Janko Keyboard

The Jankó keyboard is a musical keyboard layout for a piano designed by Paul von Jankó in 1882.

Based on the premise that the hand can barely stretch more than a 9th on the piano, and that all scales are fingered differently, Jankó's new keyboard had two interlocking 'manuals' with three touch-points for each key lever. Instead of the traditional row of white and black keys, the keyboard has an array of keys.

Each vertical column of keys is a semitone away from its neighboring columns, and on each horizontal row of keys the interval from one note to the next is a whole step. This key layout results in all chords and scales having the same "shape" on the keyboard with the same fingerings regardless of key, unlike a traditional keyboard, which require twelve different patterns of each key.

For an 88 note (full size) keyboard, there would be 264 keys in total, with each note playable by 3 keys in vertical alignment. In the picture, the white keys have been coloured to show how the keys are interconnected. Instead of 123 cm the keyboard is only 89 cm large. Due to the smaller keys one hand can reach more keys.

The Jankó keyboard never caught on, mainly because few were prepared to relearn their repertoire on a new unestablished keyboard with totally new fingering. Also, since cast-iron framed pianos were not very portable, Jankó pianos would not have been available for musicians on the move. It could have rivaled the traditional piano if it had been invented at an earlier period, when keyboards were more portable due to the lighter wooden frame, and when the traditional keyboard was not quite as favoured as it was after the romantic era. Finally the pedagogical advantage of the traditional keyboard pattern, allowing beginners to start playing in a tonality (C major) without having to understand the tonal and harmonic principles isn't to be underestimated. Therefore, the Janko piano retains the colouring of traditional keyboards (white naturals, black sharps and flats) without the usual necessity to learn all other key patterns as an alteration of a C major scale.

Many embodiments of this keyboard have appeared since its conception. Jankó himself (in German patent 25852, dated 14 Jan 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 Jul 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. (For example: John Trotter, 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. Gould and Marsh, Edgar, Cramer, McChesney, Stewart, Adams, Nordbö, Barnett, Reuther, Firestone, and Reuther .) The most recent patents are for MIDI compatible instruments.