of playing a piano as a problem of typing the right notes, perhaps the Janko keyboard makes sense.  But playing music involves so much more.
Consider the feeling of moving the hand from a C Major chord to an F# Major chord. Is this a problem to be solved i.e. "equalized?"  The music goes to a "different level" and so does the hand.  

About seven centuries of music history and human experience are embodied in the traditional keyboard design. The more I study music and piano, the more I see its beauty and its utility.

Ed Sutton

-----Original Message-----
>From: Tom Sivak <tvaktvak at sbcglobal.net>
>Sent: Dec 25, 2006 10:41 AM
>To: ed440 at mindspring.com, Pianotech List <pianotech at ptg.org>
>Subject: RE: Janco keyboard
>
>Ed, you make a great point that I had not thought of.  By making the keyboard feel the same you take away the ability to feel your way around the keyboard without looking down.  
>   
>  Years ago, back when I made my living playing and conducting, I had an interesting experience related to this.  Interesting to me, anyway.
>   
>  I was playing some auditions for an acting company where I had to sight-read and accompany the actor/singers who were auditioning.  The pianos that one must play on in these kinds of situations can be a joke.  This piano, horribly out of tune and regulation, also had a missing ebony on F#2.  I found myself missing a lot of bass notes, white notes, because of this.  I kept playing G2, thinking it was C2.  (Because G2 was now next to two black keys.)
>   
>  I never realized how much I used touch to find my way around the keyboard.  The uniformity of this keyboard would be a huge detriment.
>   
>  Tom Sivak
>  Chicago
>  
>ed440 at mindspring.com wrote:
>  
>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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>>----- Original Message ----- 
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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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