Jankó Keyboard

A piano keyboard patented by the Hungarian Paul von Jankó (1856-1919) in 1882. It has six rows of keys so arranged that any given tone can be struck in three different places, that is, on every other row. This permits a smaller stretch of the hand to reach large intervals and complex chords.

Despite a brief flurry of manufacturing at the turn of the century, the Jankó keyboard met the predictable resistance of those who did not want to relearn fingerings and hand positions for their repertory.