MATRIXSYNTH: A Janko Musical Keyboard Project


Saturday, June 13, 2009

A Janko Musical Keyboard Project


Click here for another Janko DIY project. The following is a short blurb from the site: "Have you ever thought about why the keys are arranged the way they are on a piano? The piano keyboard is extremely well established and few people question if its a good or bad keyboard layout. It has taken quite some time for me to realize that the piano keyboard really couldn't be an ingenious device. From a historical viewpoint the key arrangement on the piano is actually a remodification of some really old designs that were used in the renaissance period. The Janko keyboard is named after its inventor Paul von Janko which was a hungarian matematician. Indeed I could spend all day and night just talking about the theory and background of the piano keyboard versus the so called Janko keyboard and I believe this wikipedia article explains it pretty good."

The site mentions the only manufacturer of Janko keyboards is a Japanese company called Chromatone. Although similar to the C-Thru Axis controllers it is different. I did a little digging and according to this site: "C Thru Music's harmonic table and the Shape of Music's Melodic Table are both based on Tonnetz by Euler and Riemann(http://www.thummer.com/blog/2007/06/eulers-tonnetz.html , http://members.cox.net/dysartp/traditionalTonnetz.html)." Be sure to see this thread for more info on alternate keyboard controllers. Also see the labels below for prior posts here on MATRIXSYNTH.

6 comments:

  1. sorry for the mis comment on the earlier post, here is the relevant facts: The Janko Keyboard is a old design, originating in 1882. The Janko was developed so that amateurs could play difficult passages with ease.

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  2. My experience playing the piano accordion for a few years tells me that a JANKO Kbd layout and the accordion bass layout is ideal for people playing by ear. It's, because it allows the player to perform like a singer: i.e. forgetting about scales! Simple as that.

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  3. Where can I buy these hexagonal buttons?

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  4. Where can I buy these hexagonal buttons?
    jdrindaAthotmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  5. You might want to try the Synth DIY mailing list. http://dropmix.xs4all.nl/rick/Emusic/Synth-diy/

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thank you for your good advice. :)

    ReplyDelete

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