Music Thing: The Chromatone 312

This Japanese girl is playing a Chromatone 312, which has a Janko Keyboard. It's got 72 keys for every 12 on a normal keyboard, and they're all white. It's terrifying. Imagine 3 unmarked QWERTY keyboards strapped together and you're still not there.

The keyboard layout was patented in 1882 by Hungarian mathematician/musician Paul von Janko. The theory is that it�s much easier to play � chord shapes are the same in every key, and the closer-spaced keys make it possible to play faster. But, like decimal time, and the Dvorak computer keyboard, the world of Janko is divided between a tiny group of passionate believers and an enormous mass of people who�ve never really given it a second thought.

You might think that if an idea hasn�t taken off after 23 years, it�s never going to take off. But the Janko keyboard was patented 123 years ago, and the Chromatone 312 was launched in Japan late last year. Some ideas just won�t go away.

[Graeme @ Dec 19th 2005 12:11AM]

Lots more info on the Janko keyboard layout available at this site (including a CD with stereolithography files for prototyping a Janko module that can be fitted to an Evolution MK-149 MIDI keyboard). I'd love to get my hands on a Janko MIDI controller...

http://monxmood.free.fr/janko.htm

[waffffffle @ Dec 19th 2005 12:11AM]

This is another instance where Futureman of the Flecktones has this thing beat. RoyEl has a keyboard that is based on the periodic table of elements.

Your music guy should just do articles about Roy Wooten every week.

[Dean Shan @ Dec 19th 2005 12:11AM]

Playing a standard keyboard is hard enough. Who would want to buy this?

[Jake @ Dec 19th 2005 12:11AM]

holy crap! I cant even play a regular keyboard and hit the same note twice, where is C on that thing, look away for a split second and try again, yup, good luck.

[Doug Nelson @ Dec 19th 2005 12:11AM]

Oh, I really want it.
But Jake is right....first thing I would do is break out a permanent marker.

[Kenny @ Dec 19th 2005 12:11AM]

Scary.

But I can't wait until this is a Keytar MIDI controller.

[huh? @ Dec 19th 2005 12:11AM]

that is truly sadistic...

[Camille Goudeseune @ Dec 19th 2005 12:11AM]

In the one-color sense, the Continuum takes this to its scariest limit:
http://www.hakenaudio.com/Continuum/
But it's also easier to play (some of the videos on the site are stunning).

[Scott @ Dec 19th 2005 12:11AM]

One minor point - if that pic had appeared on a US website, would you have used the phrase, "This American girl"? She could be from anywhere - ethnicity isn't determined by the country you live in.

[Callum @ Dec 19th 2005 12:11AM]

Smoosh would love one of these... http://kcrw.com/cgi-bin/db/kcrw.pl?show_code=mb&air_date=2/25/05&tmplt_type=show

[mark @ Dec 19th 2005 12:11AM]

that girl doesn't look japanese!

[jorell @ Dec 19th 2005 12:11AM]

Yeah she looks like Chris Kattan.

[stixzz @ Dec 19th 2005 12:11AM]

guys..if you have seen video clips of what some japanese teens can do with their fancy DJ arcade game machines, it wont be long before one of them starts playing with a keyboard like that

[TheZodiac @ Dec 19th 2005 12:11AM]

I heard Sony was going to use a mini version of tis for the portable KB on the PSP

:-P

[Jacob @ Dec 19th 2005 12:11AM]

"Playing a standard keyboard is hard enough. Who would want to buy this?" In a way this is easier to learn than standard; imagine having to only learn one major scale instead of twelve...

[John @ Dec 19th 2005 12:11AM]

I would buy it. Thought about this layout a lot and made a paper model--it works. I would have only 4 rows to simplify a little---->two rows are repeated---->no need for another repetition.