The Jankó keyboard is a

musical keyboard A musical keyboard is the set of adjacent depressible levers or keys on a musical instrument. Keyboards typically contain keys for playing the twelve notes of the Western musical scale, with a combination of larger, longer keys and smaller, sho ...

layout for a

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

designed by Paul von Jankó, a Hungarian pianist and engineer, in 1882. It was designed to overcome two limitations on the traditional piano keyboard: the large-scale geometry of the keys (stretching beyond a

ninth In music, a ninth is a compound interval consisting of an octave plus a second. Like the second, the interval of a ninth is classified as a dissonance in common practice tonality. Since a ninth is an octave larger than a second, its ...

, or even an

octave In music, an octave ( la, octavus: eighth) or perfect octave (sometimes called the diapason) is the interval between one musical pitch and another with double its frequency. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been refer ...

, can be difficult or impossible for pianists with small hands), and the fact that each scale has to be fingered differently. Instead of a single row, the Jankó keyboard has an array of

keys Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (map ...

consisting of two interleaved manuals with three touch-points for every key lever, making six rows of keys. Each vertical column of three keys is a

semitone A semitone, also called a half step or a half tone, is the smallest musical interval commonly used in Western tonal music, and it is considered the most dissonant when sounded harmonically. It is defined as the interval between two adjacent no ...

away from the neighboring ones, which are in the alternate rows. Thus within each row the interval from one note to the next is a

whole step In Western culture, Western music theory, a major second (sometimes also called whole tone or a whole step) is a second spanning two semitones (). A second is a interval (music), musical interval encompassing two adjacent staff positions ( ...

. This key layout results in each chord and scale having the same shape on the keyboard with the same fingerings regardless of key, so there is no change in geometry when transposing music. Furthermore, the use of multiple rows allows the pianist to more naturally follow the contour of their hand and accounts for the different lengths of the fingers. The configuration retains the colouring of traditional keyboards (white naturals, black sharps and flats) for pedagogical purposes. For an 88-note (full size) keyboard, there would be 264 keys in total, with each note playable by three keys in vertical alignment. In the picture above, the white keys have been coloured to show how the keys are interconnected. Instead of the keyboard is only wide, and the smaller key size allows reaching wider intervals. The Jankó Keyboard caused a stir at the time of its invention, in large part due to its unique look and the intelligent design behind the keyboard. American piano manufacturer

Decker Brothers Decker Brothers was an American piano manufacturer located in the John H. Edelmann designed Decker Building in New York, New York, on the national register of historic places. The company began to produce pianos in 1865, created by David Decker a ...

put the keyboard into production around 1891, and the Paul de Janko Conservatory of Music was established in New York around the same time. There was even a manual written by W. Bradley Keeler called ''How to Play the New Keyboard''. Despite all this, the Jankó keyboard never achieved wide popularity. Music educators were not convinced that the benefits of the new keyboard were enough to challenge the traditional keyboard. Few performers were prepared to relearn their repertoire on a new keyboard with entirely different fingering. Both reasons left keyboard instrument manufacturers afraid to invest in a redesigned keyboard which promised to have only marginal commercial success.Naragon 1977, pp. 15–17, 140–142 Many embodiments of this keyboard have appeared since its conception. Jankó himself (in German patent 25852, dated 14 January 1884) originally chose a key shape which resembled the slim, black keys on the familiar piano keyboard. A year later (in German patent 32138, dated 1 July 1885) the keys became wider and shorter. Other inventors have filed patents for keyboards which are substantially similar to his design, differing most often in key shape or instrument to which those keyboards are affixed, including: * John Trotter
English Patent 3404
4 March 1811 * William A. B. Lunn devised in 1843 under the name of Arthur Wallbridge a sequential keyboard with two parallel rows of keys, each in whole tones * Miguel Theodore de Folly, Useful Registered Design Number 448 for a geometrical keyboard for the pianoforte, 1845 * Gould and Marsh, , 1859 * Edgar, , 1871 * Cramer, , 1874 * McChesney, , 1875 * Stewart, , 1886 * Adams, , 1901 * Nordbö, , 1916 * Barnett, , 1934 * Reuther, , 1940 * Firestone, , 1945

References

External links

Pianoworld article

The Uniform Keyboard
(contains many pictures of instruments with Jankó keyboards)
The Chromatone 312
(MIDI keyboard and synthesizer with Janko layout)

(Windows program) - try out Janko layouts with PC keyboard (similar layout of keys) - any tuning for the keys.

(Java Apps on Windows and Mac) - Try and compare many musical key layouts with vertically held keyboard.
Daskin Manufacturing
(MIDI controller keyboards with Janko layout)
Wicki.org.uk
free UK site containing Java, Flash, and PC applications to enable users to play their alpha-numeric keyboard to sound 12 equal tempered pitches using Wicki/Hayden or Janko layout.
IsoKeys
is a free application that provides a Jankó keyboard on touch-screen Android devices.
Hexiano
is a free an
open-source
application that provides a Jankó keyboard on touch-screen Android devices.
Demo
Demonstration of the advantages of the Jankó Keyboard by Paul Vandervoort, considered to be the world's foremost player of the device. Program: "Kitten on the Keys" by Zez Confrey; explanation of the Janko note arrangement and advantages over a standard keyboard; demonstration of musical passages which are difficult or impossible to play on a standard keyboard; "C#-Major Prelude" from the Well-Tempered Clavier by J.S. Bach; Boogie-woogie rendition of "Bye Bye Blackbird".

(A report on the Jankó keyboard shown at the 1893 Chicago Exposition) {{DEFAULTSORT:Janko keyboard Hungarian inventions Musical keyboard layouts

See also

References

External links